Go Golan! when did Israel start looking like Ireland?

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Well, its finally come to the end. My 6 month internship program is officially over. I can’t believe it, I really can’t. As usual, 6 months has gone so fast. For the last week of our program, we had a 4 day trip to the north. It was full of emotions, especially me, only days after my cousin passed away, and just the overwhelming situation of the program ending, and friends leaving. But let me talk about the amazing trip we had before I get all mushy.

We left Sunday morning and started driving north up the coast. Our first stop was some caves in the Carmel mountains, called Nahal HaMi’ara, which is close to Haifa. These caves are an amazing anthropological site because over the last several thousands of years, they were home to many, many different people and tribes, most of whom we really don’t know much about. You can see in the caves, the different colors of the ground, the different layers, and so many fossil and remnants of people and animals gone by.

We next drove to a Druze village called Ossfiiya. There we had an amazing meal by the Druze hospitality, and had a Druze man speak to us about his culture and religion. I’m not sure how many of you have even heard of the Druze, let alone know what they really are, so I’ll give a brief explanation, because it is really interesting. Druze are an Arab people, but they are NOT Muslims. They did however, come out of Islam, about 1000 years ago. They do not believe in Muhammed as their prophet, nor the Koran. They have 5 prophets of their own. One of the things that makes them different is that they are a secret religion. Meaning nobody can read their holy books or know what the religion is really about, except for other Druze. Even this though, has its limitations. Every Druze has to make the decision when they are 15 years old, to be religious or secular. If you are religious, you can lead a modern life, but you study religion. However, if you are secular, you can not study religion at all. You can not celebrate your religious holiday or enter your holy temples, you can not learn about your religion’s secrets. But you do live by the Druze culture. One of their main beliefs is in reincarnation. Their definition of reincarnation varies a little from other religions I’ve heard. They believe that everyone in the world gets reincarnated, but if you are a Druze, when you die, you get reincarnated as a Druze again. In this way, their world population of Druze has stayed at the same numbers for the last thousand years (I think it was about 6 million). Also, nobody can convert to Druze, since it is a secret religion, and the same Druze souls get reincarnated over and over again. They have a less than 1 percent rate of marrying outside of the religion, which means you are completely cast out of the Druze society and your family. Another very important thing about Druze is that they do not have a specific holy place (like Jerusalem or Mecca). This allows them to be completely loyal to whichever country they live in. For instance, in Israel, the Druze are full members of society, and serve in the Israeli army. They are proud Israelis. They are a very warm culture, welcoming to tourists, and have the best hospitality and food. I went to a Druze village on my first trip to Israel, and I remembered absolutely loving the food, so I was very excited to get a chance to go again.

At this point, it was pouring rain, which would be the main weather throughout our trip. While in some ways in hampered the trip, it actually made it a much more unique trip, and enhanced several parts of the tours. So, we then went to the site of an ancient biblical battle. The battle took place on the top of a mountain, overlooking the Jez’reel Valley. At the top of this mountain, is a monastery and church of the Carmelite order, so we couldn’t see the whole monument, because it was Sunday, and the church was closed. (I know this is normal in the US, but it was weird in Israel, since Sunday in Israel is a normal business day). So, as I said, it was raining, and there was tons of fog, and since we were on the top of this mountain, the clouds were brushing past us. It was really cool. Back to the story… this is the place where the biblical battle between Elijah the Prophet (Eliyahu) fought the Ba’al prophets. Apparently, they had a big competition to see who’s god was real, with fire that would not go out. The Ba’al prophets had to cheat to light this fire, one guy even hiding under it to keep lighting it. Elijah, started the fire, and then to prove that his god, the Jewish g-d was all powerful, he dumped water to put the fire out, but it wouldn’t go out, proving that his g-d was real. Needless to say, he won the competition, and then slaughtered all the false Ba’al prophets and soldiers. Onto our kibbutz, till tomorrow!

Day 2… We are now in the Golan heights. The Golan is on the western side of Israel, in the far north. This is the land contested by Syria. It is gorgeous green mountains and luscious fields and lots of farming. It was pouring raining again today. The first thing we saw was this waterfall, called the Banas Waterfall. This waterfall, only a few days before was almost dry from the lack of rain. Luckily for us (this is where the rain started to pay off), it had been pouring rain for over 24 hours now, and the waterfall was just gushing with water. It was amazing. Its funny because as much as we whined about the rain, we still enjoyed what we were doing.

