Even on a quiet day however Israeli road blocks can mean the

Even on a quiet day, however, Israeli road blocks can mean the 15-minute drive from Jerusalem to Jesus’s birthplace can take up to two hours. The town hopes to attract two million tourists in the year 2000. Bethlehem, an unmissable destination for most Christian visitors, is controlled by Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority. The most ambitious events, such as the proposed concert by the Three Tenors, have been arranged by towns which are under the control of the Palestinian Authority.Everywhere in Israel planning law is complicated, to put it mildly, by political tensions. The official tourist brochure for 2000 claims to be the culmination of “years of efforts”, before warning readers that it contains only a very tentative list of events, including the International Bike Race up Mount Sodom and the Israeli Cowboy festival. The money goes to the Jubillennium Organisation, a commercial outfit which will donate proceeds to charity and has prepared everything from car stickers to carpets, adorned with the face of the Redeemer.The Israelis have set aside $400m to pay for new roads, hotels and improvements to Tel Aviv airport.

But even now, just weeks before hotels would expect firm block-bookings to start coming in, there is a surprising vagueness over what is actually going to take place in the Holy Land at the Millennium. A gift shop further down the lake sells empty plastic bottles, in the shape of Christ, for pounds 1.50 Pilgrims can also purchase Mary Magdalene eau de toilette. At nearby Kursi, you can pay $10 to have a Millennium candle lit in your name: a service also available over the Internet. But if the Pope comes in March or April 2000 – as he has determined to do, health permitting – then, according to the Vatican Travel Agency, Israel should brace itself for anything up to an extra four million pilgrims.Not everybody is certain to welcome these guests with Ron Major’s admirable financial disinterest.

Just how many more will come for the Millennium seems to be anyone’s guess.The official estimate is four million: a figure which neatly coincides with the number the tourist ministry believes Israel can cope with. “Five hundred dollars a night.” The project is one of many being frantically completed around the country In 1998, Israel attracted 2.1 million tourists. Your idea,” he went on, “is just cheap.” Was it blasphemous?”Yes,” he said.As we left the Sea of Galilee, Major pointed out a nearby building site “A hotel,” he said. The more I listened, I told him, the more I was convinced that now was the time for me to motor down to Cana and open my own “Water Into Wine” experience, where pilgrims would pay pounds 2 so that they could see their glass of Perrier magically transformed into Lambrusco.”Your thing,” said Ron, “is just a little bit too much.