5 Places to Visit in Israel (Once It’s Safe To Go Back): Part One
1. Jerusalem
Spend at least one Friday there, to experience the controlled frenzy as this holiest city in Judaism shuts down for Shabbat, starting around noon.
(Being a gentile, I never find these “days of rest” very restful.)
Book the sabbath dinner at your hotel well in advance. Only one elevator may be in service, and will stop at every floor.
In other words, think ahead about your food, transportation, and other necessities for the next 24 hours.
At the Kotel (live web cam!), modest dress is not just a suggestion. No-nonsense ladies shove raggedy shawls — NOT tallitot (that would be illegal) — and/or long, ugly aprons at visiting females showing too much cleavage or leg (or even arm).
I hate it, but I wear a long “wife-of-the-cult-leader” skirt and carry a pashmina at all times in Jerusalem anyway, and keep a kippah in my pack for my husband. When you travel with Jewish groups, as I do, spontaneous multiple visits to the Kotel are pretty much to be expected; why look like a brainless tourist with a smelly used cloth around your shoulders?
(And yes, the dress code for men is much more relaxed. Sorry.)
At the Wall, you’ll likely see bar mitzvah and wedding parties from all over the world, singing local schoolchildren, maybe newly sworn-in Israeli soldiers — it’s a Jewish Fellini movie, but reverent.
In contrast, the Christian sites in Jerusalem (and in the entire country — I’m looking at you, “Spaceship Jesus”) are mostly depressing, shabby, and grim. Too much… beige. Capernaum in particular made me think of that WW2 parody song, “How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down On the Farm, After They’ve Seen the Farm?” What can I say? I’m Catholic. I need some bling.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre alone is enough to turn anyone atheist, and not just for aesthetic reasons. For centuries, the Arab family who lives across the way have been the keepers of the keys to the Church, because the warring Christian factions who run different bits of the building can’t agree on which of them should get to keep it.
And then there’s the stupid ladder thing.
If a shekel is $0.25 we would have to divide, not multiply, everything by 4 to get our financial bearings. That is, if something is 4 shekels, it’s one dollar.
D
The title should read…
5 Place to visit in Israel, before it is destroyed.
You’re right David thanks! What can I say? I’m a girl!
Girls like math, too!
Some do.
Terrific article, Kathy! You’ve found the best videos of Israel.
(Your fashion tips for Jerusalem were right on, btw)
Here’s the link to a 10 part series ‘Our Trip To Israel 2012′
http://sharpe-stick.blogspot.ca/
Springtime in Israel is Beautiful!
This blogger can attest to Israel’s beauty and its out-sized spirituality, as one steps back into another time and space. At least in Jerusalem, and if one is outside the bubble of Tel Aviv, this is truly the case.
And it is not for nothing that our haters want to wrest our thousands yr old homeland from us, but they will not succeed!! And it was also the case, this blogger had a more than comfortable life in the US, with little not within her reach.
But the land of milk and honey is incontestably more fulfilling and this is the truth.
But it is also the case that one can be the staunchest American patriot and a nationalist Zionist too – http://adinakutnicki.com/about/ as evidenced within a whole body of work.
BTW – Israel’s leaders leave a lot to be desired, they are every bit as inept as those in Washington. However, the majority Zionist public, including its Christian minority, are solid citizens. And this makes up for the failure in leadership.
G- d save America & Israel from their mischief making leaders!
Beautiful and inspiring video. I’m a girl and I would multiply a shekel by 4 to figure it out. No wonder my husband and I never agree on what something costs!
Kathy, you indicated on your blog that your first trip to Israel was sponsored. Was this one?
Thanks so much. What do locals think of this ‘iron dome’ thingy? I might go to Israel now.
Great article, Kathy. In Jerusalem, I have a few favourite places. I love the shuk, the Mahane Yehuda market. The spices there are amazing and so are the bakeries-the gooey rugalach from Marzipan is the best. Also, on Aggripas street, locals love the “Steykiyat Chatzot”, it’s a dive of a little restaurant, with a window on Agrippas and they have amazing grilled meats (“meorav Yerushalmi”) and grilled chicken breast in a pita with a few fries stuff in topped with a pickle. Actually all the food in Israel is amazing. In Jerusalem I would also recommend Pinati for Mizrachi/Sephardi food or Marvat Haksamim. A hidden gem downtown is Anna Ticho house (“Beit Anna Ticho”) and it’s this beautiful Arab house with a garden restaurant. Of course there are lots of museums and tours, but two of my favourites for Jerusalem are the ramparts tour of the Old City and the underground tour as well. Very cool stuff. And one of my favourite places in the whole country is a national park called Gan Hashlosha (or in Hebrew the “Sachneh”) in the Jordan Valley-natural pools of fresh water, always 26C in the middle of the Valley, extraordinary-really like the Garden of Eden must have been.
