“Now THAT must have been…interesting…???”

August 1, 2005

“Now THAT must have been…interesting…???” This was the response from the Messianic Jew receptionist this evening when she asked where I’d been traveling. “Oh, I lived in Bethlehem for about 6 weeks.” You should have seen her face. It was a mixture of confusion, concern and utter amazement. “Now THAT must have been…interesting…???” I replied, “It was – it was very good – I lived with a Palestinian family.” Again, I got the look. She replied with (what is a beautiful classic line), “Believers in JEEEESUS, right?” I replied, “Yes.” To which she replied, “Well, that makes ALL the difference.” [Here, I knew what she was implying, so I played that out a little bit].

“Well, actually, some of our group stayed with Muslim families. They had really great experiences too.” I got the look again. “Oh, well…wow. I wonder how different those cultures are from each other.” [Here Adam stops and thinks, “Well, they’re all Palestinian, so…”] I responded, “Well, actually – the cultures are basically the same – I mean, they’re all Palestinians.”

She thought for a second, replied with “Very interesting…” and then asked my friend where she had been traveling and living.

I’m not sure if my favorite part of that conversation was her assumption that Palestinian Christians and Palestinian Muslims have drastically different cultures…or if it was simply hearing her say “JEEEESUS.” I liked that part. And I walked out, not mad, not really even that irritated (although, if I thought about it enough, I’m sure I would have reason to be…), but instead…I just laughed, and thought to myself, “Well…now THAT was interesting.”

PS: A note this morning after breakfast. This most surely is a very ‘odd’ place that I’m at. My morning conversation included such wonderful words like prophecy, end-times, born-again, true believers, intercession and “urgency” of this situation. One man said that he heard there were such a thing as Palestinian Christians, but then someone told them that they weren’t “born-agains” anyway. I tried to find a way to tell him that I wouldn’t call myself a born-again either, but…instead I finished my breakfast and left. Such a strange place…

Tags: Israel, Jaffa, Messianic Jews, Muslims, Palestinians

Category Posted in Politics, Rants ShareThis

4 Responses to ““Now THAT must have been…interesting…???””

Vanessa said:

August 1st, 2005 at 4:26 am

Personally, I thought the intonation was more focused on the “INTERESTING!” part, than the “Isn’t THAT interesting…” :P …

What also made it such a “moment” was how the younger girl AND the woman behind the counter both chimed,
“How INTERESTING!” at the exact same moment after you told them you’d been spending the two months in Israel, in Bethlehem… hmmm…

INTERESTING…

what has surprised me… is how ingrained the reaction to arab people really is… there are moderate people on both sides, there are well-informed folks on both sides, and people who are not fanatics.
but there’s a deep rooted prejudice there… like a knee-jerk reaction.

* * *

As an Israeli friend and I drove to a beach next to a nearby Arab town last week, I remember a little boy catching my eye and I said “what a cutie! …aw, I miss ‘my kids’…” referring to my job at a preschool…

My friend glanced over and said “That arab crap?” and i remember feeling really jarred by the comment… did it matter that the kid was arab or not? especially since he’s an Israeli Arab, after all… but to be fair, the comment didn’t end there.
My friend immediately continued-
“I know, I know that’s wrong. It’s hard to get past reacting the same way…”
Wes Roberts said:

August 1st, 2005 at 9:08 am

…keep the insights coming! And…hurry safely home…….we need you here, too.
callieischatty said:

August 1st, 2005 at 12:46 pm

You are the prejudiced one.

I think they shouldn’t let you into Isreal.

If you could help the suicide bombers you probably would.
callieischatty said:

August 1st, 2005 at 2:37 pm

That last comment was pretty harsh and I apologize. I don’t think you would help a suicide bomber intentionally.

I do think that you are just a good person who is very misguided.

I also do think you are prejudiced against Jews even tho you may not think so too.

In any case, I wish you well, hopefully one day no one has to fear being blown up by fanatics in any place at any time.