Israel’s News Blog Magazine: Daily Stories Video and Photos

When you’re driving to and from Jerusalem, in a field in the Latrun area there is a huge flag recently laid out for the upcoming 60 Independence Day Celebrations

The flag was layed out by 40 volunteers and members of the Parks and Nature Department. its 100 meters by 200 meters and weighs 5.2 ton.

Check out the white bus in the corner to get an idea as to the size of the flag…
Pretty damn big !!!

The week long Passover holiday is an excellent opportunity to do some off the track touring in many parts of Israel. The Carmel mountain region is an area where many unusual places can be visited in the time space of only a few hours.

Taking advantage of excellent spring weather, my wife and I, along with another couple, began our tour by driving though the pastoral region on the eastern side of the Carmel range, which contains a number of forests, including a large one called Yaarot Menashe. Continuing north, we drove to a region containing several Druze villages and arrived at the quaint village of Julis, located east of Akko (Acre).

Julis is known as the long time place of residence of the Israeli Druze community’s spiritual leader, Sheikh Amin Tarif, whose tomb is located there. Shiek Tarif, who lived to the ripe old age of 95, was well known among Israeli political leaders, many of whom attended his funeral in 1993.

Asking where the tomb was located, a young Druze man took us there, even though it was out of his way. Arriving at the tomb, which one must normally coordinate permission to visit in advance, we were amazed that one can just walk in to the shrine, which is composed of two rooms, one containing the Sheik’s grave, and the other a shrine containing scores of photos of the Sheik with various Israeli notables, including several prime ministers. There were also a number of awards given to the Sheik by the Israeli Defense Forces, where Druze soldiers have served with honor since the creation of the state. The contribution that this minority population of 120,000 has made to Israel is evident; especially considering how the Druze community has been treated of successive Israeli governments over the years.

We also visited a very special private garden, known as Gan Yunis which turned out to be a real pleasure to see. The garden is owned and managed by one family who allow visitors to wander through it if arranged in advance. The garden contains several pools of water with small waterfalls flowing into them. There is also an abundance of native trees, plants and flowers as well as several varieties of birds in large aviaries. Part of the garden (more like a park) contains a small section of railroad track which is said to part of the original Turkish rail line that ran from Damascus and Lebanon through Palestine to Egypt. The owner of the garden is planning to open a restaurant there; and already many Druze weddings are held in this beautiful retreat.

After our visit to Julis, we drove to Akko to visit the old city, which was alive with visitors, from a number of countries, as well as locals who were shopping in the city’s “Kasbah” market. Akko is one of Israel’s oldest cities, whose origins go back more than 4,000 years. Our first site visited was a large Ottoman “Khan” hostel which originally hosted pilgrims and other travelers who arrived at Akko en rout to other locations in the Holy Land. In the center of the Kahn’s large court yard is the 400 year old Ahmad Basha El Jazzar Mosque which is open for prayer to local and visiting Muslims.

We next toured several of Old City’s many winding streets and arrived at one of the city’s largest churches the St. George Greek Orthodox Church, which was closed, even though it was Orthodox Palm Sunday. Not far from St. George’s Church is the only synagogue in Akko’s Old City, the Ramhal Synagogue. It was also closed when we arrived, but prayer hours are noted on a placard at it’s entrance. When we asked a middle-aged Arab women, who watches over the place, who actually prays there, she said in Hebrew “anashim me hutz le-Aretz (people from abroad)”.

The city’s Kasbah market is reminiscent of the Suk in Jerusalem’s Old City, although a bit smaller. Many local Arabs still shop there though, preferring its dark and crowded passageways to modern shopping malls located in the newer, Jewish section of Akko. Many Arabs still live in the Old City, and their presence there adds an oriental flavor to the city.

