The wet streets of Jerusalem

The first night we were in Jerusalem it was raining. Jerusalem is not Paris, but it’s still pretty at night in the rain. We checked into our hotel and went across the street to the small grocery store to buy some non-hotel priced water bottles.

As we walked through the store, we noticed a young man in civilian clothes walk by us shopping while he held an automatic weapon. He was about nineteen.

In fact, there were four more there that night. As we wondered Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, we got used to seeing a lot of young men, and some young women, walking around with automatic weapons hanging across their chests. I saw my first with an attached grenade launcher there.

In the new cities, many, more than half, of the young people we saw were wearing uniforms. Once we left the major metropolitan areas, or went into the “Old City”, this was much less true.

Our Guide said that soldiers are expected to carry their weapons even when they’re off duty. I just know that they were everywhere, and once I got used to it, I didn’t notice it as much anymore. And a learned a rule I’ve posted before: Don’t make smart-ass jokes to dudes with automatic weapons!