Smoking on the beach? Barbarians!
May I presume long pants will work just as well as a long skirt for the ladies? I’m used to carrying a pashmina around; although one’s head can go uncovered most places, bare arms are often frowned upon at religious sites.
Kathy has described a tourist’s view of places. The best way to see Israel from my perspective is to pick out an outdoor restaurant and watch Israeli life walk by.
I thin you’re being too hard on the Orthodox control at the Western wall. There are rules for a reason, and they are not that unreasonable. Its not just a tourist attraction, its a place of worship, the last part of the Second Temple that is still left, and you should respect their religious views there the same way you want yours respected. Besides their fellow Orthodox Jews in America are the one reason five areas in New York City went over 80% for Romney this election. Just have some respect for the Haredi Orthodox when in certain areas and you’ll be fine, 99.999% don’t care as long as you show some respect for their beliefs, the .0001% are nutbags that seem to make the medi reports everytime they do something. Visit their neighborhoods, it is a wholly different experience and a very interesting one. Some of Jerusalems gems like the 13th Century Nachmanides Synagogue is there as well as the Neve Women College in Har Nof whose great patron (who’s honored on plaques there) is Hawaii Senator Daniel Inouye. Its also the highest point in Jerusalem (also non faculty and staff males are not allowed on campus), and a few blocks away is a gas station that sells the best shwarma in Israel at their store, you will never have a better shwarma. Another great place for Americans is the Telshe Stone neighborhood. It was originally for Jews from Ohio but now is jews from the USA, UK, South Africa and Australia. Everyone there speaks english and they have all the American Products. Also go visit the IAF museum it is an amazing place that will help you understand the security situation they have. Also visit Mount Hermon and the Gamla nature reserve and the digs at Gamla. The Atlit detainee camp is very informative of the Jews during the Mandate days. The ruins of the second century synagogue of Kfar Bar’am. Also Nahal Betzet Rainbow Caves, Rosh HaNikra grottoes,Yotvata Wildlife Preserve. The Bahá’í World Centre, Shrine of the Book and Ein Avdat where they have beautiful archeological site, canyons and springs. Also visit the Druze Arab cities. Many of them are Arab Zionists who serve in the IDF, and you should see the independence day parade there, so many Israeli flags and celebration. The Druze place to visit is Daliyat al-Karmel, probably the most zionistic place in Israel and where Likud’s most zionist MK Ayyob Kara is from.
You need at least 30 visits to see all the cool stuff. Its endless what is there
There is a myth hanging over all discussion of the Palestinian problem: the myth that this land was “Arab” land taken from its native inhabitants by invading Jews. Whatever may be the correct solution to the problems of the Middle East, let’s get a few things straight:
* As a strictly legal matter, the Jews didn’t take Palestine from the Arabs; they took it from the British, who exercised sovereign authority in Palestine under a League of Nations mandate for thirty years prior to Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948. And the British don’t want it back.
* If you consider the British illegitimate usurpers, fine. In that case, this territory is not Arab land but Turkish land, a province of the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years until the British wrested it from them during the Great War in 1917. And the Turks don’t want it back.
* If you look back earlier in history than the Ottoman Turks, who took over Palestine over in 1517, you find it under the sovereignty of the yet another empire not indigenous to Palestine: the Mamluks, who were Turkish and Circassian slave-soldiers headquartered in Egypt. And the Mamluks don’t even exist any more, so they can’t want it back.
So, going back 800 years, there’s no particularly clear chain of title that makes Israel’s title to the land inferior to that of any of the previous owners. Who were, continuing backward:
* The Mamluks, already mentioned, who in 1250 took Palestine over from:
* The Ayyubi dynasty, the descendants of Saladin, the Kurdish Muslim leader who in 1187 took Jerusalem and most of Palestine from:
* The European Christian Crusaders, who in 1099 conquered Palestine from:
* The Seljuk Turks, who ruled Palestine in the name of:
* The Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad, which in 750 took over the sovereignty of the entire Near East from:
* The Umayyad Caliphate of Damascus, which in 661 inherited control of the Islamic lands from:
* The Arabs of Arabia, who in the first flush of Islamic expansion conquered Palestine in 638 from:
* The Byzantines, who (nice people—perhaps it should go to them?) didn’t conquer the Levant, but, upon the division of the Roman Empire in 395, inherited Palestine from:
* The Romans, who in 63 B.C. took it over from:
* The last Jewish kingdom, which during the Maccabean rebellion from 168 to 140 B.C. won control of the land from:
* The Hellenistic Greeks, who under Alexander the Great in 333 B.C. conquered the Near East from:
* The Persian empire, which under Cyrus the Great in 639 B.C. freed Jerusalem and Judah from:
* The Babylonian empire, which under Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C. took Jerusalem and Judah from:
* The Jews, meaning the people of the Kingdom of Judah, who, in their earlier incarnation as the Israelites, seized the land in the 12th and 13th centuries B.C. from:
* The Canaanites, who had inhabited the land for thousands of years before they were dispossessed by the Israelites.
