A Deployment to the Sinai: Jerusalem

While in the Army in 1992, stationed in the Sinai, I got to travel a lot in Israel.  During my 9 months in Egypt on the Sinai Peninsula, I traveled to Israel half a dozen times.   The longest trip was a 10-day Holy Land trip during which we visited all the major biblical sites.   Spending 4 days in Jerusalem, then going to the Dead Sea, Bethlehem, and the Sea of Galilee, just to name a few sites.  One of the highlights of the trip was a walk to the Israel Museum, where the Dead Sea Scrolls are housed.

When in Jerusalem, there were and still are actually multiple sites that promote the rising of Christ. There is much controversy over where it actually happened.   We went to the most popular tourist spot with the cave, which looks a lot like the picture everyone has in their mind. There is even more controversy about the actual crucifixion site. 

In the bigger picture, the Christian sites are a sideshow compared to the Jewish and Muslim sites and how they drive the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Take the Wailing Wall, supposedly part of the foundation of King David's destroyed temple. On the other side of the wall are the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque, two of the most sacred sites in the Islamic faith, where it is said that Mohamed ascended into heaven.    Understand that this sits on the footprint of the old King David Temple, the most sacred site in the Jewish faith.   How many extremists in the Jewish faith believe that the Messiah will not return until this temple is rebuilt? Of course, the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque must be destroyed before this can happen.   

Jerusalem is the most militarized city in the world; soldiers everywhere, checkpoints to the different Quarters.  While there, you could feel the tension in the air while passing from one quarter to the next.  Of course, God is everywhere; this is a given, regardless of what you believe, but where the three major human interpretations fail him is in their lack of respect for our fellow man’s humanity and the differing, flawed human interpretations. Which, above all else, teaches us to love our fellow man without the consideration of flawed interpretations or what some people call religion.