Last night I never slept very well. They told us to have our bags ready in the hallway to be picked up no later than 7:15am. I think I dreamt that I forgot to put my bags out and woke up. I asked Rob what time it was and he woke up and just said he didn’t know. I was worried that I wouldn’t have my bags out in time so I asked him again to check what time it was. I felt bad that I had woken him up when I found out that it was 2:15am.
We travelled (on the bus) back out of Jerusalem the same way we came in (toward Tel Aviv). We drove past some orange trees and through a city with many skyscrapers. Our tour guide explained many of the situations in Israel, including information about terrorists. The Palestinian Liberation Organization (P.L.O.) is a very large terrorist group that has begun negotiations with the Israeli government. To understand where and how this group was formed you must understand the history.
During the 20th century many, many, thousands of Jews from around the world immigrated to Israel. The Palestinians did not like this and as a result of civil unrest in 1947 the U.N. suggested a peace plan in which the state of Israel give the Arabs designated land. The Arabs in Israel did not object to this but other Arab countries did and they attacked Israel. Israel lost some land known as the East Bank, the Golan Heights, and others. Before the Arabs attacked they told Arabs living in the area to move out for two weeks while they attacked. Some Arabs said no and lived in peace but others left. After the war in 1948 many of the Arabs that left Israel were stuck in refugee camps. (Israel left the border open for ½ a year allowing those Arabs to come back). These refugee camps became the home for many terrorists who are angry at Israel.
We just visited Caesarea. Some of the things that I saw there were the theater, the aqueduct, and the Mediterranean Sea. I picked up some pottery, coral, and a shell, that had all washed up onto shore.
We are now driving to the top of Mount Carmel where we are going to eat falafels. Falafels are made of peta-bread with salads and chick-peas inside. Each falafel is made with different spices so the taste of a falafel will be different depending on who made it.
We are passing a Drewz village. There are about 50 000 Drewz in Israel.
At the top of Mount Carmel we read from the bible 1 Kings 18:17. It tells of a story that happened at the very place we are—Mount Carmel.
A jet flew over our head and disturbed our reading. Someone asked if it was an Israeli plane. Ami explained, “When you see a plane flying over Israel, count to three and if it is still there, then the plane is Israeli.
The next place we visited was the city of Haifa. We encouraged our bus-driver to go on the less travelled Eagle’s View road. Ami said that if we liked Ouries driving that we could all sign a petition from the Israeli Department of Transportation and maybe he can get his license.
We just visited the valley of Armageddon (Revelation 16:14-21) The valley here is covered with beautiful green grass. It seems ironic, that such a nice looking place, will be the ground for such a horrific battle. In my mind, I have always imagined Armageddon as a dry, dark, desert. Maybe it is just the season though, it probably is not this green all year round. We walked through the city’s underground well. It was a source of water for the people outside their city, but was kept hidden by sealing up the entrance and camouflaging it.
We are now driving through the valley of Jezreel. Along time ago this valley was covered with swamps and mosquitoes. Arabs owned this land but did not live here because they were afraid of the mosquitoes and malaria. When the Jewish people offered lots of money for this land the Arabs could not understand why they would want to invest so much into this useless land and quickly sold it to them. The Jews pumped the water out and built their homes on the fertile soil. Only five years later, when Arabs saw what had been done with their land, did they want it back.
We drove by the place where Jesus feed 5000 people with only two fish and five loaves of bread.
I can now see the Kineret Doret Village Hotel where we’ll be staying for three days. It looks out over the beautiful fresh water—Sea of Galilee.