Israeli Chocolate Strikes Again

Merry Christmas!!

What? Aren't you a little late? hehe Nope, it's Christmas today for the Orthodox church, so in Bethlehem there are more celebrations. =) Pretty fun.

One cool thing that this second Christmas brought was an unexpected gift. I was coming in to Bethlehem from Jerusalem, and at the checkpoint there was a lady representing the Israeli government handing out candy. The note she gave along with the candy said basically, "We welcome you to the Holy Land, we want to encourage tourists to come here; please give this gift to a Palestinian friend as a bridge for peace and a good will gesture." I thought it was pretty cool. I gave it to the president of the college here, who was shocked! He couldn't believe the Israeli government would want to give him chocolate for Christmas. =) It reminded me of the previous story I posted about the Israeli soldier giving the Palestinian prisoner (both believers) quality chocolate (see "Precious as Chocolate"). So maybe there's something to this "chocolate for peace" thing. Next time I come to the land, I'll have to bring some chocolate with me. Better yet, I should tell the UN to pick up on this idea. Forget the road map, what they need is some Rocky Road!