A Land of Milk and Honey

For dinner Monday night, we boarded the bus (if it seems like we're constantly on the go and have no free time, it only seems that way because that's the way it is!) and traveled into a neighborhood for one of the finest meals I've ever had (and I've had many a good one).

People have been living in this neighborhood for upwards of four thousand years -- and it is where John the Baptist grew up. It's now part of Jerusalem, but back then it was a small town.

The bus couldn't fit through the road to get to the restaurant, so we hiked it up hill on a narrow street after passing under an arch. It was raining lightly when we disembarked, so I disdainfully (and stupidly) turned down the offer of an umbrella. Well, what started as a light rain quickly turned heavy. I finally took up the offer to share an umbrella, but was pretty well dripping wet.

The restaurant ("Spoons") bills itself as the fine art of cuisine, and the owner (Hila Solomon) sure got it right. It's actually in a lovely home entered through a beautiful garden path. They had one long table set up, and just kept bringing dish after dish. The figs and the lamb appetizer were my two particular favorites, but that's not to slight the remaining dishes. I quickly realized my situation was hopeless, as there were no doggy bags to pour the uneaten lamb for taking home and gorging on later. We had two options for main courses -- chicken or fish. I can't speak re the fish (which looked good), but the spices on the chicken were delicious.

For more info on Spoons: http://www.uniqueideas.biz/ZFA/Pulse45/18.htm

Now that I'm done shilling for this fabulous restaurant, let's get to the guests. Two journalists from Ha'aretz newspaper joined us -- Avi Issacharoff, the Arab Affairs correspondent, and Amos Harel, the Military Affairs correspondent. They work as a complimentary team, breaking stories and writing books and columns together. Apparrently, their recent coverage of the Gaza Strip issues has been controversial both in the country and internationally, and they had many interesting stories and perspectives. Avi told of having coffee late into the evening in Cairo with Hamas leaders.

I asked Avi if, given all his work in meeting with the PLO, Hamas, and other Arab radicals, he ever felt his life were in danger and that he would not make it through the day. He told the humorous story (after the fact) of covering a funeral for ten Hamas soldier/terrorists who had been killed. The crowd turned into a mob, so he grabbed a Hamas leader by the arm (so the leader couldn't fire his AK-47 into the air) and began interviewing him. The Hamas leader gave him a look that implied that Avi's Arabic was very good, but might he be Jewish? Then the next look was -- "no way, no Jew would be that crazy to be here."

Aside from that story, it's strange how the Palestinians crave press even from Israeli newspapers and TV. But, if these issues were easy to solve, it would have been done by now.

After dessert, we made our way back to the bus through the pouring rain (this time I shared an umbrella the whole way down). A group of us reconvened at the hotel bar and closed down the bar (shocking for a group of political consultants to do so).