Christmas Arrives In Bethlehem
Jerusalem's Roman Catholic Patriarch arrived in Bethlehem's manger square, on the annual pilgrimage to the site revered as the birthplace of Jesus, with full pomp and ceremony - heralded by scores of drummers drumming, rows of pipers piping, and a Major-Domo strutting his stuff.
On hand was Santa Claus, the next generation, and guardian angels, in the form of the Palestinian police. Bethlehem can't supply a White Christmas, but what it lacks in snow, it makes up for in echoes of its Biblical past - and with all the many colors of Christianity's rainbow. It's the one day of the year the West Bank's problems are laid aside.
The peace accords are in gridlock, the West Bank is simmering, elections due in Israel probably mean months of paralysis ahead. For the people of Bethlehem, peace seems possible but just out of reach.
 The Khayyat family of Bethlehem decorate their tree CBS |
The Khayyat family of Bethlehem, Grace, Bahij and their three children, take their religion and its traditions seriously. They're worried the Gospel of Peace may get lost in its native land.
"Everybody must move to the peace situation because if not - it will be a disaster!" Grace Khayyat, Bethlehem resident.
Lately sleepy Bethlehem has been waking up to the music of the hammer and the saw - a building boom is under way for the Year 2000. "Y2K" in this town means the Millennium of the religion that was born here, and preparing for the planned celebrations is an act of national faith.
"I'm working in my city Bethlehem with my people here, for our people," said site engineer Adnan Safi.
Tonight, Bethlehem seems poised between discord and harmony - between the strains of the present, and the dream that next year the "Season of Peace" may finally live up to its name.
Reported by CBS News Correspondent Jesse Schulman