Ben Yehuda Mall

The wonderful Dr. Michael Goldsmith--Australian ex-pat--- made a hotel house call with his nurse around 10:00 tonight--had t0 wait until after Shabbos--to make sure nothing serious was growing inside my inner ear. Apparently I have a sinus attack plus a wicked allergy (to the rare winds that have kicked up these past few days) that spread to my ears but no infection, thankfully. Still as a precaution, I am now loaded up on different antibiotics special for ear infections (Augmentin) plus a nasal spray, antihistamine and pure menthol eucalyptus oil to inhale with steam a couple of times a day. I need to be fully cured before I fly home on July 6th as not to damage my hearing any more than it already is.

So, I hauled it in a taxi to Super Pharm, in the Ben Yehuda Pedestrian Mall to get there before they close. The Mall is in the city of Jerusalem itself, not the Old City. At close to midnight the Mall Promenade was packed with families enjoying a late stroll and ice cream post Shabbos. The hundreds of young people on the various Birthright tours, http://www.birthrightisrael.com/site/PageServer made up most of the foot traffic. In fact, these groups are everywhere. It's really incredible to see them, a few dozen high school and college age kids to each group, being escorted by adults their same age or just a bit older. But the alternate universe thing is that each of these groups are guarded by at least two young Israeli soldiers in civilian dress, like shorts, T-shirts and carrying a rifle like it was just a part of their hanging out gear. Seriously disconcerting for an American like me, but so normal for the Israelis here. If you don't know Israel's history, Ben Yehuda is like any other street mall. Think the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica and you get the idea. In reality it is anything but pedestrian--as in boring-- you'd never know how blood stained the pavement really is. http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/Ben_Yehuda_Bombing.htm

This is the most amazing thing to me about Israel. You'd never know the horrible events had ever happened. People go about their day, the security --and it is deserving of its legendary status---is a fact of life. Israelis are not like those of us, mostly Americans, who bitch when we have to take off our shoes to get on a plane. Israelis live with these threats every day.

And on the other side, it is equally strange to me that the Palestinians and other Arabs that make up a huge part of this country are the danger. If anything it seems sometimes that at least here in the Old City they live their daily lives trying to ignore the other. All day today I watched as Orthodox families hurried through the Shouk, the Muslim Quarter on their way to the Jewish Quarter and the Kotel, the Wailing Wall, looking past the Arabs selling their wares in the Shouk. If anything, the T-Shirt proclaiming Palestine with Arafat's face hangs next to the T-Shirt that proclaims the superiority of the IDF, and no one seems to mind.

Here in Jerusalem, the term peaceful co-existence, that buzzword tossed around by so many who are so quick to give advice on how to solve the conflict, on how to get along, including, I might add with complete chagrin, my hypocritical self, have really no idea what they are talking about. Until you are really here, until you physically are jostled by both sides just trying to walk through the Souk shoppes, you don't know a damn thing of what both sides need.

The other thing that really comes into neon bright focus is how wrong a picture the media paints of Israel, of the Palestinians, and of the Conflict.

But that will have to be my film at 11 teaser for another post coming soon....right now I have to get some sleep because I am going to Jordan and Petra tomorrow morning to hang out with Lana, Fulbright Fellow and Friend extraordinaire...

Bu for now, I wish for this Conflict to become a T-Shirt War.