Yesterday I visited Jericho, Ramallah and Bethlehem. We had a Palestinian guide. I took notes so here goes some random thoughts and information. First facts. You can tell which were the Jewish settlements because there were many succahs in the balconies. Hebron is the biggest city in the West Bank. Israel controls 60% of the West Bank with the rest either in joint control or Palestinian control. There are 600 Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Jericho is an agricultural center with the major crops being dates and bananas. Dates were excellent. They are excavating Tel Jericho and have discovered at least 23 civilizations dating back 10,500 years making Jericho one of the oldest continually lived in cities. It can get up to 130 degree Fahrenheit in the summer in Jericho. Ramallah is a fairly modern, vibrant city with a lot of construction going on. Ramallah was chosen as the capital because there were too many obstacles to using East Jerusalem. Bedouins can not move around as much because of check points, etc., so life is more expensive for them. They need to buy water for their animals and need semi-permanent housing. Less that 20% of the population of Bethlehem is Christian. 

Thoughts or opinions some of which I heard from others. From a friend – Israel builds settlements to use as future bargaining chips. – They have not been able to find anything at Tel Jericho from the time of Joshua. Could this be because the Arabs are doing everything in their power to destroy archaeological evidence?  They removed tons of dirt from the Temple Mount (this is fact). They do not want archeologists to find any prove of Israelites living in the area. I can’t wait to visit the archeological park near the Dumg Gate to see the new discoveries. They have found evidence of the Roman siege that destroyed the 2nd Temple. From another friend – an interesting theory on guilt verses shame. Westerners suffer from guilt and that motives them to take certain actions. Arabs are motivated by shame. The Palestinians feel shame at having lost the 1948 war and other Arab countries have contributed to this sense of shame. Making peace will only heighten this shame. The peace agreement that was brokered by Clinton failed for a number of reasons. One of which is that Arafat went around the PLO negotiating team who were already in negotiations. Another problem was that Rabin was assassinated. Our guide really expressed regrets about this failure. He also is one of those who believes Arafat was poisoned. He believes that the way to peace is to build mutual respect between Israelis and Palestinians. I certainly have to agree and there are many organizations working on this but is it enough. There is an Israeli group that reports on inhumane treatment by Israelis in the West Bank. The leader of this group recently came under fire by Netanyahu for giving a report to the UN. I will spend the next week exploring more of Jerusalem. The week after I go to Jordan for three days. Stay tuned for more blogs from Israel.