Thursday , November 15, 2012

Shalom from Israel!!

The Israeli army and Hamas radicals in Gaza continue to exchange rocket fire and the situation. appears to be getting more intense in t hat southern  region of the country . The skirmishes and rocket  exchanges along the northern border with Syria along the Golan  Heights seems a to have quieted somewhat in the last few days.

A couple of days ago, we had an event across the street from the Hotel in a small corner public park  involving a suspicious  unattended  package left on a park bench. I was sitting  in the lobby of the Hotel when the police and hotel management came in and asked me and all the others that were sitting along the windows facing the street to move away from the windows into the center of the lobby.  After a few moments of the police bomb squad looking at the package, they decided to detonate a  small device and blow it up.
Turned out to be nothing but a little excitement!!  Last night and again tonight there have been what appear to be Pro-Israeli demonstrations supporting the Israeli Army efforts to retaliate against  the Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza. Lots of music, chanting, waving Israeli flags, horn honking, sign waving---and the police show up again. Observing to make sure things didn't get out of hand. The police stayed until the demonstrations broke up on their own.

Yesterday we visited the Temple Mount area and the site of the first 2 Jewish temples, a revered site by Jews and Christians alike. The site is now occupied by a Moslem shrine, which is an extremely sensitive subject with the Jewish community. The Jews of course, intend to reclaim the Temple Mount some day and build the 3rd Jewish temple.

Alan, Alona,and Les at the Temple Mount

Today we went to the Mount of Olives, walking the path that Jesus took from nearby Bethany, to the
Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus was arrested by Roman legions and taken to Pontius Pilate for trial on the charge of blasphemy. We visited the site where Jesus was most likely held captive in a dungeon and walked up the original steps that Jesus walked on  when he was brought before Pontius Pilate.  Our final stop today was one of the most likely locations of Jesus' crucifications, and the most likely tomb in which Jesus was placed after his death.

Though they cannot be 100 % certain these were the exact sites ( as other churches claim different locations), the likely hood is high that these in fact are the correct sites based on descriptions in the Bible that describe the site and surrounding landmarks.    It was very interesting.

Taken so many pictures, it's rediculous!  Tomorrow is a free day and we plan on going back to the "Old City" and spend the day exploring it without being rushed.  
Saturday we will be leaving Jerusalem and crossing over into Jordan for a two day visit including the ancient city of Pertra, and  Amman, the capital city of Jordan.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012.

Well, today we finally got some sunny weather as we have been subject to lots of rain over the last few days. It was sunny and warm all day.

We left the hotel about 8:00 am after breakfast heading south out of  Jerusalem toward the desert areas , past the ancient famous biblical city of Jericho, though we did not have a planned stop there.

Our first destination was Quorom, on the Dead Sea to the location of the caves tin which the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the late 1940's and 1950's. These famous scrolls eventually over time revealed ally books of the Bible except one , which  I believe was the Book of Ruth.

The inhabitants of this community were a breakaway sect of ultra Orthodox Jews who were unhappy with the direction and behavior of the majority of the orthodox Jewish community. It is this group that is believed to have hidden these ancient scrolls in the caves to protect them from the Romans .

Later that day we visited the ancient  fortress of Masada, built high over the desert in southern Israel on a large column of stone that rises 1300 feet above the desert floor.  This fortress was built by King Herrod in the years between 33 and 4 B.C. to protect himself in case of a revolt. 

This site was the last stand of a remnant of Jews fighting the Roman oppression around 73 AD.

This fortress is 1300 ft high and virtually impregnable, so much so,  that this group of 967 men, women, and children were able to hold off the large Roman legions sent out from Rome to destroy them,  for over 3 years.   The ruins of the  fortress, and the personal palaces and opulence of King Harrod and the engineering feat to construct this fortress was truly amazing

Standing in the corner of King Harrod's opulent bedroom on Masada, overlooking the Dead Sea,  with the Moab  Mountains of Jordan in the background.

The end of the day we went to the shores of the Dead Sea and were able to experience the effect of this salt water bodies composition of 33% salt which enabled swimmers to float without effort. It was  such a weird effect to be able to lie on you back and float without effort- the real effort was to try and turn over, swim on your stomach, or to stand.  It was not easy to do. The Dead Sea is 50 miles long x 10 miles wide. It is 210 ft deep at the deepest point and is1310 ft below sea level and has the distinction of being the lowest place on Earth.

It was a fun day and we returned to the hotel about 5 pm.  Tomorrow we are scheduled to visit the Temple Mount, on which the current  Moslem mosque sits , but was also the site of both the 1st and 2nd Jewish temples so this is a very Holy Site to both religions.  The Jews say it is Biblical destiny that they will build the 3rd Jewish Temple on this site. How and when will be problematic since it would involve the Moslem mosque be removed first  -  which will be interesting !!

Shalom from Israel!

Greetings from Jerusalem

Family and friends,
 We apologize for a lack of activity on our blog but we have been so busy  and the hotels we stayed for the first few days of our trip did not have WiFi available.

We are now in Jerusalem but will do a quick recap of our first couple of days tonight and then next day to get caught up

We arrived in TelAviv on Thursday Nov 8th, after 20+ hours of flying that took us from Portland,
Oregon, to Washington D.C., the to Zurich, Switzerland and our final leg to TelAviv, Israel.

We spent the night in TelAviv and began our road journey the next morning up the coast of Northern
Israel along the Mediterranean Sea.  Stops along the  way included the ancient city of  Cesserea, built by Herrod the Great between 22 B.C. and 13 B.C.  It was amazing to see the ancient remains of this city, including, the theatre, coliseum , an Herrod's opulent palace remains.

We traveled on to the north to Megido in the Jezreel Valley known in the Bible as the Valley of Armageddon, the location of the final battle between God and  Satan in end times according to the Book of Revelations. It is obvious  that this impressive, enormous valley is a natural battlefield and has seen many battles over the centuries.

We next went to our  destination for the first day of travel, the city of Tiberius, located on the shores of  the Sea of Gallilee.
Having trouble importing pictures but will work that out next time.
As you may have heard on the news,  the Syrians fired rockets into the Golan Heights on Sunday afternoon for  the first time since 1973, and ironically, we were on the Golan Heights, that overlook the Sea of Galilee, less than 24 hours before that attack, but our location was about 24 miles from where  the rockets struck an Israeli military post. The Israel Defense Forces launched a retaliatory rocket response against the Syrians from the Golan Heights after they were attacked.  Great timing , don't you think?
We send  our love to you all
Les, Alan, and Alona

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