As the foregoing suggests, any Arab claim to sovereignty based on inherited historical control will not stand up. Arabs are not native to Palestine, but are native to Arabia, which is called Arab-ia for the breathtakingly simple reason that it is the historic home of the Arabs. The territories comprising all other “Arab” states outside the Arabian peninsula—including Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria, as well as the entity now formally under the Palestinian Authority—were originally non-Arab nations that were conquered by the Muslim Arabs when they spread out from the Arabian peninsula in the first great wave of jihad in the 7th century, defeating, mass-murdering, enslaving, dispossessing, converting, or reducing to the lowly status of dhimmitude millions of Christians and Jews and destroying their ancient and flourishing civilizations. Prior to being Christian, of course, these lands had even more ancient histories. Pharaonic Egypt, for example, was not an Arab country through its 3,000 year history. The recent assertion by the Palestinian Arabs that they are descended from the ancient Canaanites whom the ancient Hebrews displaced is absurd in light of the archeological evidence.
There is no record of the Canaanites surviving their destruction in ancient times. History records literally hundreds of ancient peoples that no longer exist. The Arab claim to be descended from Canaanites is an invention that came after the 1964 founding of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the same crew who today deny that there was ever a Jewish temple in Jerusalem. Prior to 1964 there was no “Palestinian” people and no “Palestinian” claim to Palestine; the Arab nations who sought to overrun and destroy Israel in 1948 planned to divide up the territory amongst themselves. Let us also remember that prior to the founding of the state of Israel in 1948, the name “Palestinian” referred to the Jews of Palestine.
The only nations that have perfect continuity between their earliest known human inhabitants and their populations of the present day are Iceland, parts of China, and a few Pacific islands. The Chinese case is complicated by the fact that the great antiquity of Chinese civilization has largely erased the traces of whatever societies preceded it, making it difficult to reconstruct to what extent the expanding proto-Chinese displaced (or absorbed) the prehistoric peoples of that region. History is very sketchy in regard to the genealogies of ancient peoples. The upshot is that “aboriginalism”—the proposition that the closest descendants of the original inhabitants of a territory are the rightful owners—is not tenable in the real world. It is not clear that it would be a desirable idea even if it were tenable. Would human civilization really be better off if there had been no China, no Japan, no Greece, no Rome, no France, no England, no Ireland, no United States?
Back to the Arabs: I have no problem recognizing the legitimacy of the Arabs’ tenure in Palestine when they had it, from 638 to 1099, a period of 461 years out of a history lasting 5,000 years. They took Palestine by military conquest, and they lost it by conquest, to the Christian Crusaders in 1099. Of course, military occupation by itself does not determine which party rightly has sovereignty in a given territory. Can it not be said that the Arabs have sovereign rights, if not to all of Israel, then at least to the West Bank, by virtue of their majority residency in that region from the early Middle Ages to the present?
To answer that question, let’s look again at the historical record. Prior to 1947, as we’ve discussed, Palestine was administered by the British under the Palestine Mandate, the ultimate purpose of which, according to the Balfour Declaration, was the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine. In 1924 the British divided the Palestine Mandate into an Arabs-only territory east of the Jordan, which became the Kingdom of Trans-Jordan, and a greatly reduced Palestine Mandate territory west of the Jordan, which was inhabited by both Arabs and Jews. Given the fact that the Jews and Arabs were unable to coexist in one state, there had to be two states. At the same time, there were no natural borders separating the two peoples, in the way that, for example, the Brenner Pass has historically marked the division between Latin and Germanic Europe. Since the Jewish population was concentrated near the coast, the Jewish state had to start at the coast and go some distance inland. Exactly where it should have stopped, and where the Arab state should have begun, was a practical question that could have been settled in any number of peaceful ways, almost all of which the Jews would have accepted.
