Rick Steves' The Holy Land: Israelis and Palestinians Today

Rick Steves does a good job here.....A favorite trip of mine.  I wandered for a few weeks around the Old City and the West Bank, and spent most of the evening hours in a Palestinian neighborhood just off the Damascus Gate where I befriended an Arab father and his two sons who owned a pizza shop up a steep hill from my hotel nearby. Good nightly visits to that shop--good conversation and good pizza.

Then met a heavily armed Israeli woman toting an automatic rifle in Jaffa on a sunny day there.  Had a late afternoon lunch with her overlooking the beautiful Tel Aviv beaches.  She asked me if I ever read any Phillip Roth novels--especially 'Goodbye Columbus', and 'Portnoy's Complaint'. I think the story of my discovering my Jewish heritage (it was after college that I learned of my mother's Jewish connection--turns out my very Jewish great great grandmother Rosa Shimon was from Budapest and immigrated with the rest of my mother's family to New York via Ellis Island in 1903) piqued her interest--that and the cold Israeli beer.:-).  A lovely encounter, a beautiful setting--Jaffa is a wonderful memory. Munching on hummus and tabouli and flat bread, sipping on tall bottles of Goldstar while resting along the stone ramparts of the old city of Jaffa with fair company-- a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.