not learn about all the things the “peoplernwithout a land” have done for the “landrnwithout a people”? Or about how democraticrn(technically true, inside the confinesrnof pre-1967 Israel) and religiouslyrntolerant (unless you want to risk fines andrnjail time by proselytizing on behalf ofrnChristianity) the new nation is? Indeed,rnwhy endure all the expense and jetlagrnv’hen you could simply go to Epcot Center?rnPart of the answer may be that whenrnjesus said “Follow me,” He was going tornthe Cross, not to Disney World.rnOur pilgrimage was coordinatedrnthrough the National PresbyterianrnChurch in Washington, D.C., and organizedrnby Don Kruse, a former State Departmentrnlifer who served as U.S. Consulrnin Jerusalem from 1976 to 1980. Therntour’s first objective, of course, was to seernthe lands where Jesus walked and thernsites which commemorate key events ofrnHis life, death, and Resurrection. Thernsecond was to meet some of the quartermillionrnPalestinian Christians, the “livingrnstones” who inhabit the land today.rnOne of our first stops was the WestrnBank town of Bir Zeit, home of Bir ZeitrnUniversity and famous during the vearsrnof the intifada as a hotbed of resistancernand demonstration — as well as brutalrnsuppression by the Israeli DefensernForces. We had come to Bir Zeit tornspend Easter at the Roman Catholicrnparish of Fr. Emil Salayta. The weekendrnwas actually that of Orthodox Easter, butrnFather Emil, in a remarkable gesture ofrnecumenism, had delayed his parish’s celebrafionrnfor a week. Saturday evening,rnafter a tour of the parish, we joined thernOrthodox community for the parade ofrnthe Holy Fire through the town, thenrnwent to stay overnight with families fromrnthe parish. The next morning. FatherrnEmil gave the pulpit over to our pastor,rnCraig Barnes, and translated into ArabicrnBarnes’ Easter homily.rnThe following week, after day tours inrnand around Jerusalem, we would returnrnto our hotel to hear speakers. The firstrnwas Ms. Dina Asfour, a Nazarene Christianrnwho used to work at the AmericanrnConsulate General and now works forrnPalestinian politician Hanan Ashrawi.rnLike every Palestinian we talked to, shernexpressed grave dissatisfaction with thernterms of the Oslo Accords, which willrnleave them with—at most—little morernthan ten percent of the original land ofrnPalestine. (In 1947, before the U.N. partitionrnplan officially punished the PalestinianrnArabs for the sins of the Nazis,rnZionist settlers had peacefully acquiredrnonly seven percent of that land.)rnThe next night’s speaker was SusanrnHarris Roleff, a nonreligious Israeli Jewrnwho represents the Israeli Labor Party.rnRoleff is one of the manv members ofrnsuch Israeli organizations as B’tselemrn{www.btselem.org} that sympathize withrnthe grievances of the Palestinian people.rnMany of these voters align themselvesrnwith Labor, which professes to be morernwilling to trade “land for peace” than thernLikud Party of recently defeated PrimernMinister Benjamin Netanyahu. Indeed,rnbased on that assumption, thousands ofrnAmerican Jews flew to Tel Aviv in May tornvote for Labor in the national elections.rnSadly, Labor’s actual record on the issuernof settlements—achieved by “doves” likernYitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres —is almostrnas bad as Likud’s.rnThe next day, we toured Efrat, a WestrnBank Israeli settlement south ofrnJerusalem. Our guide was Arty Geldman,rna self-described McGovernite liberalrnwho grew up in Chicago during thern60’s, found his identity as an OrthodoxrnJew, and moved to Efrat to have a nicernplace to raise his children. Efrat is a quietrnneighborhood —on the dull side, actuallyrn—and save for the yellow ubiquity ofrnJerusalem limestone bricks, it could be arnhousing tract somewhere in OrangernCounty. As Arty explained, there are twornkinds of schools in Efrat: religiousrnschools, and “more religious” schools.rnI asked Arty to compare the Zionist experiencernwith the European displacementrnof the North American Indians.rnThe question was meant as a Softball, anrnadmission that Americans had also livedrnby the sword and weren’t in a good positionrnto judge Israel. But Arty wasn’trnswinging. There was, he said, no comparison.rnGod gave the land of Palestinernto the Jews, and the Palesfinians have nornclaim to it. Period. He later added,rn”Without our biblical claim to the land,rnwe don’t have any right to it,” and explicitlyrndisowned Zionist foimding fatherrnTheodor Herzl.rnArt)”s argument represents an interestingrnshift within Zionist ideology. Althoughrnthe founders of the state of Israelrnwere nonreligious Jews of a socialist bent,rncarrying out a secular version of the grimrnaction in Joshua and Judges, today’srnstaunchest defenders of “Greater Israel”rnexpansionism are religious Jews, manyrnwith literalist interpretations of the Bible.rnI left Efrat wondering why these scripturalrnarguments based on the Old Testamentrnwould be conclusive for Christiansrnlooking at the issue of Palestine. Providentiallyrnenough, one of our next stopsrnwas Bethlehem Bible College, located inrnthe famous little town of the same name.rnOver lunch at the college, I sat with arnnew teacher, Hanna Katanacho, whorntold me that Palestinian Chrisfians felt asrnTHE LU/ENGLISH NEWSLETTERrn” . . . hilarious spoof. . . right on the money . . . delightflil parody . . . arnwork of genius”—Roger Kimball, The New Criterion, “accurate andrnsavage”—Edward O. Wilson, Harvard University, “wit, astuteness andrnsheer intelligence”—Alan Charles Kors, University of Pennsylvania.rn”&%#*! Eurotrash”—Lulubelle Shredikite, Lagado University.rnLU/English Newsletter, 11 Llewellyn Place, New Brunswick, NJ 08901rnOne year subscription, four issues of seven pages each. $10.00rnNAME:rnADDRESS:rnCITY: STATE:rnZIP:rnOCTOBER 1999/39rnrnrn