I got back in line with the other Linda, who was now being hassled about her passport. The customs agent was saying that since she was declaring herself Israeli, she had to have an Israeli passport or when she wanted to leave, they wouldn't let her out. They were telling her that she had to get a passport the next day or it would take weeks and she'd miss her return flight. I was feeling a lot more relaxed and my passport was being stamped, I naively asked if I'd be allowed to travel freely everywhere inside Israel. Immediately, this time the police were again called and I was taken aside and questioned all over again. Luckily, I saw one of the security guys who'd just interrogated me and begged him to intercede, which he did. They had a lengthy talk in Hebrew and I said to the policeman, "Look, I love Israel, I'm for an Israeli state, I'm not a bad person, there's nothing you have to worry about me being here, I just want peace." The policeman, he couldn't have been more than 23 years old, turned to me and said, "You're not going to protest here, are you?" I said, "No," thinking to myself I was lying when I'd said I would stop lying the minute I got to Israel. He, childishly said, "You promise me?" I smiled and said yes. He said, "We don't have enough army to deal with everything else, and all the protestors." He gave me back my passport and let me go. I joined my compatriots who were getting antsy to get out of the airport. Then I realized that my baggage had come and gone at least an hour earlier, so I hit the Air Canada lost and found booth just to discover that it hadn't made the plane at all and was going to arrive tomorrow! Hum, was that true? Or were they going to go through my luggage piece by piece? But the woman at the desk said they couldn't go through my luggage unless I was present. I didn't believe her.

Yet, after all that, we just walked out of the airport. No one checked into our luggage at all or were they checking anyone's bags I could see. John said though, that he'd seen them take some people aside and check theirs. As I walked out the airport door, I kept expecting someone else to come up yank me out of line, but we got outside and caught a taxi and now, we're in Jerusalem. Welcome to Israel, be discrete, discrete, and discrete.

Tomorrow, I have to find a computer café to figure out how to email you and download photos. I love you so much. I'll stay in touch as much as possible.