Earlier this month, Times of Israel editor David Horovitz became one of only two or three Israeli journalists to have ever walked the streets of Damascus, Syria’s capital.

But he was the very first to be welcomed there with open arms by the Syrian government. His visit with a group of American Jews led by Michigan Rabbi Asher Lopatin was part of the new regime’s efforts to show a new openness to the world.

I asked David what he heard from senior government officials, what he saw among the National Museum’s carefully preserved millennia-old Jewish relics, and what he made of this purportedly new Syria under President a-Sharaa.

His travelogue of the visit, which included some marvelous photos, can be read here: https://www.timesofisrael.com/48-surreal-hours-in-damascus-an-israeli-reporters-travelogue-from-an-enemy-capital/

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Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.