Jersey Girl wrote:1. Are you ever afraid of encountering violence in the Holy Land?
It's always a possibility, of course. But I don't worry about it too much.
By and large, Palestinian terrorists haven't targeted tourists; the Palestinians need tourist dollars at least as much as the Israelis do. And, of course, Israeli security is pretty tight. And I've felt completely safe in Bethlehem and Jericho, which are largely controlled by the Palestinians. An attack on their tourist income would not be welcomed by many Palestinians, who are already in difficult economic straits.
In Jordan, the authorities now place an armed soldier on every tourist bus.
They do the same thing in Egypt, except that the armed guard (in my experience) is dressed as a civilian, is much better armed, and has the bearing of a Green Beret. Egypt has actually suffered some spectacular attacks on tourists (notably the massacre of Swiss tourists near the funerary temple of Queen Hatshepsut some years back) because, in contradistinction to Palestinian terrorists, Egypt's violent Islamists seek to topple the government and hope to cripple Egypt's economy (of which tourism is a major part) in order to accomplish that.
Jersey Girl wrote:2. Is there an IKEA in Seattle now?
Haven't the foggiest.