For Israel, simply surviving is serious business. More and more Israeli Jews, along with people around the world who care about peace in the Middle East, think Israel would be wise to lighten up a bit. But when you travel there and hang out with the older generation, you appreciate why most of them take every threat to their nation extremely seriously and make their own rules for security without waiting for anyone else’s OK.
That’s the generation that remembers 1967, when Hebrew-language propaganda radio from Egypt broadcast to a young generation of Israelis: “Dear fish of the Mediterranean, don’t bother eating now because in a few days you’ll be dining on two million Jews.” And, while lately, the news fixates on missiles from Iran, Israel considers it has two Iranian divisions right on its border: Hamas (in Gaza) and Hezbollah (in Lebanon).
My guide, Benny Dagan, illustrated with maps and charts how Israel quadrupled in size in 1967 after the Six-Day War. For its own defense, Israel insists on keeping the land it took as a buffer, and to never again have Arab gun emplacements able to shoot down at Israel from the high ground — a kind of grinding terror the country lived with from the late 1940s to 1967.From this Syrian military post, named “High and Mighty,” Syrians looked down on Israel’s primary water source and shelled civilians at will from 1949 until 1967, when Israel “made them pay the bill” in a six-day military rout.
Photo by Trish Feaster. (for her blog, see The Travelphile.)
The Gadot Lookout in the Golan Heights overlooks the upper Jordan River valley, and is on the border of the present UN buffer zone with Syria. Since 1967, Israel has controlled the Golan Heights. As long as things are peaceful, the trenches and barbed wire here provide a kind of commando playground for visiting Israelis. Another vantage point, on Mount Bental, looks down on the road to the Syrian capital, Damascus — just 35 miles to the north. The café atop Mount Bental is named “Coffee Annan,” a clever reminder that it was United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan who once led the UN troops stationed below. And, Annan means “clouds” in Hebrew — so it’s “coffee above the clouds.”It was fascinating to drive right up to the Israel-Syria border, a tense no man’s land patrolled by United Nations troops.Souvenir T-shirts like this weave in political themes, as the political realities are a part of any curious visitor’s experience. It is thought-provoking how many mighty nations and empires once threatened Israel and how — of all of them — only Israel survives. The joke: Israel has friends in high places. (In all fairness, along with heaven, that would include Washington, D.C.)All Israelis go into service at age 18: men for three years, women for two years. While the primary purpose is to protect the country, a strong secondary purpose for the universal draft is to build social cohesion. Military service functions as a kind of cultural boot camp for first-generation Israelis — new arrivals from places like Russia, Iraq, and Ethiopia. After three years in the army, they’re no longer FOB — “fresh off the boat.”
Tourism is a big part of Israel’s economy. And much of that is Christian tourism: mostly bus tours of Americans visiting sights from Jesus’ three-year ministry–places they’ve imagined since their childhood Sunday school classes.
While Jesus was born in Bethlehem, to the south near Jerusalem, he grew up in the north in Nazareth, near the Sea of Galilee. Since the Jordan River dumps into the north end of the lake, that’s where there’s the most oxygen in the water and consequently the most fish. In that area, around Capernaum, is where the major population centers were and, of course, the most fishermen. This is where Jesus assembled his band of disciples, turning fishers of fish into fishers of men.
On the shore of Galilee, at Kibbutz Ginosar, there’s an impressive little lakeside museum containing the recently excavated scant remains of “the Jesus Boat”–a typical fisherman’s boat from the first century A.D.
The Sea of Galilee–700 feet below sea level, fed and drained by the Jordan River, and 13 miles long by 8 miles wide–is Israel’s top source of water. It’s also a popular tourist destination for Israelis and Christian tourists, and home to lots of fish.
This tourist map shows all the stops Christian tour groups can make to see where famous and beloved stories and lessons from the Bible took place.
Christian tour groups from all over the world make a vacation pilgrimage to the Holy Land. While Jerusalem is the major stop, they generally make a quick visit to Bethlehem (in the West Bank), and loop through the north to stop at several sights near the Sea of Galilee.
As a Christian, gazing out over the fabled Sea of Galilee and imagining Jesus walking on the water, I became more emotional than I had imagined I would be. Closing my eyes, I let the song of pilgrim groups singing in the distance, the sound of the little waves at my feet, and the breeze off the lake come together in a touching, personal moment.
At the altar of a new church, built atop the ruins and mosaics of a fifth-century church, is the rock upon which–according to tradition–Jesus laid the five loaves and two fish that managed to feed a gathering of 5,000.
The Church of the Primacy of St. Peter is especially important for Catholic pilgrims. Delightfully set on the Sea of Galilee, it’s built upon the rock where, tradition holds, the resurrected Jesus ate with his disciples and told Peter to “feed my sheep.” That is one reason why the Roman Catholic Church believes in the primacy of St. Peter.
At each Christian pilgrimage site, our Jewish guide Benny read with passion passages from the Bible. I found the scriptures talking about the Sermon on the Mount, feeding the masses with a few fish and loaves, Jesus calming the water, and the Beatitudes (“blessed are the meek,” and so on) particularly impactful here on the sites where those events occurred.
From the Sea of Galilee (700 feet below sea level), the Jordan River flows south watering the fertile and strategic Jordan Valley, until it reaches the Dead Sea (about 1,400 feet below sea level). According to tradition, John the Baptist baptized Jesus where the Jordan leaves the Sea of Galilee. Today, many Christians flock to this spot to be baptized or re-baptized. I found this sight the most lively…but the least spiritual.
Sitting down to our first lunch in Israel, in the Crusader town of Akko, we were treated to a typical and colorful array of mezze-style plates: delightful dips, soups, and salads that are a daily edible reminder of how fertile Israel is.
If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.
During my visit, Israel was celebrating 65 years as a nation. There were flags everywhere. For me, a highlight of my Israel visit was gaining an appreciation for the Zionist pioneers who built the country–slowly early in the 20th century, then very quickly after its modern founding in 1948–and seeing how far the nation has come.
In 1908 Tel Aviv was just a big sand dune. Born in 1909, the city today feels like San Diego. Of the almost eight million people in the country, more than three million live in the greater Tel Aviv area. The relative prosperity among Israel and its neighbors is striking. Waking up on my first morning here, I looked out my hotel window at the wonderful sandy beach (which is made of sediment from the Nile River). Pondering the joggers and kayakers getting in their morning exercise, I kept thinking it’s as if someone put California in the middle of Mexico.When you look at a photo of the early Zionist pioneers who came here and mixed sand, sweat, brain power, and a determined vision into a powerful nation, you can understand the passion Israelis have for their homeland.After WWII, a generation of Holocaust orphans–many still wearing the striped uniforms issued to them in concentration camps like Dachau–helped end a 1,900-year-long Jewish diaspora.
A fun thing about travel is seeing how there are things you know, things you don’t know, and things you didn’t know you didn’t know–like an alternative system for elevators.
If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.
