Thursday and Friday
[I suppose this is a violation of the Honor Code of the Bloggers, but I am coming back on Sunday to edit this post. We are in New York, and I want to straighten out what I left earlier. I am leaving original text intact, but am adding captions to the pictures.]
I'm too tired to write any text tonight. Here are the pictures for Thursday and Friday. I'll put in some captions on Saturday.
We set out Thursday morning to visit this kibbutz. It's in the very northern part of Israel, along the Lebanese border. As such, it has been the subject of rocket, mortar, and artillery attack for years.
The Kibbutz movement has fallen on hard times, largely due to the discovery by both Israel and the rest of the world that markets do a better job of generating wealth than socialism. The market for farm products in particular has hit this kibbutz. One way of generating income is to lease land to other Israelis, who build houses on the leased land -- as seen in this picture.
Israel occupied Southern Lebanon from 1986 to 2000, stopping the bombardment of the kibbutz. These rocket launchers were used by PLO, Syrian, and Muslim Lebanese forces to pursue the bombardment, but were captured by Israeli forces. Modern rocket launchers are much more sophisticated.
We moved on to the border with Lebanon. This is a UN outpost flying both UN and Lebanese flags. The kibbutzim refer to them as the "united nothing" because the UN is totally ineffective in limiting attacks across the border. However, being all ex-soldiers, they are cautious to respect the UN soldiers as pawns in a greater game.
This is a view into Southern Lebanon. I could easily have thrown a rock and hit the border fence. Until 2000, Israel occupied a zone 10 km deep, holding positions on all the hills you see here and in the next picture.
We're not sure why, but we could hear gunshots in the distance.
While here, we heard a fascinating discussion from a significant figure in the Israeli Defense Forces talking about current events and the various forces at work.
On to the Golan Heights:
This monument overlooked the site of an important tank battle in the 1967 Six-Day War in which Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria.
One thing that's impressive is how nearby all the famous hot spots are!
While traveling further up the Golan Heights we encountered a village of Druze Muslims. We didn't see many people.
There was a continuing Israeli military presence in the Golan Heights.
But there was also a very modern shopping center. Seemed just like home if you didn't look too hard at the writing on products!
This Israeli listening post had a line-of-sight view into downtown Damascus.
This sign should speak for itself. Click on the picture if you can't read it.
The guide said that farm animals sometimes discover old Syrian land mines.
Inside an old Syrian pillbox.
The Golan Heights is along the Great Rift where several tectonic plates (notably the African and Eurasian plates) interface. One product is volcanoes. Those of us from Hawaii and a few other places will recognize this sort of formation.
When we were through in the Golan Heights, we descended to the Sea of Galilee and took a boat trip across the water to our hotel in Tiberius.
On Friday we headed out to a number of Christian sites. Here is Capernaum, where Peter lived and Jesus often visited. This sign points to Peter's house.
A lot of Bible scholars don't realize this, but Peter hired Frank Lloyd Wright to design his pad. Here's the result. Umm... actually this is a museum over the ruins of a Byzantine church, built on or near the location where Peter's house actually was.
This is an excavated Jewish synagogue in Capernaum. Considering its location and date, it's almost certainly a synagogue Peter actually attended ... and was visited by Jesus as well. This is refreshing after visiting so many sites that are located almost entirely by tradition.
This is an area where Jesus is said to have given the Sermon on the Mount. It's location is speculative, but he probably gave the sermon somewhere near here.
We moved on the Cana and Nazareth, which were located essentially within walking distance of each other -- even for Americans. I think this is Cana (they pronounced it Kah-nuh), but it may be Nazareth.
I think this is Nazareth. Note the Muslim minaret in the background. These cities are more than 70% Palestinian.
In Nazareth we couldn't help noticing this cleverly named store. Not sure what they were selling. Women's clothes in men's sizes?
We visited the Church of the Annunciation, commemorating the revelation to Mary (or Miriam, according to our Jewish guide) that she would bear a son she was to name Jesus.
