Day 10 in Israel: We boarded a new bus this morning...an armoured bus that would take us into Judea and Samaria the Biblical Heartland of the Jewish people from their most ancient times. The bus itself looked very much like a normal bus, it was clean and comfortable with good windows to enjoy the scenery but everything on the bus was armoured. A regular bus is apparently between 3-5 ton, but this bus was 25 ton, a very heavy beast that could get a little bumpy over roads that had some humps and dips in it, but other than that we had a pretty good and comfortable ride. We also had a new bus driver because it requires a special licence and special training to drive buses like this. Our new driver spoke no English at all so we had to rely completely on Stan to communicate on our behalf. As we headed out of Jerusalem Stan kicked into high gear to explain to us in more detail some of the issues Israel faces from continued violence from Arabs in the region of Judea and Samaria and what Israel does in response. First we were told about a Jewish community that was established right after the Six Day War that currently has about 50,000 people living in it today, and that Jerusalem wasnt officially declared to be the Capital of the modern state of Israel until 1981 when the Knesset made that declaration stating that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the ancient Jewish people. In fact, Jerusalem has only ever been the capital of Israel, it has never, ever been the capital of any other nation who occupied the land of Israel over the past several thousand years. We drove through the tribal allotment of Benjamin, the tribe from which King Saul came from and also the Apostle Paul. Stan recounted an event found in the book of Judges about a Levite who was returning home with his concubine and how she was raped repeatedly by the men of Benjamin and by morning she was dead. The Levite carried her home on his horse and then cut her into 12 pieces and sent each piece to each of the tribes. They were so horrified over this shocking incident that they went to war against Benjamin and almost succeeded in wiping the tribe out completely. Jewish people have a great deal of difficulty over this event because its just so terrible, but during the time of the Judges, the people werent following God - not even the priests - Judges says that the people did what was right in their own eyes. This is why the Israelites at that time were constantly getting into trouble and its why Christians today are constantly getting into trouble...theyre only doing what is right in their own eyes...what pleases themselves. Stan pointed out something wed all noticed from the time we first set foot in Israel, that all citizens have solar hot water tanks on their roofs; large families have 2 or 3 but everyone uses solar hot water and its very environmentally friendly and much, much cheaper for them too. Once we passed the checkpoint we were officially in Judea and Samaria for the rest of the day. We noticed the security wall again, once again we were reminded that before the intifada the wall / fence didnt exist at all; the Palestinians could work and move freely in and out their communities and Israeli communities but after the intifada when the Palestinians were strapping bombs to the chests of their children and blowing them up in Israeli cafes and shops and on buses, Israel erected the fence to stop the suicide bombers from getting through, they had to to protect their citizens. In some places the fence is a concrete wall, and the only reason its a cement wall is because Palestinian snipers would shoot at Israeli civilians and motorists. The very existence of the wall / fence is because of Palestinian terrorism, nothing more. Ramallah is the most populated Arab town, it is the capital of the Palestinian people and was where Yassir Arafat (the Egyptian born arab) used to have his headquarters and as we passed it we noticed a red sign; a sign weve seen many of over the past couple of days. The signs basically say that Israelis should not enter the areas beyond the signs because its very, very dangerous for Jews there and they wont get out again. Some Jewish people have taken wrong turns into these Arab communities and have been literally torn apart and murdered. In 1991 Israeli Prime Minister Shamir was summoned to the Madrid conference; the very first International Middle East peace conference. It was orchestrated by George Bush Snr; the Soviet Union was broken, the US had beaten Saddam Hussein in Iraq and because the Arabs had lost their sponsor the entire region was shaken and unstable. The US saw the opportunity to ingratiate itself with the Arab people and this required they put Israel under the thumb to gain concessions for the Arabs and woo them into being friends with them. In Madrid there were representatives for the US, the Russians, and all the different Arab states but Shamir was all alone. Shamir was of Polish descent and all his family had been lost during the Holocaust. When it was his turn to get up and speak on behalf of his people he recounted his story, how so many of them had been murdered in the gas chambers; he told of how his people had almost been utterly wiped out and that over the past 2000 years theyve suffered terribly. He also stated that after 2000 years of the diaspora, they were finally returning to their ancient homeland. For his efforts he was criticised and decried in the worlds media. No matter how many concessions Israel has made to the Arab people, ceding land to them has resulted in rocket attacks, rock attacks and sniper attacks, they have never had even the slightest gesture of good will from them. In fact the Arab League have never changed their stance after they issued their famous three Nos. No recognition of Israel No peace with Israel No negotiation with Israel How on earth is Israel supposed to make peace with the Arabs when the Arabs themselves have vowed to never have peace with Israel? We passed a community at Migron (Jewish) and also at Michmash (Arab), its the site where Saul was contemplating battle with the Philistines and while he was weighing up his options, his son Jonathan and his armour bearer challenged the enemy up on a hill and ultimately defeated them by climbing up a special access point. Stan told us about a British soldier in WWI named Captain Vivien Gilbert who was stationed in that region and knew of this story in the Bible and told his superiors about it and they decided to follow the same course and again, this access point worked and they defeated the enemy. We drove past the community of Ofra which is believed to be the birthplace of Gideon. The settlers are demonised as being vile creatures who are cruel and vicious, but theyre just normal people who want to obey God. God commanded the Jewish people to settle the land