Israel encompasses a unique and
diverse geography, extending from the largely desolate
Negev desert in the south to snow-capped mountains in
the far north. In between are the fertile, reclaimed
desert regions of the West Bank and a coastal plain
along the beaches of the Mediterranean Sea with modern
cities, a huge electrical power plant and the ancient
Roman ruins and amphitheater of the port city of
Cesearea.With
structures, lands and traditions considered holy by
three of the world's major religious faiths, Israel
continues to draw an estimated 3 million tourists
annually.
While many Americans traveling
to Israel may believe the nation is virtually all
Jewish, it is actually an urbanized, multiethnic state.
Nearly 20 percent of the population is Arabic and an
additional 4 percent are considered "unaffiliated"
(Christians, other ethnic extractions and residents with
dual citizenship).
Approximately 3 percent of the
population are Arab Christians such as our tour guide,
Jerusalem resident Iyad Comre. That percentage has
decreased slightly in recent years with the migration of
citizens uncomfortable with the policies and actions of
Islamic Arabs and the Palestinian leadership that
control portions of the occupied territories in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israel's ethnic minority
citizens are allowed to vote in popular elections. While
the system of government in the primarily Jewish state
can be described as a form of democratic socialism,
since 1996 the prime minister has been elected by
popular vote and not chosen through the creation of
parliamentary coalitions among factions of the
conservative Likud and liberal Labor parties, along with
other smaller religious parties.
Due to the abbreviated and
sensationalized headline news we receive from the Middle
East, most Americans probably have the impression that
Israel operates much like an armed camp to protect its
citizens from suicide bombers and rocket attacks
launched from the occupied territories.
However, in all of our travels,
one is amazed at how daily life goes on much as it would
in nearby European countries. In fact, we saw not one
tank, not one Humvee with a mounted machine gun, nor any
military jet flying overhead during our tour. At one
point we did see a military helicopter landing at an air
base.
There were armed guards in the
blockhouses at security checkpoints, a 27-foot wall
separating Bethlehem from Jerusalem to the North and
barbed wire fences along the borders. But as our tour
bus passed from Israel to the occupied territories,
little more than a wink and a nod were exchanged between
our bus driver and the security personnel. The face of
our driver must have been familiar to them — the bus
makes this trek weekly during tourist season.
Randy Johnson and his wife
Sheryl, veteran travelers who have been on similar
tours, said this was much different from what they had
experienced before. They claimed that as recently as
three years ago, security guards would actually board
the tour bus, check each person's passport and inspect
the luggage compartment for potential contraband or
explosives.
The only other conspicuous
military display came later when we were in the Jewish
quarter inside the wall of the Old City in Jerusalem. On
several occasions, young men and women recruits of the
Israeli Defense Force could be seen walking in single or
double file with their loaded assault weapons slung over
their shoulders.
Elsewhere, these young recruits
could be seen relaxing in the shade of the few trees in
the narrow passageways of the Old City, eating pizza and
acting amused at all the attention they were receiving
from tourists.
When briefly visiting the
shopping areas of Joppa and Ben Yehuda streets of
bustling downtown Jerusalem, a police car would
occasionally be seen — but again, the presence of
security personnel was little different from what one
would find in a typical American community.
Before leaving for the tour, I
looked at several old Bibles and Biblical history books
to get a sense of the terrain. I was left with the
impression that Israel, outside of the major cities, was
little more than barren rock cliffs dotted with caves
and occasional tree or ground cover.
How pleasantly surprised we
were to see thousands of hectares of farmland in both
the northern mountain regions of Galilee and along the
main highway that bisects the Jordan River valley.
At one point on the road to
Jericho a few miles Northwest of Jerusalem, Rev. Van
Hoose said that when he traveled these roads as a
younger man, all of the areas surrounding them were
desolate desert. During his lifetime, farmers have
drilled wells for agricultural irrigation, sparking the
transformation of the region into what is now productive
farmland.
We saw enormous banana and date
palm plantations along both sides of the highway, with
smaller plots of vegetable row crops being irrigated in
lower parts of the river basin.
We also visited the ancient
ruins at Megiddo, the capital city of the north that
dates back some 7,000 years and has been destroyed and
rebuilt 26 times. There we found a huge melon farm in a
valley adjacent to where mountaintop excavations put out
a putrid odor. Being the end of the growing season,
farmers could be seen crushing old melons in the field —
they will be turned into the ground before the next
growing season. From the top of the mountain, we also
saw a small herd of short-horned cattle grazing without
fences in a nearby field — the only livestock we saw
anywhere in the north.
In other instances —
particularly on the Mount of Olives — we saw olive
trees, some of which date back over 2,000 years to the
time of Christ. It was no surprise that olives were
served at practically every meal in the hotel dining
rooms.
Throughout our tour, there was
little evidence of the global economic recession. While
it may be a fact that tourists receive a rather
sanitized, truncated view of what life is actually like
throughout Israel, with the exception of Jericho — a
depressing hamlet in the southern reaches of the West
Bank — virtually everywhere we went, the hotels were
full of visitors. The restaurants were busy, the
shopping areas were filled with tourists every night and
the holy shrines, mosques, churches and archaeological
sites were surrounded by dozens of buses carrying
tourists from all over the world.
From what we saw, it is evident
that despite reports of terrorist bombings, rocket
attacks and the potential for a nuclear-armed Iran,
Israel in recent years is no worse for the wear and
remains a young and hopeful place.
Just as it served as a
crossroads of ancient trade routes from Egypt to
Mesopotamia to distant lands across the Mediterranean in
Biblical antiquity, in recent years it has emerged as
perhaps the pre-eminent tourist Mecca throughout the
Middle East.
David Coker of Evansville is
a freelance writer
