Leaving old Jerusalem, we drove through the modern city of Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. The Knesset is the heart of government and stands tightly guarded in the downtown area . The 120 Ministers of Parliament range from ultra conservation Jews to Israeli Arabs that are hostile to the Israeli government. We passed more extensive settlements that were built shortly after the 1967 war. The size of these developments was a big surprise to me--they are huge.
The Judean hills are absolutely beautiful with lots of rolling green hills and many trees that has been planted by the Jewish National Fund. The "Jerusalem Corridor" goes west towards Tel Aviv. Even thought the Sea of Galilee is northeast of Jerusalem, we need to go west to almost the coast and then go north and back east because it's not safe for Israelis to travel through the Palestinian areas. I won't go into the history of Ottomans, British and in 1948, an independent state of Israel, but the Arab accounts and the Israeli accounts differ greatly! David told us that the Arab population fled their homes for fear of what the Israeli would do to them. Those that chose to stay, became Israeli citizens with all the rights and privileges of the Israeli Jews, but for safety reasons, all Arabs villages were cleared on the "Jerusalem Corridor"-Highway 1 from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.
On the coast we visited to the ancient city of Caesarea. Biblical history comes alive with names like Pontius Pilate whose name of found on a stone tablet stating he was governor of Caesarea and Herod, the Great, who built the city as his showplace. Herod, paranoid schizophrenic, megalomaniac, master builder built an inner and outer harbor that is submerged just off shore as is part of the palace. No picture I took does the place justice--it's enormous and follows the edge of the sea.
The fundamentalist Christians are the biggest group of tourist in Israel today. They are very supportive of the Jews and David said one asked him, "how can you let them (the Arabs) keep control of Dome of the Rock?" And then suggested that the Israelis blow it up! A common theme among his fundamentalist pilgrims is that God gave the land to the Jews and the Arabs should be kicked out. In the Christian book of Revelations, the end of the world and the second coming of Jesus won't happen until the third temple is built on Temple Mount and they want to speed up the timeline as much as possible. Just FYI, the 2nd temple was destroyed in 70 AD and the Muslims have control of a mosque called Dome of the Rock that was built in 688 AD and sits on part of the former temple area. The rest of the Temple Mount is empty except for trees.
The southernmost Druze village of about 15,000 inhabitants are just before Haifa. A secret religions that only their clergy knows anything about, but it does allow women to reach the highest level of the clergy. They believe in one God and that there is a finite number of souls in the world and that these souls are recycled. They have no rituals whatsoever, and the average Druze doesn't know anything about their religion. The Druze must be loyal to the state in which they live. The Haifa Druze are amazingly loyal to Israel and serve in the Israeli army. The Syrian Druzes show the same loyalty to Syria. There are 2 Druzes villages in the Golan Heights that were captured from Syria 1967 war, and initially the people were very hostile to Israel, but tourism has become very lucrative for these villages. Once a year Israel opens the border for marriages between the different tribes since there are so few Druze and so many are marrying outsiders and disappearing into the Arab population.
Next stop--Akko or Acre which is a UNESCO site and a 100% Arab city close to the Lebanese border.
It is the best preserved Crusader city in the world. The prison break portrayed by Paul Neuman in "Exodus" was filmed here. When the actual prison break happened here in May 1947, a hole was blown in the floor during the real prison break and through the hole, this ancient city was discovered. Instead of destroying the city, it was continually built on top of and sand from the beach blew in and covered everything. This was the home in 1099 or the Kniights Hospitaler and the Knights Templar, not especially nice guys who ruled the Holy Lands for about 200 years.
Israeli soldiers are everywhere, and both men and women serve.
Baha'i Gardens in Haifa.
The Judean hills are absolutely beautiful with lots of rolling green hills and many trees that has been planted by the Jewish National Fund. The "Jerusalem Corridor" goes west towards Tel Aviv. Even thought the Sea of Galilee is northeast of Jerusalem, we need to go west to almost the coast and then go north and back east because it's not safe for Israelis to travel through the Palestinian areas. I won't go into the history of Ottomans, British and in 1948, an independent state of Israel, but the Arab accounts and the Israeli accounts differ greatly! David told us that the Arab population fled their homes for fear of what the Israeli would do to them. Those that chose to stay, became Israeli citizens with all the rights and privileges of the Israeli Jews, but for safety reasons, all Arabs villages were cleared on the "Jerusalem Corridor"-Highway 1 from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.
On the coast we visited to the ancient city of Caesarea. Biblical history comes alive with names like Pontius Pilate whose name of found on a stone tablet stating he was governor of Caesarea and Herod, the Great, who built the city as his showplace. Herod, paranoid schizophrenic, megalomaniac, master builder built an inner and outer harbor that is submerged just off shore as is part of the palace. No picture I took does the place justice--it's enormous and follows the edge of the sea.
The theater has been rebuilt and was being prepared for a concert.
The southernmost Druze village of about 15,000 inhabitants are just before Haifa. A secret religions that only their clergy knows anything about, but it does allow women to reach the highest level of the clergy. They believe in one God and that there is a finite number of souls in the world and that these souls are recycled. They have no rituals whatsoever, and the average Druze doesn't know anything about their religion. The Druze must be loyal to the state in which they live. The Haifa Druze are amazingly loyal to Israel and serve in the Israeli army. The Syrian Druzes show the same loyalty to Syria. There are 2 Druzes villages in the Golan Heights that were captured from Syria 1967 war, and initially the people were very hostile to Israel, but tourism has become very lucrative for these villages. Once a year Israel opens the border for marriages between the different tribes since there are so few Druze and so many are marrying outsiders and disappearing into the Arab population.
Next stop--Akko or Acre which is a UNESCO site and a 100% Arab city close to the Lebanese border.
Israeli soldiers are everywhere, and both men and women serve.
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