Jerusalem, Day 1

 Jerusalem, February 18, 2024

The trip over was uneventful, the flight from Boston to Tel Aviv on El Al was just fine; I arrived at about 1:30 PM.  The first indication that things are different was at the airport, even before getting to passport control there was a line of photos of the hostages:

 And in as well as leaving the airport there were signs pointing to shelters in case the sirens went off: 

The airport seemed less than half as busy as it usually is, and there were no US planes there as there are no US carriers currently flying to Israel.  Nor is Canada, nor is most of Europe.  There were planes of Lufthansa and Air France which I saw.

The city is the same but different.  Geographically, nothing has changed, but there is less traffic and, somewhat amazingly, the drivers seem more courteous.  There aren’t nearly as many pedestrians on the streets.  Although armed guards have been noticeable in the past, now they’re everywhere, sometimes in uniform, and sometimes not.  In addition, people who don’t seem like guards, but must be some sort of militia, are in public places with their families, acting in ordinary ways except that they’re carrying machine guns.  Here’s a scene in my hotel lobby: 

Our group met up in the late afternoon and had a briefing from our guide, Muki, outlining the plans for the days to come.  We then went to dinner just outside the 16^th century walls of the Old City, at a restaurant along the Artists’ Walk under the Jaffa Gate:

Inside the restaurant was a table set aside for the hostages: 

At dinner we had a talk from Danny Goldstein, the Director of Community Relations in Israel of the United Federations of America.  Since October 7, US Federations have donated $780,000,000 to support Israeli organizations helping those impacted by the war.  Danny welcomed us, thanked us for being here, and brought us up to date on the war and on the unity of the people in starting the war, along with a divide in the country on where to go now.  With 134 hostages still in Hamas control, about half the country wants the war to continue until they are released, while about half the country is willing to accept less in order to end the fighting.  We spoke about the complex situation which makes a post-war scenario so difficult to figure out, and heard of the many options under consideration.  Danny spoke, with many examples, of the brutality of Hamas and the terrible use of the Palestinian people as shields for Hamas’ activities.  More than 500 miles of tunnels have now been found (for comparison, the entire NYC subway system has 245 miles of tunnels).  The tunnels were built at great expense with money and materials which were supposed to be used for the benefit of the people.  Many of the tunnels are under residential areas, schools and hospitals.  We had a detailed account of the warnings by leaflet and by mass cell phone calls before areas were attacked, and learned that despite these warnings, Hamas kept civilians in the line of fire, not allowing them to evacuate.  The stories were heartbreaking.

We have a busy day tomorrow and I'll have more to tell then.