Syria Update 3

Today has to have been the most unique and truly bizarre day of travel in my entire life. This morning I set off with a friend to Quneitra, a Syrian town located with in the UN buffer zone between the Israeli and Syrian parts of the Golan Heights. It lies about 1 hour south west of Damascus and the trip there was around 50 cents. Upon clearing a UN checkpoint, we approached a Syrian one where a Syrian intelligence officer or “tour guide” who spoke only Arabic joined us and hung on to our permit and passports while in the area. Actually, it turned out to be a pretty set “tour.” Yet, the area was startling, a virtual time machine, Quneitra is not much different than it was in 1967. The entire town remains in ruins outside of the UN who moved into one building and have setup camp. Strikingly though, althought our “tour guide” told us nobody lived in the town, we saw two children and around 3 women. It seems one or two families live there in the middle of the rubble. Barely a building is standing and in the near distance, you can see Israeli military installments atop the hill no doubt spying on the Syrians.

Afterwards, I headed back to Damascus and went to the “October War Panorama” which is a Syrian museum dedicated to the Yom Kippur war with Israel in 1973. It was also built with help from the North Koreans. It was like nothing I’ve seen. On the right side of the museum one sees old Syrian jets, tanks and rockets used against those terrible Zionists and on the left side, a collection of wreckage of enemy aircraft and tanks. Inside, one sees perhaps the best movie ever depicting the Syrians taking back the Golan Heights in the beginning of the Yom Kippur war and has old footage of the Syrians taking the Israeli positions and yelling “Allahu Akbar.” Then the movie ends and a light show ensues as the stage in front of the screen is setup to look like a battlefield with trenches, guns etc and very cheesy sound effects set in. It’s the most absolutely pathetic, kitschy and ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen in all of my life. Then one continues up and sees a panorama, a fwe hundred feet in circumference and sits on a round platform which rotates while you sit so you can see the entire picture. It, as others, were pained by North Korea artists. Unfortunately they wouldn’t let me take pictures of that part but it was truly ridiculous. It was like a Dictator’s Disney World.