The city’s Crusader past is still evident, and two of the most popular Crusader sites there are the subterranean Knights of Hospitallers halls have been partially restored. Following the defeat of the Crusader forces at Hittin (near Tiberas) by Salah a’Din in July, 1187, Akko became the last major Crusader stronghold in the Holy Land, until finally being evicted 150 years later. In addition the Knight’s Halls, we also saw the subterranean tunnel built by the Templars during the 12th Century. The tunnel begins under what was once the Templar’s fortress, which was destroyed by the Ottomans for stones to be used in the city walls, and runs to the sea. It was believed to have been used as an escape route by the Templars in the event of being overrun by Moslem invaders. The tunnel is open for visitors for the price of 7 Shekels and special pumps prevent sea water from flooding the passageway, which in places is so low that we had to crouch to pass through. The Templar fortress is said to have been the strongest in Akko and was the last to fall to the “Saracens”. The Old City still has much of its original fortress walls, which held off the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte for several months, and ended his dreams of “conquering the world” in the early 1800’s. Visitors can walk on top some of these walls, parts of which are up to 3 meters thick. The Port of Akko still contains a number of fishing boats whose owners try to eke our a living by fishing despite a drastic decline in marine life due to increasing pollution form nearby Haifa and the ecologically dead Kishon River.

We also visited the Kahn al-Omadan which though vacant still retains its impressive columns and gives visitors an idea of the commercial importance of the city during the Ottoman Period. Although we did not visit the large (former) Turkish bathhouse of Haman al Basha, the guard at the entrance explained the bathhouse’s importance as a meeting place for Akko residents who would spend many hours in the spa’s warm waters as well as undergoing relaxing, genuine Turkish massages.

Dining out in the Old City is a bit of a problem during Pesach, unless one is acceptable to being served both matzos and pitas at the same time.

Akko and surrounding areas, including sights of Haifa are definitely worth visiting during week long festivals like Pesach and Sukkot.

I never expected to see what I saw when exiting the Tel Aviv Central train station Wednesday afternoon. Arriving at Arlozorov Street to catch a bus west, I suddenly saw a large, duck-like bird hopping on a grassy area near the street. I was so taken back by the sight of such an unusual looking fowl being in a place where normally only pigeons and sparrows are, that I took a few moments to watch it. The duck-like creature was actually larger than a wild duck, which I presumed it was. Another person took a photo of it with his cell phone, which I could not, since mine doesn’t have a suitable camera. I soon found out why the “duck” was hopping – it didn’t have a left foot; only a stump that looked like it was hatched that way. I tried to approach it to throw it some of a bagel I had with me, but the bird didn’t seem to know that this was food. It must have been truly a wild creature that must have strayed off course in the process of migration as we are now in the waterfowl migration season.

The bird must have been exhausted, and it tried to take off and fly. After a few tries, one of which caused it to crash land almost in front of a departing bus, it finally did get airborne and it circled the area and flew to a large park across the street, where I presume it again landed.

Upon returning home later that night, I looked it up from my recollection of its appearance and was surprised when it turned out to be known as an Egyptian Goose, also known in Hebrew as an “Avaz Sudani” (Sudanese goose). It must have flown all the way from its usual winter home, somewhere in Africa, and was going north in the spring migration. How or why it chose to land in the middle of Tel Aviv is anybody’s guess, and its decision to land where it did must have been the result of sheer exhaustion.

I have included a picture of what it looks like in case someone else reading this blog may have seen it too. I can only hope that maybe it was seen by enough people to be reported to the Nature Parks Authority and maybe was caught and taken to Safari Park to be cared for until it can continue it journey. Or maybe it might like its new home here and decide to stay.

In any case, I’m sure you’ll agree that this was something unusual and out of the ordinary for a mid-week afternoon in Tel Aviv.

No sooner had the fine china been put away for German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. Presidential candidate John McCain at Jerusalem hotels like the Kind David at Jerusalem hotels like the King David, when U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney came to town. Cheney, also back from a quick trip to beleaguered Iraq (where U.S. forces have just suffered their 4,000th war casualty) stopped off in Israel to visit both with Israeli and Palestinian officials.

