Israel: Land of Milk and Honey
finding peace and contrasts in the holy land
2008-02-08
By Joseph Dumas

Naming, it has been said, makes something one's own.  And it was like an incantation—the names spread out before me:  Gethsemane, Mount Moriah, The Mount of Olives, Mt. Carmel, Mount Nebo, Bethesda.  A drive through any African-American church community reveals these names again and again.  From a perch on Mount Scopus, I heard a lone church bell toll; and below, in the distance, the most magical name in Christendom:  Jerusalem.  At dusk, within the fortified walls of the old city, the golden Dome of the Rock mosque shimmers.

In 2008, the land of milk and honey, aka, the state of Israel, celebrates the 60th anniversary of its founding as a nation state.

Israel’s legendary security protocols begin at New York’s Kennedy Airport; they are often cited as a model of safety in thwarting air terrorism.  Once airborne, the EL AL Airlines wide-body jet morphed into a flying synagogue.  Throughout the flight, Orthodox Jewish males, outfitted and rigged in their religious costumes and paraphernalia, traversed the aisles in clusters for prayer. 11 hours later, a chorus of applause erupted when the plane landed at Ben Gurion International Airport, SE of Tel-Aviv; and before the aircraft could stop, the Israeli passengers were out of their seats and headed for the door.

For more than 3,000 years, the Holy Land has been, and continues to be, a zone of conflict, particularly in the central region bordering the Jordan River (which also serves as Israel’s eastern border with the country of Jordan) called the West Bank; and the parcel of land in its SW corner, called the Gaza Strip.

Visitors are advised to monitor the political temperature prior to entering these zones.  And, as a visitor, one comes to feel, simplistically, as if everyone is on the same journey, but no one agrees about directions.

To enter Jerusalem’s Old City is to walk into a scene from an Indiana Jones movie.  There is a hustle and bustle of activity:  clusters of people are haggling in the marketplace of the Arab quarter.  In the Jewish quarter, Orthodox men and women separate to pray at the Wailing Wall; in the Christian Quarter, in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, a Coptic priest stands guard outside Christ's tomb.  Upstairs, other priests stand watch over the rock of Golgotha, site of Christ's crucifixion.  Outside, in the Via Dolorosa, groups of pilgrims are following the marked route of the Stations of the Cross.

The Israel I discovered was peaceful, a land of magnificent contrasts:  the desert, the sea, the mountains, sacred spaces.  Before my visit, I had expected to find a religious state, and it was a revelation to discover a more secular society.  A great Diaspora inhabits this tiny land mass (akin to the size of the state of New Jersey) of 7.2 million residents: Jewish, Christian, Arab Muslim, Druze and more.  Hebrew and Arabic are the main spoken languages, followed by English.

As does every great experience worth remembering, the sights and people I encountered during my stay culminated in one truly memorable meal: For my final evening in Jerusalem, I dined in the Eucalyptus Restaurant, where I had a biblical tasting menu, including dandelion and chicory, two bitter herbs, part of a vegetarian platter. Heavenly.

MUST SEE:
Haifa:   Israel’s third largest port; home to the Bahá'í Faith which espouses the spiritual unity of all humankind; visit the vast, terraced Bahá'í Gardens with its shrine on the slopes of Mt. Carmel overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

Sea of Galilee:  Also known as Lake Kinneret, the Sea of Galilee is Israel's largest body of fresh water.  It is 13 miles long with a width of 8 miles; as noted in the New Testament, it is well-stocked with fish.  On the NW shore, at the Mount of Beatitudes, Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount. Today it is a beautiful and serene landscaped park. 

Tel-Aviv:  Trendy Tel-Aviv is the first Jewish city built in 2,000 years.  On Fridays, the Sabbath, families shop in the Carmel Street Market in preparation for the evening's holy rituals and engage in the local sport: "haggling" with merchants. 

Dead Sea:  On the edge of the Judean Desert, 15 miles SE of Jerusalem, float your cares away in the super salty, Dead Sea—the world’s lowest spot on earth.   Take salt-water/mud treatments at Ein Gedi Beach, or one of the surrounding spa hotels.  Afterwards, catch some rays without fear of sunburn (UV rays are thinned at this elevation, 1,300 feet below sea level).

For more information, visit: http://www.goisrael.com/tourism_eng

Joseph Dumas is a freelance writer living in New York.