Israel

Greetings from the land of the Pharaohs, Egypt! Since I last posted a message, we have spent five days in Israel on the "pre trip" to the Grand Circle Travel tour "Ancient Egypt and the Nile River". We have just started the basic tour, having arrived in Cairo last Monday. It has been interesting to be in the Middle East and to see for ourselves the history and current situations in which these nations find themselves.

Israel is a nation that bustles with energy. Jerusalem in particular is full of building projects, modern shops, and lots of traffic! It also has a mix of cultures with the city divided into four quarters - the Jewish, Armenian, Christian and Muslim. Because we had an Israeli guide, we did not go into the Muslim quarter. The national government has strict rules about where it's citizens can go and not go within it's borders. When we went to Bethlehem, which is in a Palestinian territory, we had to leave our guide on one side of the border, travel with our Muslim driver over the border and then pick up an Arab guide. We also could not visit Jericho which is in a Palestinian territory. Jerusalem has it's historical core also, with winding, narrow streets, closely packed shops and vendors anxious to get one's attention. We saw several museums (Dead Sea Scrolls, models of Jerusalem in Christ's time etc), Israel's holocaust museum, many Biblical sites (Garden of Gethsemane, Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Palm Sunday route) as well as the Wailing Wall, the Dome of the Rock (only from a distance) and the Tower of David.

Outside Jerusalem, we visited Nazareth, Capernaum, the Dead Sea and the Jordan River, and Bethlehem. We walked in the river and floated in the sea! We also went to Bet Shean, a famous Roman ruin and spent a good half day there. We ate lots of good food, including pitas with falafel and dates and lamb. Our hotel was kosher which was interesting and fun. No milk at dinner and no meat for breakfast, and of course no pork at all!

We discovered that (no surprise!) the whole Israeli/Palestinian situation is more complicated that our media would have us believe. We had a wonderful discussion with a young Israeli man who was our guide to Bet Shean. The six of us who had hired him for the day asked him question after question during the entire drive to and from Jerusalem. He was very articulate and his English was very good because he had come to Israel from England as a teenager. He made the case for his country very well with clear logic and also much passion. Most of the Israelis we met had many Arab/Muslim friends and so feel animosity only for the Arab leaders, fanatics, and political processes involved. All want peace but not at any price. Not if it means Israel doesn't exist.

We felt safe during our time in Israel. Maybe that was because the security at the borders was so tight. There were two check points from the West Bank into Jerusalem and the whole West Bank border is patrolled and has high tech devices monitoring every intrusion. But the fact remains that at any time, violence could break out.

I will post a new message in the next few days as we enjoy our time in Egypt!