Galilee Continued...

Jordan River

We went from the Golan and passed the Jordan River where it is written that Jesus was baptised by John.  The Jordan, which feeds the Dead Sea, is today only a trickle of what it once was.  Israel has channeled most of it for their drinking water.  They allow a small flow, mostly for religious purposes as many Christians choose to be baptised in the Jordan even today.

St. Peter

The rest of the day was dedicated to viewing sites around the area starting with Capernaum  which was a fishing village in the time of the Hasmoneans. Located on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee  Archaeological excavations have revealed two ancient synagogues built one over the other.  Capernaum is said to be the home of Saint Peter and Jesus was supposed to have used it as a base of operations while he lived around the Galilee. 

We then went to the Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus gave his famous Sermon on the Mount.  On the site is the Church of the Beatitudes, a beautiful structure which is owned by the Franciscans. 



This was followed by a boat ride across the Sea of Galilee where we hung the Massachusetts flag from the Bow and sang the Star Spangled Banner. 

On the Sea of Galilee

Ret. Col Barry Lischinsky and current Navy Sailor Alica Cole

After getting to the dock, it was off to the Arab city of Nazareth and the Basilica of the Annunciation.  This is   the largest church in the Middle East and one of Christianity's most holy shrines. The church is believed to stand on the site of Mary's home where the Angel Gabriel appeared to her and announced that she was pregnant with Jesus.

In the lower church, there is a sunken enclosure focused on the apse of a 5th-century Byzantine church - itself built around the Grotto of the Annunciation, the traditional site of Mary's house. Lining the north wall behind it are the remains of a 12th-century Crusader church and some restored Byzantine mosaics.

The city and village of Nazareth are extremely crowded and predominantly Muslim, although there is a thriving industry in marketing to Christian Tourists.  There were many people making Holy Land pilgrimages.  Our extremely well-connected tour guide was also able to get us to Kafr Kana which is also known as Cana.  Here at the place where Jesus is written to have turned water into wine, there is a chapel run by the Franciscans and two couples on our group chose to renew their wedding vows.

Then it was back to the hotel...

February 23 - Woke up in the ancient town of Tiberias.  Tiberias was founded sometime around 20 BC in the Judea Province of Rome by Roman-Jewish client king Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, who made it the capital of his realm in Galilee.  It is also the largest city on the Sea of Galilee (which is actually an average size lake).

Our first stop was a trip to visit the Golan Heights.  The Golan Heights is an area measuring 454 sq mi that borders Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan. The area is hilly and high and allows observation of the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River and Mount Hermon.  This area had been a part of Syria until it was used in the Six Day War as a firebase for Syrian shelling of Israeli territory.  The Israeli's counter-attacked and took possession of the area.  Since then it has been debated as to whether or not it will be used as a bargaining chip in any peace deal with Syria. 

Whatever happens, it is a beautiful area and one does not need to be a military strategist to see its value. 


Views of the Sea of Galilee from the Golan



Abandoned Guard Tower in Jordan across the border

Me on the Golan

We also had an opportunity to view the old minefields between Israel and Jordan.  These are a big problem as this ordinance has stayed in the ground for a long time and is still a danger, especially to kids and hikers.  Also, with the recent trouble in Syria, you get a sense on how close this all is to Israel and its population as we can clearly see Jordan and Syria from the Golan and Lebanon is just over the next range.





Syria from the Golan

More to come...

February 22 - Today kicked off with a briefing from the US Military Attaches from the US Embassy.  Lt. Col Pete Larsen and Lt. Col John Cappello from the US Air Force and Major Paloma Beausoleil, US Army gave us a declassified overview of US policy and the work they are doing with the IDF.  This mission is especially critical now and these men and women are doing a fantastic job making sure US interests are represented and protected. 

I presented them with a Massachusetts flag that flew over the State House which they are going to hang at the embassy.  Despite being a die hard Yankees/Giants fan, Col. Cappello assured me this would happenJ.

We then traveled north toward Haifa, stopping to inspect the ruins at Caesarea.  Here once stood a small Phoenician village in the 3^rd century BC.  In 22 BC, Herod the Great set about building a great city in honor of the Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar (hence the name).  Pontius Pilate resided here when not in Jerusalem.  Herod built a port here (very amazing), a hippodrome and an amphitheatre.  Eventually the city was taken by Arabs and then retaken by the Crusaders who held it off and on for almost 1000 years until being defeated by Mamluk sultan Beybars in 1261 AD. 

Later on we made our way to the village of Avihayil to the Beit Hagdudim Museum which is dedicated to Jewish Volunteers to the British Armed Forces during WW I and WW II.  This museum was established in 1961 by the veterans of the Jewish Legions.  These legions were made up of Jewish volunteers from the diaspora and from Palestine who were encouraged to fight for the British Army in both conflicts despite their own issues with the British government.  In the First World War, their interest were driven by wanting to help expel the Turks from Palestine as a way to establishing a Jewish home state and in World War II it was to defeat the Nazis.  You can see here a recruitment poster for the Legions.

This service was critical to the establishment of Israel as it helped provide many Jewish settlers with professional military experience which they later used in their war if independence in 1948. 

From here it was on to the port city of Haifa where we passed by the beautiful Baha’I Gardens.  The gardens ring the Shrine of the Bab which is a great holy place for members of the Baha’I faith, an independent religion that was established in Persia in the 19^th Century.  The views from the gardens on Haifa are incredible.

Haifa is also home to the  IDF Junior Command Preparatory School.
 The IDF junior command preparatory school is a high school military boarding academy that functions a feeder system for officers in the IDF.  We met some of the very patriotic and dedicated students who undergo a very competitive process in order to attend (out of 1000 applications only 65 are chosen).  The young men and women here are both excited and realistic about their future careers.  There is a memorial room with all of the graduates who have died in service over the past 50 years.  Many over the past 10 years.  We deeply hope this is not a fate that awaits any of them.

