The town of Bethlehem carries so many layers of meaning - some ancient, some mythical, some religious - that it feels like an unreal city, even to the people who call it home. Today, the city is hemmed in by a wall and surrounded by 41 Israeli settlements and hostile settlers and soldiers. The population is undergoing such enormous strains it is close to falling apart. Any town with an 11,000-year history has to be robust, but Bethlehem may soon go the way of Salonica or Constantinople: the physical site might survive, but the long thread winding back to the ancient past will have snapped, and the city risks losing everything that makes it unique.