Well the new fiscal year 2000 has started. Hopefully all you Government folks got your end-of-year work completed, and can now relax a little bit!

If you thought some of the things we wrote in our previous newsletters were controversial - well please hold on, the shuttle is about to depart!

Kevin and I attended one day of the week-long Feast of Tabernacles festivities put on by the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. The I.C.E.J. was formed several years ago, when all the embassies pulled out of Jerusalem and moved to Tel Aviv. You may have seen some newspaper articles about moving the American Embassy back to Jerusalem, and about Disney being pressured by Arabs not to depict Jerusalem as Israel's capital. ICEJ is founded on the beliefs of Christian Zionism (not to be confused with Christian Science), which holds that Israel belongs to the Jews because it was promised to them in the Bible, and that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. On this basis, ICEJ is opposed to giving up land to the Arabs. So naturally, they are not real popular with the Arabs who want a Palestinian state, or with the Jews who oppose Christian evanglization efforts. In spite of this, every Prime Minister except the newest one, Ehud Barak, has addressed the ICEJ during the Feast of Tabernacles. Since Barak wants to give away land, he understandably declined to attend.

We heard two speakers concerning the giving up of land for peace. One was a Jewish Knesset member who opposes giving Syria the Golan Heights. He is afraid that Syria will then be able to attack from the north and capture Jerusalem. A member of the audience asked what would happen to all the Jewish people who have lived in the Golan Heights for many years. The speaker indicated that Israel is hoping the USA will pay all their relocation expenses!

The second speaker was a Christian newcaster for Middle East TV. He lives in the buffer zone in southern Lebanon. Barak has agreed that Israel will withdraw from Lebanon back to its borders by summer 2000. The speaker indicated that 60% of the Christians have fled Lebanon already, and that just as many hard-core Syrian Muslims have moved right in. The pro-Israel people who live in the current buffer zone (Christians and some Muslims) are afraid that they will be imprisoned in Syria when Israel withdraws from the buffer zone.

At the end of the day, representatives attending the ICEJ Feast from many countries gathered on a hilltop to march along a promenade overlooking Jerusalem. The purpose was for people from all over the world to pray together for the peace of Jerusalem and Israel in their native languages. Many people dressed in their native costumes and carried their countries' flags. There were also Israeli flags, religious banners, singing, dancers, musicians, rams' horn trumpets, and tambourines. There was heavy security - armed Israeli military as well as plainclothesmen. I took a picture of some people holding a banner reading "Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem" with a uniformed soldier standing guard in back of it.

On a different occasion, Kevin and I visited the beautiful Garden Tomb and Golgotha in Jerusalem, one of two competing sites for the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. The Garden Tomb is is the "Protestant" site and is very different from the "Catholic" site located in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Church is inside the current Old City wall, whereas the Garden Tomb is outside the wall and in a natural setting in a nearby quiet garden. There has always been friction among the various Christian sects about control of the Holy Sites, especially between the Roman Catholics and the Greek Orthodox. In some cases they will share time at the same site, such as at the Church. In other cases they set up competing sites, and each claims the event happened at their site. Apparently the Crimean War of 1840 concerned control of the Holy Sites. The end result was to leave controls exactly as they were before the War (called the "status quo").

We visited the Tomb on a Friday, which is the Muslims' Sabbath Day. The Tomb is near the Arab quarter of Old Jerusalem and a mosque. When I visit Jerusalem I usually wear a white head shawl to ward off the intense sun and to wipe off the intense sweat. Some Muslim women wear the full garb, long dress and shawl, whereas others wear modest Western street clothes with just the head shawl. Frequently there are beggars outside the Christian Holy Sites. These are usually old Arab men or young Arab women with small children who lie in their laps without moving much. Whenever the beggars see me in a head shawl, they get very excited, reach out their hands, and call out loudly in Arabic. I guess they think I am a rich American Muslem. The Arab street vendors outside the Old City are very friendly and helpful to tourists, without trying to push their wares. On Fridays, the Arabs have an outdoor market outside the Damascus City Gate and boy howdy was it ever mobbed. We tried to walk through the Gate into the Old City, but it was crowded, and instead of keeping right everyone just pushes through anywhere. Then a fight broke out and I got pushed against the stone wall. I thought I was going to get knocked over or end up with cracked ribs, but after a very long five minutes Kevin got us through.

The last week of September was the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles. All the Israeli school children were on vacation for the week, so our office held its family picnic in a nearby park. This was the first office picnic I ever attended where there was no alcohol. I was wondering why the big beefy guys were standing around the picnic site until someone told me they were Marine bodyguards to protect the American Ambassador, Ned Walker, who had been invited to the picnic. After the Ambassador left, we played silly games - like musical chairs (for kids and adults), and teams competing in a water drinking race. The object was for the first person in line to drink a cup of water then turn the cup up-side -down on their head before the next person in line does the same thing. The Colonel's team won by just dumping dixie cups of water over their heads. We have a really fun Colonel who participated in all the games. He laughs and kids a lot and is very friendly. Recently he invited Kevin to watch 24-hour-delayed American football with him in his office, since we don't have a multi-system TV in our house yet. They got to watch the Dolphins lose to the Bills. The Colonel is a big Dolphins fan (or maybe WAS) since he is from Ft Lauderdale, but is upset with Dan Marino.

Besides our office group, the park was filled with beautifully dressed, religious Jewish families enjoying the holidays. No shorts, jeans, sneakers, or tee shirts here! The women and little girls wear modest dresses. The men dress formally in dark clothing, including hats. The boys look like little versions of their fathers (except without beards). They wear small kipas (like an upside-down shallow dish). A few kids were playing soccer and they all wore black dress slacks and shoes and white dress shirts with their kipas. Some religious Jews have strings hanging down from under their coats. Their clothes do not need mending - this is done deliberately to remind them of certain religious principles. The strings can also be worn inside the clothing, as my boss does. As soon as our group got loud and silly, the religious families vanished quickly from the park!

My boss came to the picnic with his wife and four of his five daughters, but they couldn't stay to eat. During this Feast, religious Jews eat all their meals in the booth ("succah") they set up in their yard or on their roof. Last year, my boss took our team on a field trip to a succah park. He showed us some photographs of their outing. The park contained examples of different kinds of succahs. Some were "legal" or correct under Jewish law, whereas others were not. For example, you can't make one that stands too tall. Electricity is considered ok, even though obviously it didn't exist at the time of the first succahs, when the Jews were living in the wilderness after leaving the land of Egypt prior to entering the Promised Land. My favorite was the little transportable succah carried on a camel's back. So, even the person who was TDY (on a business trip) could observe the holiday!

Till next time - yom tov (good day)!

Kevin and 'liz!