Lee Heidhues 10.10.2023
All the carnage in Palestine/Israel has me thinking of a vivid memory going back decades.
Throughout the early part of my over two years traveling and working abroad, I was sending almost daily postcards and letters to the Love of my Life. Liz.
After a year without the presence of Liz, she came to Europe on a separate agenda. Eventually we hooked up in Germany and have been together ever since.
In 1970 my traveling companion at the time and I spent over three months in Israel. Much of our time together was spent in the Old City of Jerusalem drinking tea and hanging out with the locals.
For several weeks we earned money smashing rocks at an archeological dig next to the Wailing Wall. It was only years later that I learned the site came about because, after the Six Day War in 1967, the occupying Israelis evicted the Palestinian residents and bulldozed their housing.
My traveling companion and I traveled all over the country. At one point going down to southern Israel and the port City of Eilat. On the way we stayed with an expat American from Baltimore who ran a roadside stand just off the highway where people could stop for snacks.
I could walk across the road and step into Jordan.
One night an Israeli military patrol stopped for a beverage. We were all sitting around talking when suddenly an Israeli soldier stuck his Uzi in my stomach, poked my belly a couple of times and laughed, “IF YOU WERE AN ARAB I’D SHOOT YOU.”
I was so taken aback I didn’t know how to respond. I think I laughed nervously.
For sure I never forgot the incident and as the Israeli military rains down its revenge against the Hamas terrorists who murdered nearly a thousand Israelis this event comes to mind.
A year later Liz and I were in Rotterdam, Holland attending a Pink Floyd concert. The memory of the Uzi poking into my stomach was fading but never to be forgotten.
The postcards were purchased during my travels in Israel in 1970.
Top postcard -“Zahal” Israeli parachutists on Parade
Lee's Perspective 