Religions can exist side by side here, except when they don’t.

The remains of a synagogue and the home where Jesus lived when in the Galilee were discovered beside each other at Capernaum.

A 20th Century church was built above the church first built on the site of the latter.

In Nazareth, we visited the Catholic church marking the annunciation.  An Orthodox church is nearby.

At the Baha’i world center in Haifa, we learned that Baha’ullah, the man who declared himself God’s new prophet, was imprisoned by the British in Acre.

Decades later, so were eight members of the Irgun, Begin’s faction in pre-independence Israel.

We went to Baha’ullah’s tomb.  Members of the faith do not turn their backs on his remains.

Similarly, observant Jews do not turn their backs on the Western Wall.

We received a different message about religion from a pair of twenty-something Arab Christians at As Sennara newspaper.

“The solution to the mistreatment of Israel’s Arab citizens [those who live within Israel’s borders before the Six Day War in 1967] is a secular democratic society.”

Our professor said afterwards, “Even Ben Gurion, a secular Jew, was a passionate Jewish nationalist.”

No Israeli Prime Minisister will bargain away the country’s unique status as a homeland for the Jewish people – for those who move here by choice or to escape oppression.

But the necessity of striking the right balance between security and individual freedom remains.