Very busy day today. Started first thing this AM with a briefing from representatives of TZEVET. This is an organization of Israeli veterans that was started at the end of the Fifties as Israeli Defense Forces began to retire and realized they shared a common military and professional background and faced similar challenges and difficulties in the transition to civilian life. The aims of TZEVET association is to locating places of employment for veterans, promote mutual assistance programs and to aid needy members, to encourage and develop voluntary, social, and cultural activities, and to maintain the members' links with security affairs in general.  Retired General Baruch Levy, Chairman of Tzevet gave an overview of their programs, especially for the over 50,000 wounded veterans in Israel.  One of the issues Israel has right now is that it is starting to relize the scope of the problem of having so many veterans of their wars since 1948 aging and needing many services and resources.  We will look o share some of our info with them over the coming months.

Next we heard from Lt. Col. Reuven Ben-Shalom who is the US Military liasion for the IDF with a briefing on Israeli security issues at the present and how they are responding to threats.  The bottom line is that this country is on a constant war footing on all borders, as well as the many domestic issues they are having with the West Bank and Gaza.  Col Ben Shalom was born in California but has deep roots in Malden MA as well.  I presented both of these fine gentlemen with Massachusetts flags that flew over the State House. 

We then went to tour the old Jaffa Railroad Station which was built by the turks when the area was under their control during WWI.  It is now a tourist spot with shops and cafes.

We later traveled to Independence Hall.  Originally the Dizengoff House, it is best known as the site of the signing of Israel's Declaration of Independence. It is located on the historic Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv.  It stands on the site where sixty-six families gathered on April 11, 1909 to conduct a lottery for plots of land in a new Jewish neighborhood, to be known as Ahuzat Bayit. Meir and Zina Dizengoff acquired plot number 43, on which they built their home. Meir Dizengoff served as the head of the new neighborhood council. In 1910, at a general meeting, the residents of Ahuzat Bayit, inspired by Theodor Herzl's book Altneuland (English: Old-New Land), unanimously decided to rename their neighborhood Tel Aviv. As the neighborhood grew and became a city, Dizengoff became the first mayor of the city of Tel Aviv.  After his death, it was converted to an art musuem and it was here that the first Israeli Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, made the proclamation of Israeli independence in 1948.

From here we went to a full briefing and walk through of the Israel The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center which is part of the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center (IICC) , an NGO dedicated to the memory of the fallen of the Israeli Intelligence Community.  This group works to focus on issues concerning intelligence and terrorism. Via its website and e-mail bulletins it reports on various issues and can be located at www.intelligence.org.il//  There is also a memorial here to all those Mossad and other Israeli intelligence agents who were killed in the line of duty.  From an intelligence perspective, even the little we were cleared to see and hear proves that these guys are very good when it comes to intelligence and counterterrorism.  Also saw a copy of a Torah that was smuggled from Syria that is over 150 years old.

One of over 50 old Torah's smuggled out of Syria

We start tomorrow at 7:30  am with a briefing by the US military attache from our Embassy. 

Great day today.  Although our meeting with the military attache at the US Embassy was cancelled due to the Presidents Day Holiday, we made the best of it by visiting the Ancient city of Jaffa.  Saw the remains of a 13th century Egyptian Fort and the Church of St. Peter where Peter is said to have been visited by an Angel. 

Ancient Egyptian ruins

St. Peter's Church in Jaffa

Inside St. Peter's

Jaffa is mentioned four times in the Hebrew Bible, as one of the cities given to the Hebrew Tribe of Dan , as port-of-entry for the cedars of Lebanon for Solomon's Temple, as the place whence the prophet Jonah embarked for Tarshish and as port-of-entry for the cedars of Lebanon for the Second Temple of Jerusalem After the Canaanite and Philistean domination, King David and his son King Solomon conquered Jaffa and used its port to bring the cedars used in the construction of the First Temple from Tyre. The city remained often in Jewish hands even after the split of the Kingdom of Israel.



Mineret from Mosque in Jaffa



After a period of Babylonian occupation, under Persian rule, Jaffa was governed by Phoenicians from Tyre. Then it knew the presence of Alexander the Great's troops and later became a Seleucid Hellenized port until it was taken over by the Maccabean rebels and the refounded Jewish kingdom. During the Roman repression of the Jewish Revolt, Jaffa was captured and burned by Cestius Gallus.  Jaffa was incorporated with Tel Aviv in 1950 creating the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo.



Had an excellent lunch here



We then visited the Rabin Center which is dedicated to educating people about the extraordinary life of Yitzhak Rabin, former Prime Minister who was killed by an assassin as well as Israeli society in general.  We were blessed not only with a great tour guide but had a special meeting with Dahlia Rabin, Yitzhak Rabin's Daughter.  She spoke on the life of her dad and the current state of Israeli social services.  Fascinating.

Dahlia Rabin

Me and our museum guide

Landed in Tel Aviv.  Too dark out to see anything but had a great dinner with some delicous chopped salad and stuffed grape leaves.  Check out these photos with Col. Barry Lischinsky, Marine Corps Captain Frank Tyson (ret), JWV National Commander Allen Falk at Newark and then me at landing.

Landed iN Tel Aviv. 

Tomorrow I leave with the Jewish War Veterans of America on their annual Allied Mission to Israel. 

I am looking forward to exploring and meeting many fellow veterans and family members from the Israeli Defense Forces and TZEVET (the organization of IDF veterans.)  I will also be visiting many interesting sights and hopefully meeting many new friends.  My intention is to post here daily with notes and photos from that day's adventures and meetings.  Enjoy!