Not exactly “Mr. Personality”, Cheney reiterated previous remarks by both McCain and Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice (who was also here recently) in respect to American support of a two state solution and a full partnership with Israel. Cheney also pulled no punches when he mentioned that Iran was not only a danger to Israel but to America and the non-Islamic world at large. This also was not anything new as both Senator McCain and Sec. Rice had made similar remarks.

In respect to relations between Israel and the Palestinians, Cheney said that in order for peace to be achieved, “some painful concessions need to be made”. Now, here is the kicker question in this remark: painful for whom? Israel, the Palestinians (the West Bank Palestinians, that is ) or for those nasty people called Hamas who nobody wants to deal with, except people like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hassan Nasrallah, that is. And we might as well throw in people like Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda’s No. 2, and even more nasty than Osama bin Laden, so they say. Cheney’s visit with Palestinian President and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas was also a bit lackluster, but what could one expect, since any rational person knows who the most powerful Palestinian leader really is.

Cheney has been behind much of America’s five plus year Iraq experience that is being “commemorated” today with the announcement of the 4000th slain U.S. combat soldier. Not as bad as Vietnam, which had at least 40,000 dead GI’s after the same 5 year period. But these new war dead are bad enough for a much scaled down professional military that requires it’s thinly spread-out troop contingents to spend at lest two duty tours in either Iraq or Afghanistan – take their choice.

As for Cheney’s short trip here, it will most likely be his last to the region, although his boss, President George W. Bush plans to be back in Israel to help celebrate the upcoming 60th Independence celebration. Busch better not plan to be here at the same time that former Beatles greats Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr plan to be here too, as they will surely upstage him.

Oh what the heck. The fact that he’s still alive with half a heart left feebly beating is a triumph in itself! Dick Cheney doesn’t need to worry about such things as upstaging the Beatles, since he won’t be attending the party.

U.S. President George Bush appeared to have been moved to tears during his visit Friday morning at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. As he viewed many of the exhibits showing scenes from Auschwitz and other death camps where many of approximately 6 million Jews perished during WWII, Bush, who was accompanied by Israeli notables such as Prime Minister Olmert, President Shimon Peres, former Justice Minister Yosef (Tommy) Lapid (himself a Holocaust survivor) and Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev, was said to have shed tears at least twice.

As he viewed the exhibits, the President appeared to be so moved that he was quoted from Shalev as saying “we should have bombed it (Auschwitz) ” in reference to the map of the camp compound that was supposed to have been the one that then President Franklin D. Roosevelt was shown when he decided not to have U.S. Air Corps bombers attack during bombing raids in the later months of WWII.

Bush was said to have made this statement following his placing a wreath on a memorial containing the ashes of Jews murdered at six extermination camps, including Auschwitz, Bergen Belsen, Buchenwald, and Treblinka. This was the President’s first personal visit to Yad Vashem as he did not visit it during his visit as Governor of Texas in 1998. Though he did not appear to express it, he surely can testify that nobody can deny that the Holocaust existed, and in such a terrible scale.

That Bush was moved by his visit to the memorial, as well as his visit to the Jewish State is indicated in the words he wrote in the Yad Vashem guest book: “God bless Israel, George Bush”. He also made the point of shaking hands with members of a choir composed of young Israeli schoolgirls and posed with them for pictures.

The President ended his visit to Israel with a short tour of the Galilee and Lake Kineret, including the Christian holy sites of Capernaum and the Church of Beatitudes, where historian say Jesus gave his Sermon on the Mount. The next stop on Bush’s Mid East tour is the Persian Gulf State of Kuwait. Though no final agreements were made by either Israel or the Palestinians during Bush’s short visit, the President seemed optimistic that a peace treaty will be made between the parties by the end of his term as President. He did note that Jerusalem “will be a problem” in regards to solving its final status.

The meetings with both Israeli and Palestinian officials have not concluded what will be done in regards to the Palestinians living in Hamas controlled Gaza, who took to the streets and demonstrated loudly against Bush’s visit, which did not include any contact with Hamas leader and former P.A. Prime Minister Ismail Hananyeh. These protests also included firing 12 Kassam rockets and at least 11 mortar rounds at the Israeli town of Sderot and nearby areas.