Uh oh. What was this place. Does anyone recognize it?
I'm too tired to write any text tonight. Here are the pictures for Thursday and Friday. I'll put in some captions on Saturday.
We set out Thursday morning to visit this kibbutz. It's in the very northern part of Israel, along the Lebanese border. As such, it has been the subject of rocket, mortar, and artillery attack for years.
The Kibbutz movement has fallen on hard times, largely due to the discovery by both Israel and the rest of the world that markets do a better job of generating wealth than socialism. The market for farm products in particular has hit this kibbutz. One way of generating income is to lease land to other Israelis, who build houses on the leased land -- as seen in this picture.
Israel occupied Southern Lebanon from 1986 to 2000, stopping the bombardment of the kibbutz. These rocket launchers were used by PLO, Syrian, and Muslim Lebanese forces to pursue the bombardment, but were captured by Israeli forces. Modern rocket launchers are much more sophisticated.
We moved on to the border with Lebanon. This is a UN outpost flying both UN and Lebanese flags. The kibbutzim refer to them as the "united nothing" because the UN is totally ineffective in limiting attacks across the border. However, being all ex-soldiers, they are cautious to respect the UN soldiers as pawns in a greater game.
This is a view into Southern Lebanon. I could easily have thrown a rock and hit the border fence. Until 2000, Israel occupied a zone 10 km deep, holding positions on all the hills you see here and in the next picture.
We're not sure why, but we could hear gunshots in the distance.
While here, we heard a fascinating discussion from a significant figure in the Israeli Defense Forces talking about current events and the various forces at work.
On to the Golan Heights:
This monument overlooked the site of an important tank battle in the 1967 Six-Day War in which Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria.
One thing that's impressive is how nearby all the famous hot spots are!
While traveling further up the Golan Heights we encountered a village of Druze Muslims. We didn't see many people.
There was a continuing Israeli military presence in the Golan Heights.
But there was also a very modern shopping center. Seemed just like home if you didn't look too hard at the writing on products!
This Israeli listening post had a line-of-sight view into downtown Damascus.
This sign should speak for itself. Click on the picture if you can't read it.
The guide said that farm animals sometimes discover old Syrian land mines.
Inside an old Syrian pillbox.
The Golan Heights is along the Great Rift where several tectonic plates (notably the African and Eurasian plates) interface. One product is volcanoes. Those of us from Hawaii and a few other places will recognize this sort of formation.
When we were through in the Golan Heights, we descended to the Sea of Galilee and took a boat trip across the water to our hotel in Tiberius.
On Friday we headed out to a number of Christian sites. Here is Capernaum, where Peter lived and Jesus often visited. This sign points to Peter's house.
A lot of Bible scholars don't realize this, but Peter hired Frank Lloyd Wright to design his pad. Here's the result. Umm... actually this is a museum over the ruins of a Byzantine church, built on or near the location where Peter's house actually was.
This is an excavated Jewish synagogue in Capernaum. Considering its location and date, it's almost certainly a synagogue Peter actually attended ... and was visited by Jesus as well. This is refreshing after visiting so many sites that are located almost entirely by tradition.
This is an area where Jesus is said to have given the Sermon on the Mount. It's location is speculative, but he probably gave the sermon somewhere near here.
We moved on the Cana and Nazareth, which were located essentially within walking distance of each other -- even for Americans. I think this is Cana (they pronounced it Kah-nuh), but it may be Nazareth.
I think this is Nazareth. Note the Muslim minaret in the background. These cities are more than 70% Palestinian.
In Nazareth we couldn't help noticing this cleverly named store. Not sure what they were selling. Women's clothes in men's sizes?
We visited the Church of the Annunciation, commemorating the revelation to Mary (or Miriam, according to our Jewish guide) that she would bear a son she was to name Jesus.
Uh oh. What was this place. Does anyone recognize it?
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