Israel [antikvár]

Land of paradoxes, land of dangerous living, where the mind never slumbers and attention never wavers,You land at Lydda, the airport of Tel-Aviv, and you travel towards Jerusalem by a wide highway, the principal arterial road of the country. Half-way, a diversion forces you to make a right turn, followed by a left turn bringing you back again to your original route. If you are used to the exigencies of the French Highways Department, your first surmise is that the road is under repair and the detour is temporary. In fact, this temporary situation dates from 1949, when the armistice agreement put an end to fighting in the war of independence. As peace has never been signed, the line where the armies were at the cease-fire has become the frontier.You come across this rambling frontier almost everywhere in the thin strip of territory which forms the renascent State of Israel. In Jerusalem, it cuts the town in two in an even more absurd and zigzag line. For instance, you may visit the monastery of the Dormition, on Mount Sion, built on the spot where the Virgin Mary fell asleep for ever. It is the only Christian holy place in Jerusalem to be on Israeli territory. The first thing you see is a gallery, divided by barbed wire. A few yards further on, it meets the frontier.5