Bush said that he is willing to return to the region before his term expires to help implement a final peace agreement The only problem here is how to include 1.5 millions Palestinians whose leaders do not seem willing to go along with what their Palestinian brethren in the West Bank are involved in. Bush will most likely be pondering this problem during the remainder of his 8 day Middle East visit.

The Palestinian city of Bethlehem, located a few kilometers south of Jerusalem, may be celebrating its best holiday season in years. Reports from merchants and hotel reservation desks say that the number of pilgrims and tourists visiting the city of Jesus’ birthplace are at least 50% more than in 2006. Times haven’t been good for this biblical city made so popular by the event that supposedly took place about 2010 years ago, and tourism has been a far cry from what it was in prior years; especially in the “heady” years following the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1994. The city that used to see many thousands of foreign visitors converge on it during Christmas time became as still as the above words in the immortal poem by Father Philip Brooks in 1865.

Following the beginning of the Second Intifada Palestinian uprising in September 2000, foreign visits took a nose dive; and tourism was further complicated when a number of hard-line Palestinian militants held up in the Church of the Nativity for days before finally surrendering to Israeli army troops who were surrounding Manger Square. Once boasting a large Christian population, Bethlehem is now predominately Muslim. With the main source of income for the city being tourism, the city had fallen on hard times, and has only begun to show signs of recovery in the last couple of years. During the first few years following the historical handshake between Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on the U.S. White House Lawn, Arafat himself and his wife, Sulha (a Christian) attended Christmas Eve midnight masses held in the Church of the Nativity. That all changed following the start of the Second Intifada when Arafat became a virtual prisoner in his West Bank Ramallah. headquarters.

To make matters worse, the Palestinian Authority has now been split into two parts, one in Gaza and under the control of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, and the other in the West Bank under the control of P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas. Following some improvement in relations between Israel and Abbas’ Palestinian segment, tourism to Bethlehem has begun to improve, much to the relief of Bethlehem’s merchants, many of whom have shops in the center of town not far from Manger Square. Many of the items they sell are exclusively tailored for foreign Christian pilgrims including religious motifs carved from olive wood, jewelry and amulets, carpets and clothing with religious and other logos and slogans connected with the historical legend of the town. As Christmas is the most important time of the year for them, Bethlehem merchants have to bank heavily on a large influx of visitors to tide them through the lean months until summer when tourism again picks up for a while.

For those who want to purchase them, Palestinian flags, pictures of P.A. Authority and Charismatic Arab World leaders, and other nationalistic mementoes are also available.

One of the better hotels in Bethlehem, the Jacir Palace Intercontinental, reported that they are nearly full for the first time in years. “Yes, thank God, we have something to smile about this year”, said Farid, one of the hotel’s reception employees. Concerning what will be happening in the future, “it’s anybody’s guess” said Samir, another hotel employee. And rightly so, as current fighting between Israeli and Palestinian forces in Gaza could well spill over into the West Bank, including Bethlehem. Although the city of Christ’s birth has had fewer problems than other West Bank cities, including Ramallah, Nablus, and Jenin, the situation there during the period immediately after the uprising in September, 2000 was very unpleasant, and the Church of the Nativity suffered considerable damage in the wake of its takeover by Palestinian militants.

Israeli border checkpoints have tried to make it easier for pilgrims to come and go this year as a good will gesture to President Abbas. Still, it isn’t like walking into the Old City in Jerusalem, which for many pilgrims has been an alternative Christmas season destination following the 2000 Palestinian uprising.

In any event, Christmas 2007 does seem to be much better for the citizens of Bethlehem, and is much improved over previous years. And for those who so much depend on this annual inflow of visitors, and foreign currency, they can only hope for the best.