We drove further up to the Hermon mountains, to Nimrod’s fortress, which sits on a tall, narrow ridge at the foot of Mt Hermon, overlooking all the surrounding area, as a great lookout for rulers that used to live there. It is believed that the fortress was originally built by the Muslim rulers in the 13th century, then taken over the Mameluks, then Mongolians, then back to Muslim hands, however the area has not been fully excavated yet, so they are still not sure about who exactly was there. It is a very strategic site, since you can see everyone coming up around you, but also, because it was on the only road to Damascus. To get Damascus from the Mediterranean, you had to pass through this area. The whole fortress is really quite large, in several parts, and had so many different rooms and secret staircases and hidden rooms. Once again, we were walking amongst the fog and clouds. It felt like we were in this castle in the sky, it was really cool. We could see into Lebanon villages to the north, so yes, we were very close to the border.

The next place we went to was the Valley of Tears, or the “Bacha” Valley in Hebrew. This area was the site of one of the major battles with Syria in the Yom Kippur War in 1973. We stood at a memorial, overlooking the valley, and listened to our guide describe the battle, and talk about a specific hero named Yoav Blumen. Yoav was an arrogant young soldier, but he had the talent to back it up. He was an expert in tanks. During the 72 hour long battle in the Valley, Israel had about 200 tanks in total, and Syria had about 1500 tanks (not all were involved in this battle, but these were the numbers). Israel was highly outnumbered. During the fighting, Yoav was in a tank that was hit, and he got injured. He was taken to a military hospital, but ran away from the hospital and back into battle. He got back into a tank and kept fighting, and got injured a 2nd time. They tried to send him back to the hospital, but he wanted to keep fighting. Commanders that outranked him let him command their tank or battalion because he was just that good. Yoav’s tank was hit a third time, and this time it was fatal blow. We then went to a nearby Kibbutz El-Rom, which was only 2 years old at the time of the war, and had to be evacuated. Although, since then, they have never left. At the kibbutz, we watched a documentary about the battle in the Valley of tears. It had interviews with many of the soldiers who survived the battle. It also had the real radio transmissions that were transmitted between the soldiers in the tanks during the battle that played throughout the movie. It made the whole story very moving and emotional and real. The most powerful part of the movie, and part of the whole actual battle, was when the commander of all the forces in the area, Avigdor Kahalani (spelling?), yelled to his troops through the radios that he was going forward and he was going to be victorious against the Syrians. He said that the Syrians were being courageous soldiers, and so they needed to be even more so. He said he was going forward and told everyone to follow him, if they had the guts. They say that this speech inspired the forces and won the battle for Israel. It lit a fire under their asses and they charged forward and won. Hearing the speech for myself, in the movie, I can say that it would have inspired me to victory too. It was a very powerful movie and I was glad to get the chance to see it.

After this, we went and had an amazing lunch at a restaurant called Café Annan, which when our guide said it, sounded like Kofi Annan, ironic in that Kofi Annan hates Israel. Hehe. Just a little side note, hehe. So, this restaurant was on top of the Mountain Ben Tal. On this mountain is an old military bunker from the Yom Kippur war. It had trenches and a bunker built to look down into Syria, against the coming military forces, and was a great tactical military position. So, yeah, from this mountain, we could see into Syria, and see where the border is, and why this is such an important area to have under Israeli control. Today, and as a result of the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War, there are many mountains in the Golan with army bunkers, so that if another war happens with Syria, Israel is prepared, as they were not in 1973. Every soldier that has ever served in the Golan has a designated spot, that if a war with Syria were to break out, he would know exactly where to go. There are also some mines in the surrounding areas, placed by the Israeli army, after 1973, to prevent Syria from invading again. The fight over the Golan, in politics today, is a loaded issue, and I am not saying I am for one side or the other here (although I would hate to think that the beauty of the Golan would not be part of Israel). However, one of the key issues for Israel, is that the rain water that comes down from the Golan and into the Jordan river and Lake Kinneret is a very, very important water source for Israel (the most important actually). If, Israel and Syria do ever make peace, it will have to be guaranteed that Israel would not lose this water source, which severely complicates the issue of who the Golan belongs to, and who it would belong to, in the event of a peace treaty.

Our last stop of the day was Hamat Gader, a natural hot springs spa! The hot springs are nestled on the borders of Israel, Jordan, and Syria, in a beautiful valley. The hot springs were great, with lots of built in Jacuzzi beds and chairs. The sulfur smell wasn’t even all that bad, at least not compared to the smell at Yellowstone park, but I was the only one who had been there, so to everyone else, it was pretty bad. Did I mention that my bathing suit still wreaks from the smell? Hehe. Now back to the hotel…

Part 2 to follow!!

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Photos

misty mountains
place where Elijah defeated the Ba'al prophets

Valley of Tears
the site of the major battle between Israel and Syria in the Yom Kippur war of 1973

Comments

[N-Dogg]

I think there is more history in your blogs than there is in the entire history of the United States. It makes we wonder about the United States though...are we going to make it thousands of years into the future? Will our history be as rich? Gosh I hope so. And if not...I hope my family has left for Israel by then lol.