Journeys with George: The Holy Land (January 2008)
Welcome to Journeys with George (with apologies to Alexandria Pelosi).
This first trip of 2008 took us to Israel, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. “Historic” is probably the best word to describe this trip. President Bush made his first visit to all but Egypt and Israel - the latter he visited in 1998 while Governor of Texas. Per the usual, I flew on the press charter plane, which is a United Airlines 747. Our 10 hour flight was an hour late going wheels up thanks to a storm that hit Chi-town that night. Thankfully, I flew back from home in the morning and beat it. Of course, with the wonders of the “tail-wind” we actually landed at the exact time listed on our schedule. Amazing! This was my first time on a commercial 747 - it’s a house, if not more. As soon as I boarded, I staked out a row in the back and went to sleep.
Upon our arrival in Tel Aviv, location of the only international airport in Israel, we got into a car that led our little “motorcade” of coach buses for the 45-60 minute drive to Jerusalem. Along the way, we were informed that the expressway we were on was used as a route for convoys to deliver food and supplies to the Jewish people in Jerusalem during the war in 1948. The only problem was the road is surrounded by hills - Tel Aviv is in the plains along the sea, Jerusalem up the hill - and the Arabs would use the hills to hide and attack the convoys. There was actually a blown up car on the side of the road that was left there as a reminder.
From a Time Magazine article from 1948: “Ever since U.N. voted partition, Arabs have been tightening their grip on the lifeline of Jerusalem’s 100,000 Jews—the road to Tel Aviv, which twists from the city through the rocky Judean hills to the coastal plain.”
Tuesday night was dinner with one of my bosses, Scott Stanzel, at a nice local restaurant called 3 Arches - housed in the local YMCA. Wednesday morning Scott, Gordon Johndroe, Emily Lawrimore and myself went on a tour of the Old City - Old Jerusalem. A very nice Palestinian man that lives in Jerusalem named Samir Bahbah (he jokingly told us, “I am not a fanatic, I’m an extremist”) was our personal tour guide. The entirety of Old Jerusalem is surrounded by a wall and there are only seven open gates - plus three closed - into the city. We started at Jafaa Gate. Our first stop was the Holy Church of the Sepulchre. Samir warned us to “forget about the building” because it didn’t exist at the time of Jesus. Like other sites associated with the life of Jesus, including the Church of the Nativity in Behlehem, location of Jesus’ birth, a church was later build around the site. The Holy Church of the Sepulchre is the site of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial, prior to resurrection. The Greek Orthodox Church actually controls the majority of the Church, although they share with Catholics, Armenians and other Christian sects. It was pretty remarkable to be there just two days after celebrating Orthodox Christmas - in fact, there were a few Russian groups touring as well.
You enter the church through a large door that is opened each morning by the Christian group in charge of watching over the Church that day. They will take a ladder and climb up to unlock each of the locks. Immediately inside is the Stone of the Anointing that Jesus was bathed on and perfumed prior to burial. To this day, they perfume it with the same scent. If you place your hand on the stone, the scene stays with you for a few hours. Up a set of stairs leads you to the site of the crucifixion. Today it is a very elaborate altar, and you can kneel down and place your hand into the exact spot that the cross was placed all those years ago. Back downstairs, you head to Christ’s tomb in groups of four, which is a simple marble tomb located inside a larger structure inside the church, that requires a lot of ducking to reach. Right before the final duck into the tomb if you look up there is an open hole in the ceiling, which sybolizes the Resurrection.
After this, Samir took us to a shop and we all bought a few things (maybe a few too many things!). The Old City is split into four sections: Christian Quarter (site of the Holy Church), Jewish Quarter (site of the Western Wall - or Wailing Wall), Muslim Quarter (site of the Dome of the Rock) and the Armenian Quarter. There are dozens and dozens of shops along the stoned pathways. It’s almost like an open air mall. Persian rugs, icons, incense, even Chicago Cubs shirts in Hebrew are all for sale in the Old City!
We then made our way to the Western Wall where you are required to wear head covering before approaching the wall. Women go to the right and men to the left, and the groups are separated by a small wall that just reaches just above my head. The Western Wall is a pretty massive structure, 180+ feet tall, and what really strikes you is the simplicity of this Jewish holy site, but also the many sheets of paper stuffed into the cracks of the wall. Each of us wrote something down (maybe winning lottery numbers?) and placed it into the wall.
Heard along our tour from locals “are you Bush’s people?” “are you guys famous?” - I guess it happens when you’re the only four people in suits! I also spied at least 5 people taking pictures of us walking around. Maybe I’ll find it on their Facebook page one day.
Then it was back to the Dan Panorama Hotel, our accomodations for the three night stay in Jerusalem, just a short walk from the King David Hotel - where the President stayed. The security presence became much more noticeable when we returned with armed Israeli soldiers waiting outside the hotel to check everyone’s credentials. Speaking of which - the security was what you would expect for a high profile visit such as this. Gone are the tanks we experienced in Sao Paulo, Brazil - instead, lots and lots of heavily armed soldiers accompianed by police at every corner not to mentioned metal barracades and our own Secret Service. Walking down the street and having someone walk by me with a large, loaded weapon became rather normal for me…is that weird?
The afternoon was a trip to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Residence, which was supposed to be a quick walk down the street but took about 45 minutes due to all the checkpoints, for a Joint Press Availability in the Prime Minister’s Courtyard. Part of our glamorous job includes sitting in a tent off the courtyard for three hours (it was cold too!) waiting for the event. It wasn’t bad at all, just long. The event started about an hour late - which is clearly evident of the genuine friendship between the Prime Minister and the President since their meeting went very long. I had the important duty of handing off a micophone to the American press asking questions at the event. I’m happy to say - 100% success rate!
Then we headed back to work a little more and sleep. The following day was foggy, cold and rainy outside. So much so that the President was unable to take Marine One to Rallamah in the West Bank and had to drive instead. I stayed behind while the President visited the Muqada, which was Arafat’s office and compound in the last years of his life and is now the office of the current President of the Palestinian Authority, to staff our office. After that, he headed to Bethlehem and then had a last minute statement in the King David Hotel to wrap up the past few days. I headed over there to pass something along and as I waited, I noticed a rush of Secret Service and Israeli security coming my way, and directly behind them was the President, Secretary Rice and others. Of course, I was in the wrong spot at the wrong time and jumped into the corner as quick as I could as they passed.
Stay tuned for the next installment - Journeys with George: Kuwait Rock City.