The city of Tiberius, also known by its Hebrew name of T’veria, is a city that used to be one of Israel’s most important tourist resort cites. I say used to be because the city has recently seen a significant decline in tourist business, once one of the mainstays of the city’s economy. After spending the weekend in this city of 42,000, perched on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, I began to wonder why this city cannot draw more visitors, both local and foreign, as another tourist city, Eilat seems to do. The city which used to be the number one local destination for honeymooners, and for family vacations, seems to have a difficult time keeping its major hotels and tourist attractions going.

Tiberius is one of Israel’s oldest cities, with a continuous habitation or more than 2,000 years. Founded by King Herod the Great in the century before the Common Era, Tiberius became popular with the Romans because of its mild climate and hot springs. For Jews, Tiberius is Israel’s fourth holist city, after Jerusalem, Hebron, and Safed. The city was inhabited by Jews long after Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Romans in the 1st Century C.E. During the time of various Muslim occupiers, including both the Mamlukes and Ottoman Turks, the city became home for both Muslim and Jewish holy men, with one of the most famous Jewish educational teachers, Moses Maimonides, other wise known as “the Rambam”. For devout Christians the city has significance for them as well; as Jesus spent time in the area of the Sea of Galilee and recruited some of his Disciples from the local fishermen who “threw away their nets to become fishers of men”.

Modern Tiberius is not the tourist city it once was for certain. Though it does have frequent visitations by tour groups, especially Christians, Tiberius is no longer the vacation destination of choice by Israelis, especially honeymooners. Relaxation of government restrictions against foreign travel has resulted in many Israelis preferring to travel abroad instead of to local destinations like this one. Due to this reality, many Tiberius vacation results have either shut their doors or have drastically cut back their services.

In other words, places like Anatalya Turkey have surpassed Tiberius in getting the hard earned bucks of Israeli tourists. Although the Israel Ministry of Tourism is working with the Tiberius city council to improve the city’s tourism image, a lot more needs to be done to entice both Israelis and foreign visitors back to the city by the lake. And this might also include a major “face lift” of the City’s commercial and tourist districts.

Walking along the city lake front, I noticed that a number of traditional fish restaurants are no longer there. Many beach resorts which offered both budget vacations and family activities are also gone or mere shadows of their former selves. The city still has at least 4 five star hotels, but these are struggling to remain open, and only have sufficient guests on the weekends. Perhaps improved entertainment possibilities by both the Tiberius city fathers and the tourism ministry is needed to attract visitors back to this city, such as a theme park, more modern discotheques, and other activities. To avoid a substantial relocation by many commercial tourism concerns, the Tiberius city fathers have better start working on a plan of action right now, before the situation deteriorates even further.

Image by Wikipedia

Do you have $200,000 that’s burning a hole in your pocket? Do you want to go where none of your neighbors have gone before? Then you’re in luck as Virgin Galactic, a new “travel company” owned by a partnership between British billionaire Richard Branson and American aerospace engineer Burt Rutan will take you 100 km into space for the ride of you life. Rutan first flew his suborbital space vehicle, Spaceship One in June, 2004, which not only catapulted him to the threshold of space, but made him virtually weightless for several minutes. Upon his return to earth, his success in piloting to first privately owned space contraption mad so much of an impression on Virgin conglomerate mogul Branson that he immediately sought out Rutan to form a partnership with him.

The resulting company, Virgin Galactic, has since flown a number of astronaut wannabes who hail from all over the world. The company recently opened an office in Israel, headed by entrepreneur Eliron Yaron. Though no tickets have actually been sold to Israelis so far, Yaron is confident that several wealthy Israelis will want to be part of the 500 tickets still available for the coming year’s “passenger list”.

The original Space Ship One has now been redesigned and improved in a new model, Space Ship Two, which seats 8 passengers and two crew members. The new model will be able to penetrate 110 km into space, surpassing the so-called gravitational “boundary” of 100 km or 60 miles, enabling passengers to experience complete weightlessness for a much longer period. The vehicle, which begins it’s flight attached to the belly of a specially designed jet aircraft, is more like the original X series experiment aircraft of the early 1950’s than an actual rocket ship. Even so, Space Ship Two will able to take it’s passengers into space at a speed of more the Mach 3 or 1,000 MPH which breaks the sound bearer of 720 MPH..

