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him, “Is it okay for us to talk?” I was thinking to myself, “There are two Syrians in this synagogue. Isn't he going to get into trouble?” I had already made my decision that I was not going to engage in any political discussion, because I didn't want to endanger their lives -- not mine, but their lives. So he said, “Sure.” So then I thought to myself, because he's sitting there with a hat on his head, “I'll ask one more question.” I said, “Are you Jewish?” He said, “No, I'm your driver,” whose face I had not seen. Then he said, “I'm a refugee from Jerusalem.”

So in any event, we left there and were taken to another synagogue. In the second synagogue there were no people, just the caretaker -- in Hebrew it would be the shamos, who takes care of the synagogue when nobody is there. Our Syrian Foreign Ministry guy says, “We understand that the services here will start in about 20 minutes. Would you like to wait?” So I said, “Sure.”

At that point three guys come in in their early thirties, maybe late twenties, obviously Arab, very threatening looking. They have the Arab worry beads which they're manipulating in their hands. Aside from the fact that they didn't look Jewish, with these worry beads in their hands and their threatening manner, I thought, as Joe thought, “We're in a lot of trouble.” These three guys come over, and one of them, the leader, says in Arabic, “What are you doing here?” And the Foreign Ministry