The Foreign Service Journal, February 2003

of prewar guidebooks in our hands, decided at the time to explore the marketplaces of the Old City. That was my first experience in navigating the souks, an activity which would come in handy in later years as a fre- quent control officer and guide for congressional delegations looking for bargains and tourist photo-ops in the Old City. In those days after the 1967 War, hundreds of Israelis would descend on the Old City every Saturday when, because of strict Sabbath laws, the stores and restaurants on the west side were closed. There were other Israeli tourists, too long confined to their narrow strip of land along the Mediterranean, who wanted to see more of what life was like among their neighbors. Security was not some- thing to worry about. The West Bank and Jerusalem merchants needed the business, and the overwhelming power of the IDF in June 1967 had driven resistance far underground. The IDF occupation hand was light, and so long as there was no trouble, everyone got along and business was very good. The Christian Arab mer- chants in the Old City and in nearby Bethlehem welcomed the booming tourist trade, and those of us from the embassy soon discovered our favorite stores and their generous discounts when we showed up by ourselves on weekends without commission-charg- ing guides. The Israelis took up their new responsibilities in Jerusalem as guardians of the Christian and Muslim holy places. They had object- ed vociferously to the desecration of Jewish holy places in Jerusalem by the occupying Jordanian forces and to the Jordanian barring of even non-Israeli Jewish worshippers from the Western Wall of the Temple after 1948. On taking control of the Old City as suc- cessors of Turkish and British gover- nors, Israeli government personnel were shocked at the hostility of the F E N R U A R Y 2 0 0 3 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 59 SHORT TERM FURNISHED APARTMENTS AVAILABLE columbia plaza apartments Capital Living With Comfort and Convenience Beautiful, Spacious Efficiencies, 1 and 2 Bedrooms SEVEN MINUTES TO STATE DEPARTMENT Utilities Included Complimentary Voice Mail Courtyard Style Plaza Polished Hardwood Floors Private Balconies Huge Walk-In Closets 24 Hour Front Desk Garage Parking Available Shopping on Site Cardkey Entry/Access River Views Minutes to Fine Dining Walk to the Kennedy Center and Georgetown Minutes to Foggy Bottom Metro (202) 293-2000 2400 Virginia Ave., N.W. Washington, D.C., 20037 Managed by Polinger, Shannon & Luchs Co.