Sunday, March 8, 2009
Day 4: Sunday, February 22, 2009
Today we got our Soldiers… 4 girls and 4 boys!! The girls work in intelligence, 2 of the boys are in the k9 unit and the other 2 in counter-terrorism. We went Atving… which is not like the ATV’s I’ve been on before but more like 4 person jeeps. About half way through it started dumping down rain on us but it was still a lot of fun. Our Jeep didn’t like to move so fast but Z was driving the one in front of ours and hers went full speed through the mud puddles sending up waves of water over their roof. Hilarious to watch but kind of glad ours couldn’t do that as I was already freezing and don’t think I could handle being even more soaked then I already was.
After the jeeps we went to a kibbutz that is situated right on the border of Lebanon. We had a talk with an old crazy guy… whose name escapes me at the moment…. About his life there, war and politics. I thought he was a bit radical and extreme but later that night after talking to some of the soldiers about the wars they’ve been in he didn’t seem quite as far off as he did that afternoon. Anyways I don’t want to get too much into politics here so if your curious about the talk you can ask me later.
We had a wine tasting and tour of the Galil Winery in the Upper Galilee. I wasn’t that impressed with the wine but to be fair the are known for their dry red wines and I’m more of a sweet white wine person. That night a few of us had a mini party drinking the wine bought there which was a lot of fun. The most entertaining part was when Yoed called Shahar and said we were being loud and asked if he was drunk to which he promptly replied, “noooo” in a bit of an offended tone… we switched rooms to one not next to Yoeds after that. =)
Day 3: Saturday, February 21, 2009
Shabbat Shalom… not too much exciting during the day but we had a night out in Tiberias. We went out to dinner… I’m beginning to think the food here is not so good… and then to a bar in town called Big Ben. It was alright I spent half the time wandering around town. We found a really cool old mosque (see Photo).The real excitement came at the end of the night when we had a run in with some Israeli punks. I guess a few incidents had happened to people walking around but it escalated when they walked past the bar and a bunch of us were on the deck. They yelled out something about Americans and then one pervert decided to take out his junk and wave it around at us which got everyone yelling. Yoed, one of our Israeli tour leaders told them he was calling the cops for molestation and pretended to call so they took off. Right as we were leaving to go back to
the bus they showed back up. I guess one of them grabbed a girls ass and she shoved him and then choas broke out as our protective guys stepped in the middle. Mass confusion as we don’t speak Hebrew and their English was minimal. Our guides yelled at us to go back to the bus which we did but they kept following us. As we drove off they cut they bus off around the corner and started throwing rocks and spitting at our bus. Yuri our bus driver had enough so he ran of to teach them a lesson and quite a few of the boys ran off after him. So punches were thrown but nothing to big… till two of the girls freaked out and started screaming how they don’t feel safe , they want to go home… that Yuri should have run them over and why wasn’t Menechem using his gun on them. Seriously? Seriously… these were 16 year old kids… complete over-reaction! Our lives were never threatened. I understand people get freaked out more about certain things, I just felt like this was blown completely out of proportion. Don’t get me wrong… I like the two girls, I was just pretty appalled and shocked by there reaction. Personally, I found the whole incident rather amusing. I mainly just felt bad for our guides who had to deal with it all.