So far, most of the international passengers who have purchased tickets are between ages 50 and 55 and of the male gender. Only 15% of the purchasers are female. The first commercial pilot who will fly the rocket plane for Galactic Virgin is Alex Tai who is a well renown aircraft test pilot. Branson himself will be one of the first Space Ship Two passengers. To date, Col Ilan Ramon, who perished in the Columbia Space Shuttle mission in February, 2002, is the only Israeli who has flown into space. Those purchasing a ticket will be required to under a three day health physical and training session prior to the actual. Rutan, who flew the first Space Ship One, claims that even persons in their 70’s should be able pass the criteria required for traveling on Space Ship Two. That, and paying $200,000 up-front, of course. There are no “Fly now-pay later” plans on this flight.

Fires that have swept over much of southern Greece, including the site of the ancient Olympiad games (pictured), have happened in Israel, and could very well happen here again. Many of the current fires in Greece were found to have been started by “arsonists” including a 77 year old women who was cooking in her back yard. Many of Israel’s past forest and brush fires have also been set by people, either intentionally or by accident. Here are a few of these examples:

1. The terrible fires that destroyed nearly all of the forests in the “Jerusalem Corridor” in the summer of 1994 were caused by people burning brush illegally on a kibbutz near Motza Elite. This fire caused severe forest damage from which the area has not yet recovered.

2. A severe fire on Israel’s Carmel mountain range almost destroyed the Hai Bar nature reserve in the late 1990’s. This reserve, aside from having beautiful natural oak forests, has some of the country’s finest herds of deer, gazelle, and other hoofed mammals.

3. Forest and brush fires near Haifa in the early 2,000’s, destroyed much forest land and brush on the Carmel, and threatened sections of Haifa itself, as well as the popular Ein Hod artist colony.

4. Last summer’s Lebanese War resulted in more than 10,000 hectors of forest, brush and grass lands being scorched by falling Ketiusha rockets. One of the most badly damaged areas was a beautiful forested slope west of the town of Kiryat Shimona.

Other examples far to numerous to mention have caused Israel’s forests, brush, and grasslands to go up in flames, especially during the long dry season lasting from late April to December. With the exception of occasional rain storms in ‘fringe’ months like October and April, Israel has a very long dry season, resulting in brush and grassland becoming literal tinder boxes.

With the exception of the damage caused by war, and occasional fires as a result of lightening, nearly all fires have been the result of either arson or human carelessness. Campfires and coals from weekend cookouts in forests and parks account for a lot of this damage, and nearly all of it can be prevented by people just being less careless at picnics and other outdoor events. Putting water on coals and making sure they are completely put out is one of the best means of preventing fires in forested areas.

There’s not much that can be done, unfortunately, in regards to arson, except to find, and punish, the perpetrators. We in Israel seem to share a common “personality trait” with the Greeks, especially in regards to obeying the law (the Greeks also appear to have a problem with civil disobedience as well).

It’s only a short matter of time before the next substantial brush or forest fires will break out in some part of Israel, with resulting damages not unlike what is currently transpiring in Greece.

We spent the afternoon yesterday in Nofit and had a great time (7 adults, 9 kids, 1 pug). The place is just South East of Haifa (20 minutes away) and has some amazing views all around. The backyard looks out between the mountains all the way to the sea and the entire community is built on these ranges facing North and West. The neighbors are Bedouin villages, Chilaf and Choulad, which means the lamb meat is always fresh and the Hummus is the real thing. The grocery is actually in Chilaf as well.

Just one of those spots that make you wonder why you need the hussle and bustle of the big city. We had a great BBQ (lamb of course), some good Israeli wine (Harel) and watched the sun descend on the mountains all around us. Perfect.