If you live in Jerusalem the tiny village isn't very far only about five miles down a winding road south of the city. To this day Bethlehem remains a small town, a tourist center. Every family there, in one way or another, earn their livelihood from pilgrims who come to see the city of Jesus' birth. Some sights are as they were 2000 years ago, like the view of Shepherds Hills. Manger Square, however, is commercialized.
Shops are everywhere.
Thousands walk through the small doorway of the Church of the Nativity to view the place enshrined as the spot where Jesus was born. But on Christmas Day 2000, the message of Bethlehem seems very far away. Fighting between the children of Abraham and Isaac threatens the peace of the world. The angel's song in shepherd field is drowned out by the whirl of attack helicopters overhead. The ancient and modern are curiously mixed, as Israeli soldiers fire modern weapons toward unruly Palestinians, who in turn throw rocks with slingshots as old as King David.