and now that theyve returned to their ancient homeland, they want to obey God and settle the land once again. All settlements have security perimeters, secure entrances and fences with security guards and sometimes armed soldiers as well. We noticed a lot of terrace farming over the hill sides of Judea and Samaria as its the only real way of making the hill slopes productive. The terraces are built by erecting rock walls that run around the sides of the hill and then they put down a layer of chalk and then a layer of top soil and they primarily plant olive trees in the terraces but they plant other things as well. When they water them or when the rain comes, the water runs down through each terrace making the best use of the water. We arrived at Shiloh, the site where a number of very significant things happened in ancient Israel. Firstly, it was the site where the Israelites established the Tabernacle as a permanent structure after leaving Egypt for the Promised Land. It was at Shiloh that a woman named Hannah prayed to The Lord at the tabernacle for a son and God blessed her with a baby boy and she named him Samuel whom she entrusted to Eli the High Priest. He raised Samuel as his own and when he grew a little The Lord called to Samuel in the night and the next morning Eli demanded he inform him of all that God told him. Because Eli didnt discipline his wicked sons for their sin and corruption in the Tabernacle, God told Samuel that he was going to judge Eli and his family line. When the Israelites were about the go to battle against the Philistines, the Israelites took the Ark of the Covenant with them and they were defeated by the Philistines and they took the Ark. Both Elis sons were killed and when Eli heard that the Ark was gone, he fell backward of his chair and died. His daughter-in-law was heavily pregnant and upon hearing that her husband and brother-in-law were dead and that the Ark was captured, she went into labor and delivered and she called his name Ichabod...which means that the Glory has departed. One our very first day in Israel we visited the area of Adullam trying to locate a cave, we also went passed Bet Shemesh where Samson was from and that area was where the Philistines sent the Ark on a wagon back to the Israelites and thats how it came to be back in Israeli hands. It was awesome to be standing at the Tabernacle where the Ark used to reside all the time - for over 300 years - in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle. In a long rock that runs beside where they believe the Tabernacle actually stood there are carvings in the rock that look like a wine press and round holes and bowl shaped indentations that would have been used to hold amphoras and other vessels that would have been used in Temple services. We walked into a lovely air-conditioned theatrette whose projections screen was clear glass panels that overlooked the mountains and the site of the tabernacle. We then watched a short DVD presentation that showed some of the history of the site of Shiloh. It was fascinating. When we were back on the bus we headed to a Mountain that I think was Mt Kidah where we were given a breathtaking view of all the surrounding hills and countryside, all the way over the Judean Wilderness and the Dead Sea in the background. We were told that on a clear day you could see clear up the Lebanon, across to the Mediterranean and all the way down to the south of the land as well. It was stunning! We were told that we may have been standing on the very mountain where God told Abraham to lift up his eyes and that as far as his eyes could see God would give to him. I cannot tell you what its like to stand in a place where Abraham talked with God. As we drove up we noticed that there are vineyards all over the side of the mountain and Stan read to us from Jeremiah 31:1-30 that tells of a future when Israel will be gathered from the nations where they were scattered and brought back to their ancient homeland and that they would plant vineyards once again. We were standing right smack bang in the middle of Biblical prophecy actually being fulfilled around us. Amazing. From there we were driven to Mt Gerazim which is called the Mountain of Blessing. In front of us what the town of Shechem where Josephs body is buried and which is an Arab town today. They have a Palestinian refugee camp in Shechem and this town is under Palestinian control and security and despite this they continue to keep their Palestinian refugees living in squalor. Across from us too was Mt Ebal which is called the Mountain of Cursings and it was on these 2 mountains that 6 tribal representatives stood on 1 mountain and 6 on the other and from there Moses read to the all the blessings and cursings that would come to them if they didnt obey the Word of God. Stan read the account in Deuteronomy from chapters 27 & 28 and the list of cursings was horrific and when hed finished reading it, you feel sick but Stan pointed out that all the curses that were promised have happened to Jews, every single one of them but God promised to once again Israel would be returned back to the land and this is also happened since 1880. Its a sad state of affairs that Israeli children cannot go on a school excursion without have armed guards and soldiers accompany them and that signs have to be erected to warn Israelis not to enter because theyll be torn limb from limb if they do and that no matter what Israels enemies are determined to wipe them off the face of the planet. There is a myth that people need to understand, and that is that Palestinians are not all poor, in fact most Palestinians are financially ok. Yes there are some very poor Palestinians but there are also very poor Israeli as well. The UN and a score of other nations give billions of dollars to the Palestinians and theyve squandered it and demonstrate zero accountability for it. We drove through a Samaritan town, the Samaritans come from the tribes of Israel who went into captivity by the Assyrians and they intermarried with their foreign captors and this meant they were no longer of pure Jewish blood. They were despised by the Jews and when Yeshua spoke to the woman at the well she was also a Samaritan woman. The Samaritans are really a dying people, they are only about 1000 left in the world. They have their own specific celebrations for Passover and they still read and write in Aramaic. We made our way back into Jerusalem and thanked our lovely Jewish driver for taking us into Judea and Samaria and then headed inside for dinner to get ready for our last day in Israel tomorrow. The end of this part of the tour has come up far too quickly, we dont want to leave the land...we want to return home to see our families, but we want to stay in the land. Shalom
Posted on: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 20:51:32 +0000