Vısıt to Northern Israel

After three days sailing from Venice to Haifa, we joined two other couples for a private tour of northern Israel.  Our guide Joe was born in Bagdad, educated in England, and immigrated with his French wife to Israel.  The first stop was at the top of Mt Carmel, above the gardens of the Baha’I temple.  Haifa is the world center for the faith, started by a prophet from Persia/Iran.  Money is no object and the price of the last home at the bottom of the gardens (needed to complete the terraces representing the leading prophets of the world’s religions) was many millions.  From Haifa you can see Lebanon to the north, and the crusader city of Acre.  Haifa plays an important role in the Old Testament as the place where Elijah killed 250 priests in a contest of strengths.

Nazareth is principally a Muslim city, and they conduct prayers in the square next to the church.  Joe pointed out this banner as an example of free speech in Israel.  The Arabs in Israel who do not live in Jerusalem are citizens of Israel, with passports and voting rights.  In Jerusalem, the Arabs were citizens of Jordan between 1948 and 1967.  When Israel retook Jerusalem in 1967 they offered citizenship to the Arabs living there.  None accepted.  As a compromise, the Jerusalem Arabs were given ID cards granting residency, but only the right to vote in local elections and no passport.  To travel, these Arabs go to Jordan to get a temporary passport.

In Nazareth, the principle tourist attraction is the Church of the Annunciation, built above the home of Mary.  The Church built in 1969 is above the ruins of four earlier churches.  After the Church, we walked through the local market to a Greek Orthodox church that is celebrated as the synagogue at which Jesus preached.  He upset the locals and was basically run out of town.  Joe carried a Bible and at each of the Christian sites he asked one of the group to read the passage relating to that place.  Joe, a non-practicing Jew, impressed us all with his knowledge of the New Testament.  After Nazareth, we drove for about ½ hour, past Cana (with the tourist shops advertising wine because this was the location of the wedding where Jesus changed water into wine) and stopped for lunch in Tiberius, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.    One of the advantages of the small tour is that we can specify where/what we want to eat.  We stopped in a falafel fast food place.  Some had sanwiches  (think Subway) with meat shavings, spiced vegetables, and very hot harisa sauce.  G enjoyed a pita with falafel.

Our gullets stuffed, we were on to the Franciscan nun- run Church of the Beatitudes and Gardens above the Sea of Galilee, site of the Sermon on the Mount.   Just after taking a picture of a nun doing needlework standing up, G’s  favorite camera went haywire, never to be used again on this trip.   Our next stop was the ruins of Capharnaum, where Jesus lived with Simon Peter after he left Nazareth.

Joe talks geography.  In Israel ıt ıs all about the land.



Sea of Galılee from the Golan Heıghts



By late afternoon, we were winding our way through the uninhabited mountains of the Golan Heights while Joe pointed out the places where Syrian soldiers had taken shots at Israeli vehicles as they traveled through the area before 1968 and we tried to imagine such a time.  We arrived at a kibbutz at the edge of the Golan Heights just in time for a beautiful sunset vista of the Sea of Galilee from the east side.…..

But the crowning point of this day with much mixed emotion was the last stop at The Baptismal Site “CLOSE to where Jesus was baptized” on the River Jordan.  We entered the theme park through a huge souvenir shop, receiving a discount coupon at the door (!).  Upon exiting the shop to the patio , the river was  revealed just  beyond….the Jordan River is neither deep NOR wide, folks!  By dimmed floodlights, we could make out rather large catfish pooling in the river near the wall we were peering over.  Just to our left were ramps zigzagging down into the water.  A group had come to be baptized having purchasing white robes in the shop, so we stood and watched….. 

Joe wanted us to see the various wall plaques surrounding the garden area, each one in a different language, describing Jesus’ baptism.  His favorite is this Hawaiian version.  Then it was back to the van through the shop, past the olive oil skin creams, bottles of River Jordan water ( in varying sizes up to a gallon) for sale, and all kinds of schtuff. …