the bus they showed back up. I guess one of them grabbed a girls ass and she shoved him and then choas broke out as our protective guys stepped in the middle. Mass confusion as we don’t speak Hebrew and their English was minimal. Our guides yelled at us to go back to the bus which we did but they kept following us. As we drove off they cut they bus off around the corner and started throwing rocks and spitting at our bus. Yuri our bus driver had enough so he ran of to teach them a lesson and quite a few of the boys ran off after him. So punches were thrown but nothing to big… till two of the girls freaked out and started screaming how they don’t feel safe , they want to go home… that Yuri should have run them over and why wasn’t Menechem using his gun on them. Seriously? Seriously… these were 16 year old kids… complete over-reaction! Our lives were never threatened. I understand people get freaked out more about certain things, I just felt like this was blown completely out of proportion. Don’t get me wrong… I like the two girls, I was just pretty appalled and shocked by there reaction. Personally, I found the whole incident rather amusing. I mainly just felt bad for our guides who had to deal with it all.Sunday, March 1, 2009
Day 2 Friday February 20, 2009
It’s raining, it’s pouring…. Today we were suppose to be gong on a hike but due to the crappy weather plans got changed. It was a fairly inactive day but very educational. It gave me a better understanding of Israel and war then I had before.We are staying in the Golan Heights which is a pretty controversial area. It’s the North East corner of Israel that extends out like a finger between the border of Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. Until 1967 it was a part of Syria but Israel won the land in the 6 day war. Yes, yes… I t
hought it was bad to start wars to claim land from other countries too… but I also didn’t grow up in a country surrounded by hostel countries living in fear of being attacked. The Golan is a war strategic area.. From the top of Mt Bental you can see all the way to Jerusalem and into Syria on a clear day. We went to the top but of course all we saw was white clouds and fog due to the ‘beautiful‘ weather. Besides being a lookout its also is a terrain obstacle for war. Before the 6 day war the border of Israel and Syria was just a tree lined road. Israelis living along that road were having problems with sniper attacks and told Israel if they didn’t do something they were going to move. If they moved there was no one holding down the border and Israel would lose that. So in June.. I think it was June… of 1967 Israel attacked and won the Golan heights in 6 days.
hought it was bad to start wars to claim land from other countries too… but I also didn’t grow up in a country surrounded by hostel countries living in fear of being attacked. The Golan is a war strategic area.. From the top of Mt Bental you can see all the way to Jerusalem and into Syria on a clear day. We went to the top but of course all we saw was white clouds and fog due to the ‘beautiful‘ weather. Besides being a lookout its also is a terrain obstacle for war. Before the 6 day war the border of Israel and Syria was just a tree lined road. Israelis living along that road were having problems with sniper attacks and told Israel if they didn’t do something they were going to move. If they moved there was no one holding down the border and Israel would lose that. So in June.. I think it was June… of 1967 Israel attacked and won the Golan heights in 6 days.We saw a short documentary on the Yom Kippur war that took place in 1973. It was testomonial and footage from three soldiers that fought there. Really intense! They were fighting in tanks at night and weren’t equipped with night vision or inferred against the Syrians who were properly equipped., and
were completely outnumbered. I think its pretty miraculous that they won. For those of you that don’t know the Yom kippur war was when Syria and Egypt planned a surprise simultaneous attack on Israel so that Isreal would have to divide their defenses and fight in the north and south borders. My mom was living in Israel during that time and has told me about it but I never really quite got the intensity of it till now.
were completely outnumbered. I think its pretty miraculous that they won. For those of you that don’t know the Yom kippur war was when Syria and Egypt planned a surprise simultaneous attack on Israel so that Isreal would have to divide their defenses and fight in the north and south borders. My mom was living in Israel during that time and has told me about it but I never really quite got the intensity of it till now.Tonight Shabbot starts which means we are doing pretty much nothing till tomorrow night but hanging out at the hotel in the rain….
Day 1: February 19, 2009
What a freaking day! We left New York at 6:15pm on weds and had about an 8 hour flight to Zurich. I sat in the plane with Alex and Julya… airplane buddies!! (See picture). We were convinced Swiss Air hates us because they put us in the very last row of the plane. But we had fun… even if it felt bumpier back there. We landed in Zurich and it was soooo beautiful there. They got a bunch of snow the day before so everything was covered in white. When we flew over the alps a little part of me was wishing I was going there to snowboard.
Second flight was pretty uneventful accept when the pilot pointed out that we were flying over Venice. When we landed in Tel Aviv the air was thick and brown and blocking out the sun a bit. I later found out it was because a sandstorm had blown through. Our guides thought we hadn’t traveled enough so we spent the rest of the day traveling on the bus for 5 hours to the Golan Heights were weare staying for the next few days. We had dinner played ice breakers and passed out from exhaustion.
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