Being An American Might Just Get You Killed!!! LOL

Ok, so now that I got your attention, no I am not in danger...why?
Because I have the Internet..THANK GOD!!! Let me explain!
     Last night my niece called me up to tell me her my sister-law were on their way to my house because they had to ask me a very important question. Of course I panicked, as I was in the middle of something and was not really in the mood for house guests. This requires a lot of service, soda, tea, coffee, fruit, of which I only had tea. So I explained 10 times before she finally got the message. I told her that I would come to her. We hung up and I got ready to go out.
     I wished she would have told me that she was with about 40 other family members as I was not prepared. You see, Eid was a few days ago which is the Arabic Christmas. I will write another story about this, but basically you give the kids candy and money. I had no idea that I would be seeing the sisters' side of the family and all their children at this time. (They had not showed up for the first day of Christmas, yet another story), so I never got to pass out the goods to those children. Never-the-less, I was quite embarrassed to have come empty handed as all the kids gathered around me, I am sure ready to receive!! I just sucked it up. Might I add, Jordanians are pretty terrible about communicating..which is VERY FRUSTRATING!!!
     So, after kissing and greeting 40+ people I sat down on the casaba-style couch and my three English speaking nieces ranging in age fro 16-21 years old came over and sat by me. They explained that another nieces husband's late great grandmother owned land in Tiberias, Israel. I had worked in Tiberias for a summer back in 1991 when I was traveling after a semester at the University of London. So, apparently they feel that I have ties there.
     The propostion was that I travel to Israel with land documents in hand and get money from the new owner who has built on this land that is his great grandmothers. They explained he would pay for all my expenses, and then asked when I could leave. "Whoa!!" I said, "well, I will have to think about this."
     I started asking questions. "Why me?" They said, "Because you are an American, you can do this. My husband cannot enter Israel as they will not give him a visa."
     Ok. Hmm, taking a minute to digest..."Where is this land exactly?" I asked. They explained it was in a Palestinian village. I explained I had reservations, as just two years ago the Israeli Military had bombed these villages for weeks. I know as I watched it on television. I was very saddened at this as our then, President Bush just sat back and allowed it to happen. I explained this to them. They replied, "But you are an American, the Jewish love you!"
     I replied, "Well, maybe the Jewish love Americans, but I am certain the Palestinians in this region do not!! Are you trying to have me killed?" They laughed.
"Yeah, ha ha," I thought to myself. I responded, "You realize that this is the exact thing that the Palenstians and the Israeli's are fighting about don't you?  LAND!!! What makes you think I am going to walk onto a property and hand the Jewish owner a land doc dated pre-war 1948 and that he will hand over the land or give me money for this land?"
They responded, "But it is his great grandmother's land and he can prove it!" I was a bit dismayed that they thought this was so easy. Did they not relate to the HUGE fight going on for decades about this? I figured there must be some sort of war law passed giving the Israeli's rights to this land. I told them I would have to do some research on the Internet. They could not understand why. So finally I explained I must first speak to my embassy before committing. They really expected me to say ok and leave the next day!
     When I returned home I did some research, and yes, there was a war law passed. It seems that when the Zionists invaded Israel back in 1948 they started taking over villages, killing and burning the houses down. The owners of that land (the husband's great grandmother) fled for fear of being killed. Soon after everyone was cleared out they passed the Law of Abandonment which gave rights to the Israeli's to pick up land ownership on the merit that it had been abandoned (yeah right!!) However, this is the case. I figured, it is sad to say, but they officially had no rights to their land. And as I assumed, this is what the fighting is all about. The Israeli's will not give back the land despite the declaration to do so by both the Vatican and the United Nations.
So how in the world do they expect ME to get the land!!!
I was just about to shut down the computer and decided to click on the headline news for the day.
Right there in bold headlines it read,

"19 November 2010 Last updated at 15:26 GMT
Israeli air strikes hit two Gaza towns"

Photo courtosy of BBC News

I clicked on it. As it turns out, when I was sitting with my family discussing this trip to Israel, at that exact time the Israeli's had launched two missiles into that region!
"Ok, so I've got my answer. "No,  I cannot help you. Good luck, and I am sorry."