The Jews’ willingness to compromise on territory was demonstrated not only by their acquiescence in the UN’s 1947 partition plan, which gave them a state with squiggly, indefensible borders, but even by their earlier acceptance of the 1937 Peel Commission partition plan, which gave them nothing more than a part of the Galilee and a tiny strip along the coast. Yet the Arab nations, refusing to accept any Jewish sovereignty in Palestine even if it was the size of a postage stamp, unanimously rejected the 1937 Peel plan, and nine years later they violently rejected the UN’s partition plan as well. When the Arabs resorted to arms in order to wipe out the Jews and destroy the Jewish state, they accepted the verdict of arms. They lost that verdict in 1948, and they lost it again in 1967, when Jordan, which had annexed the West Bank in 1948 (without any objections from Palestinian Arabs that their sovereign nationhood was being violated), attacked Israel from the West Bank during the Six Day War despite Israel’s urgent pleas that it stay out of the conflict. Israel in self-defense then captured the West Bank. The Arabs thus have no grounds to complain either about Israel’s existence (achieved in ’48) or about its expanded sovereignty from the river to the sea (achieved in ’67).
The Arabs have roiled the world for decades with their furious protest that their land has been “stolen” from them. One might take seriously such a statement if it came from a pacifist people such as the Tibetans, who had quietly inhabited their land for ages before it was seized by the Communist Chinese in 1950. The claim is laughable coming from the Arabs, who in the early Middle Ages conquered and reduced to slavery and penury ancient peoples and civilizations stretching from the borders of Persia to the Atlantic; who in 1947 rejected an Arab state in Palestine alongside a Jewish state and sought to obliterate the nascent Jewish state; who never called for a distinct Palestinian Arab state until the creation of the terrorist PLO in 1964—sixteen years after the founding of the state of Israel; and who to this moment continue to seek Israel’s destruction, an object that would be enormously advanced by the creation of the Arab state they demand. The Arab claim to sovereign rights west of the Jordan is only humored today because of a fatal combination of world need for Arab oil, leftist Political Correctness that has cast the Israelis as “oppressors,” and, of course, good old Jew-hatred.
Pragmatist, you have given a excellent summary of the bogus claims of the Arabs who, now call themselves “Palestinians,” to Israel. Thanks for taking the time to lay it all out so clearly.
Oops! I’d like to restate this more coherently: Pragmatist, you have given an excellent summary of the bogus claims to Israel of the Arabs who now call themselves “Palestinians.” Thanks for taking the time to lay it all out so clearly.
APPLAUSE!
Well your itinerary is quite conventional.Let me had a few spots I cherish : THe Golan – the Upper Galil ( Har Meron – Mearat Ha keshet -Hatsor haGalilit -Rosh Pina ) – Akko – and a few kibbutz like Ayelet HaShakhar HaGosherim,or Neve Yam moshav on the seashore.
Israel is a fun and wonderful place to live 100% of the time.
Ok, I need to go back there for the last three places: Masada, the Dead sea and Eilat.
Also, I think it’s always safe to go there, as long as you avoid the conflictive borders. Unless there is an open total war (not like now, not like Cast Lead, I mean like the Yom Kippur one), I think I would still go there.
I had no trouble going there on Sunday. Quite interesting from a merely historical perspective, but even more compelling is the sense of awe from being in THAT PLACE. Looking across the (small) canyon and realizing…. THAT??? THAT is the Mount of Olives?
It’s impossible to describe.
Even though the majority of Christian “holy sites” are of dubious authenticity (to put it mildly), there is no question about the city being the real deal. The ACTUAL PLACE. What a sense of wonder when we stopped for lunch at a local restaurant, ate, and then milled around outside while waiting for the last few to be finished, then, looking up, seeing “Via Dolorosa” embossed on a limestone wall. Wow.
There’s a great free walking tour available from Sandeman’s. Highly recommended for those on a budget, OR as an initial “get acquainted” tour so you can better decide how to allocate your time/money on a paid tour. Do tip the guide! Ours was a pretty Russian Jewish girl, an avid history buff, and VERY knowledgeable.
Don’t miss the free walk around the battlements of the Old City.
Stand at the border of Israel and Jordan. Both countries were created in 1948.
Look over at Israel. You will see the once barren desert is now the resort city of Eilat.
Hotels, beautiful beach, restaurants, yachts, gorgeous skyline at night.
Look over at Jordan. You will see..well, you will see a checkpoint, the still barren desert and a little more inroad, you will see a slaughter factory.
Night and day folks. Night and day.
It IS safe to go back. There may be some locations where I’d be concerned, but I don’t go to Detroit or Flint either. I have visited Jerusalem every year for the last ten years this is no exception. Can’t say that for Detroit.