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Hello Everyone,
A saw a comedian a long time ago who said "I never did understand holy wars...it's just two groups of people killing each other in an argument over who's imaginary friend is better." Crazy, but now I understand it a bit better.
Well, I'm done with Israel and I think it's got the highest number of crazy people per capita of any place in the world. Holy places seem to attract the craziest people.
My first stop was Jerusalem, one of the oldest cities in the world after Veranassi in India. It's a focal point for an amazing number of religions and this causes a bit of tension, but overall it's OK.
Jerusalem is divided into the Old city and New city, the old city being cramped stone structures and narrow alleyways that are more like tunnels. It really feels OLD. It's incredible.
The Old city is surrounded by high (maybe 20 meters?) stone walls and when you step outside into the new city it's like jumping through time 2000 years. The new city is full of McDonalds, Pizza Huts, Bagel shops and shiny new shopping malls. An average meal in the new city will cost you the usual $10US and in the old city will cost you under $2.
The old city is full of tour groups, mostly American, wandering through all the sites. At the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, supposedly where Christ rose from the dead, you can get a cross at "Joseph's rent-a-cross" and follow Christ's route to his crucifixion.
Here we saw one tour guide yelling over his group, "Ok, who hasn't carried the cross yet? Does anyone, who hasn't had a chance, want to carry the cross? Anyone?? Anyone??"
From Jerusalem we went down to the Dead Sea to so some floating. Now, I had heard again and again how amazing it was to float here, but I was still surprised and amazed when I finally went for a swim. The Dead Sea has 10 times the salinity that the ocean does. When you are swimming, if you stand up straight (not touching the bottom) you float with everything from the bottom of your rib-cage out of the water. It's the strangest feeling. And you can do all this with the roar of Israeli fighter jets buzzing the border, since the Dead Sea borders Jordan as well.
On the way back from the Dead Sea, we tried hitch-hiking which turned out to be the best way to get around Israel. All the soldiers used to hitch-hike and the people pick up pretty much everyone on the side of the road. Very friendly! And if you can pick up people with M-16 assault rifles over their shoulders, why not pick up a couple of harmless tourists?
Israel is full of soldiers. Lots more than I've seen anywhere else. They are actively discouraged from hitching now, so they all take the bus (for free). On most bus rides, there are more soldiers than people and they all carry M-16's or semi-automatic sniper rifles. It's strange, but I never worried about trouble on the buses.
Israel conscripts every man and woman at the age of 18 and they spend 2-3 years in the army. With the women, sometimes you see these girls so short the ends of their rifles are practically dragging on the ground as they walk around. While in the army they are never, under any condition, allowed to leave their gun, or lose it. If so, they face time in prison and an extension of there conscription period.
So, it you are lucky you might see a couple of young Israeli's dancing at the local night-club with their rifles slung over their shoulders.
The next spot we saw was Hebron, which is one of the West Bank towns that appears in the news regularly with riots and what-not. The West Bank is a mostly Palestinian area that was captured from Jordan during the Six-Days-War in 1967. After that, 400 Jewish settlers moved in and are now guarded by a total of 1200 Israeli soldiers. They mostly live in one building that has a nasty sign saying "This market was built on Jewish property stolen by Arabs after the 1929 massacre." Great way to make friends, eh?
Most Israelis believe that this settlement is a waste of time and tax-payers money but a few right-wing Jews, mostly from America, insist on settling the area. They publish glossy brochures explaining why they should have the land they "liberated" from Jordan. The rest of the world calls is "Occupied", not "liberated".
The town of Hebron itself has charming markets and a friendly (to outsiders) Palestinian population. However, you could feel the tension and it's not a comfortable place to stay long.
My next stop was Tyberias, a nice resort city on the Sea of Galilee (actually a lake) just below the Golan Heights. Our hostel owner fought in both the Six-Day-War and the longer Yom-Kipper war. He was an interesting guy to talk to but very anti-Arab and right-wing.
From there we did a tour of the Golan Heights, the area captured from the Syrians during the Six-Day-War. Jewish settlers were encouraged to stay here even with the continued bombing from Lebanon Hezbollah guerrillas. They have built lots of nice houses and now they face the prospect of losing them. Peace with Syria will probably require giving back some of the Golan to Syria and this means these settlers have to move again. They are not happy about it and it's slowing the peace process.
Prime Minister Rabin was very pro-peace and when he was assassinated the right-wing Netanyahu was elected. At this time, property values in the Golan doubled overnight because the prospect that they would go back to Syria was much less likely!
The area is mostly mountainous and provides a good security advantage to the Israelis. All over you see burnt out tanks, trucks and what-not from the two wars.
Also, Tyberias is where Jesus preformed the multiplying fish miracle and the walking on water miracle. I tried this walking on water thing myself, but sunk. However, I had my own miracle happen. My socks smelled lovely after my failed water-walking attempt. Not like the dirty old traveler socks that they are. A miracle!!
There are actually lots of interesting stories that I have from Israel, but I'm going to leave it here for now.
I'm in Cairo at the moment and fly to Zurich in two days.
Bye!
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