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Honking in Palestine supplanted the Israeli driving custom of arm waving. We followed the sound of honking cars to a paved road outside of the residential area. Adam spotted a Palestinian officer nearing a police station. Soon after Adam stopped for directions, he returned to the car saying, "They are going to take us." Before I asked what he meant, sirens blared and lights flashed; one minute lost in a war zone and the next, the featured car in a two-car police parade! I felt like sticking my torso out the window waving elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist.

The officer honked as he drove through a labyrinth of streets. Our destination appeared without windows or doors across the street from a vacant Manger Square. We walked through an empty courtyard at dusk to the weathered Basilica of the Nativity Church. It was fitting that we must kneel to enter the small entryway to this most sacred attraction.