The Nablus kidnapping

I don't know how closely it was reported in the US news, but two weeks ago three social workers teaching English in Nablus, an American, a Brit and an Irishman, were kidnapped by Palestinian extremists and released a few days later. My friend Anna actually knows them, and a couple days ago she was able to see them and they told her what had happened.

Apparently there's a dividing line or something like it in Nablus, one side of which is dangerous to be on. These three guys live on the street that makes up that line, and on that day a white van just drove up and some guys hopped out and started accusing them of being Israeli spies. They know Arabic, so they told them who they were, and got other Palestinians who knew them to vouch for them, but the men wouldn't listen, and took them into the van by force.

Once they realized they'd been telling the truth, the extremists were all smiles and apologies. They repeatedly told them what a terrible mistake this had been, took them to one of their houses to feed them a huge dinner. The guys even had a PLO escort back to their homes.

Like we were told at our security meeting: welcome to the Middle East.