The American ambassador spoke at a dinner and offered nothing new in his speech, even the food at the dinner he spoke at was un-remarkable. At a different event Ehud Olmert, the mayor of Jerusalem, had a more poignant message. "We are at war - Arafat is a terrorist, there were 43 people shot tonight, the family/spouses have terrible psychological damage as a result of the shootings, Jerusalem will never ever be divided.

Dr Uzi Landau minister of public security said "that we were having an ugly wave of terror, Oslo was the greatest mistake Israel has done in 50 years, Yasser Arafat was a partner with Saddam Hussain and Osama Ben Laden - he is not a partner for peace, the PLO is a terrorist entity Israel can never co-exist with the PLO, we must not continue with Oslo. He added that settlers draw attention from PLO/statehood issues and that the settlers are a true inspiration for the rest of Israel. We must help the settlers and encourage more people to become settlers. The Arabs are doing excavations on the Temple Mount and they must stop, we must be allowed to visit the Temple Mount and see what they are doing, they dug a large hole on the Temple Mount and must stop "destroying" traces of Jewish use of this land. The PLO is buying up houses in the old city. We must do the same so that the demographics do not shift. The Arabs intend to turn the Mount into a giant Mosque. An attempt to bring holy water from Mecca to allow it to mingle in the cisterns under the Mount was stopped. The Arabs want to connect underground tunnels under the mount to the Dome of the Rock, they have been smuggling artifacts and want to make the land on the Mount holy under Moslem law.

I heard that the chief Ashkenazy Rabbi had been in his car when it was shot at many times and that he escaped injury. I heard how the parents of a family with 10 children had been shot along with 5 of the children. They carried one of the surviving children on her hospital bed to the funeral of her parents and siblings and then proceeded to sit Shiva after she was released from the hospital. In a different story I heard how a family of 4 had driven to Jerusalem and spent the night there. On the way back to the settlement the next morning, the mother who was driving had been shot dead and the father severely wounded. A school bus coming by stopped along side this car. Hearing the crying and screaming from the car, these school children tried to help the victims from this tragedy. Now these same children from the school bus need therapy to help them with their nightmares.

I met with organizations who arrange for the buying of land in arab neighbourhoods both in the old city and in the outlying Jerusalem area so Jewish families can move in and thereby alter the demographics. Traveling to the ancient cemetery at Har Hazeitim, our group visited one of the newly reclaimed homes in Eastern Jerusalem. Across the road a there was new building with 6 apartments were being readied for Jewish families. On our way out of East Jerusalem we stopped at the Kever of Shimon HaTzaddik, the last Kohen Gadol. You can see me in the photograph of the entrance, I am the one on the far right. Nearby the Kever, we visited two more new Jewish homes.

I met a shopkeeper on Ben Yehuda street who said that I was his first paying customer in 3 days and that the government taxes him as if his business was "usual". Shopkeepers begged for me to buy something by offering steep discounts if I purchased more than 1 item. I spoke with a waitress who wants to move to America where she wants be a nanny and tutor Hebrew. She spoke about the "situation" in Israel. Her best friend killed or brothers or sisters of friends killed. Some hotels are closed because tourism is way down.

Different shop same story, 1^st sale all day. Everything I touched the shopkeeper put in a bag asking for me to buy it. I also heard complaints. Complaints from Israelis about the settlers. The cost of the protection and how the settlements infuriate the Arabs.