From: "Isabel Maxwell" To: Subject: re: arrived in israel... Date: Fri, 02 Apr 2004 12:35:14 +0000 hi there, well, i arrived at 4.30am today. after an uneventful flight though no sleep; Dear Arik picked me up and we whizzed on into jerusalem and up to the mt of olives for an early morning 'hi' - - city beautiful as ever. very very windy, dad's grave was actually the messiest i have ever seen it and i spent a while trying to clean up. papers, broken glass from beer bottles everywhere ugh. most likely from the wind, but still it was not great, but otherwise, fine. he seems to have 'more company' up there now... :-) then i went to my good friend isaac applbaum who has an appt in Bekka in the old city where i'm staying tonight - a couple of miles from the king david where i'm typing this now, who had invited me to a wonderful private showing of hte ancient, famous tunnels under the western wall. about 120 of his closest friends were there, many of whom i nkow, for his son's bar mitzvah the event really was. the tunnels are amazing, really, right under the western wall, very moving. Mom, i know you would love to see this if yo havn't already!! then we were taken up to the very top of one of the buildings overlooking hte western wall for lunch. - totally amazing views of the Dome of the Rock and up to the mt of olives - (i.e. we are about 300-yards awy from the wall, v high up. there were police and secret service and soldiers with us cos it turned out that the minister of housing was there, v v right wing (ugh) but anyway we kind of felt quite fine I noticed over in the distance to the right of hte wailing wall, a kind of path full of police/soldiers seeming to wait at a green gate into the Wall, all of a sudden i noticed that the door opened and they seemed to be tearing inside behind the wall. then there were lots of popping sounds and it turned out that israeli police had torn into the mosque area on the other side of the wall cos youths we