In hardly two and a half weeks, between March 11th and 28th, 2009, we covered more territory, cultures and holy and not so holy places than Moses could have imagined!

The trip had been scheduled and organized by our good and intimate friend Floyd Denison, who wanted his wife Nancy to experience Israel and Jordan. As Joyce and I had gotten into the habit of traveling with the Denisons and managed nonetheless to still remain friends, we naturally joined in, leaving to Floyd the initiative for all the travel arrangements. What none of us had anticipated was that a few months before our scheduled departure, Floyd would become ill. To everybody’s shock and deep chagrin, it turned out to be pancreatic cancer and he was dead within three months. Instead of aborting our Middle-East voyage, however, and after a lot of fretting and cogitation, we decided to go ahead, thinking that this was what Floyd would have wanted us to do. And so, the three of us: Joyce, Nancy - Floyd’s grieving widow - and I set out to fulfill the ambitious agenda Floyd had left behind for us.

The itinerary had us first visiting Israel, including Tel-Aviv, Haifa, Acre, Jerusalem, Masada and the Israeli side of the Dead Sea. In the process, we saw and were lectured on all of the historical and biblical attractions normally encountered during this kind of pilgrimage, including visits to all the places that mark the events of the New Testament, as well as those that help visualize the stories in the Old Testament. This was followed by the Jordanian portion of our crusade, which included an uneventful, VIP’ed crossing of the border into Jordan, an overnight visit to Amman, Jordan’s capital city, and then the next morning, a short drive north to the magnificent Roman ruins of Jerash. After Jerash, we headed south for the long drive to the fabled rock carved wonders of Petra. The name Petra means stone in some cultures, and is the mysterious capital of the now extinct Nabataean Arabs who dominated the region in pre-Roman times. We then journeyed a little further South to nearby Wadi Rum in the Jebel Desert. Wadi Rum owes some of its fame to the fact that T.E. Lawrence (aka Lawrence of Arabia) stayed there in 1917 during WWI, and it’s one of the places highlighted in the chronicles of his exploits in uniting the Arabs against the Turkish/German coalition.

Like Lawrence, it was in Wadi Rum where we experienced the joys of primitive Bedouin tent living, by spending a very cold night in a desert camp without light or heat, amidst a couple of unwelcomed bus loads of German tourists. It was an experience we would not recommend for those used to the pampering of first class hospitality – a good idea badly executed! Finally we were able to warm up again and recover in a posh resort on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea. There, we wallowed in the warmish water and got gooked-up with the black mud from the sea bottom, hoping to confirm its reputation for magically turning skin into velvet. We finally sat (it’s really too thick to swim) in this ultra salty environment, taking desperate care not to let a drop of it get into our eyes. This happened to me the last time I indulged in the sport, and all I can say is that I experienced the revenge of Prometheus, it burned so much! And that was the last activity before tackling the long trek back to Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, including a more than 90 minute process required to cross the border into Israel. As it turned out, the delays at the borders between these two “friendly” nations was due to a trivial communication gap between our driver and the Tour Company; we simply did not receive the VIP treatment called for in our “Program” and we were left to patiently wait forever to be processed through the border formalities like ordinary people. Meanwhile, the Israeli driver assigned to see us to the airport in Tel Aviv was having a nervous breakdown in the VIP area on the other side of the border. He thought he had lost us!

The Israeli portion of the trip was interesting. It was charged with emotions, it was instructive and, for me at least, it filled a void in understanding my own roots that no amount of reading could have achieved. My parents died in Auschwitz, and the Holocaust continues to haunt any visit to the “Jewish Home Land”. Indeed, the trip was hard emotional work. I was really affected by the visit to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum, where the names of my Parents are electronically inscribed in the “Hall of Remembrance”. My real thrill, however, was the brief but delightful meeting with my 89 year old, one-and-only living first cousin, Aviva. She met us in the lobby café of the King David Hotel, where she showed up laden with very old family photos and related notes, and she could not stop talking about our family and what happened to each member. I could not help but feel emotionally wrenched.

For all three of us, Floyd was with us subliminally all the time. I don’t know if Nancy really found comfort at the “Wailing Wall”, where she left a prayer for Floyd, but the important thing was that she did manage to reach the wall and successfully fight through the armies of pilgrims, faithfuls and hordes of tourists all anxious to leave their spiritual mark at this holy site. For her, it was a mission accomplished, and that made us all feel very good.

While we came away with a deep admiration for the strength, courage and determination of the Israeli people, we found them to be without much charm or humor. They tended to be brusque, self righteously arrogant and basically unwelcoming. One can almost sense the chip on their shoulder, probably a result of having had to live with the many wars and hardships that have dominated much of their existence … either before or after they reached the “Promised Land”. The crowds in public places were generally unsmiling, and the humor, so famous among so many European and American Jews, was totally lacking. Maybe it was the crowds of tourists, or maybe it was the feeling of lack of exclusivity that may have caused it, but on the whole, we were glad we went and equally glad we never have to do this again.

A case in point was our guide. From the very outset, we were treated like immature kids on a holiday. He turned out to be a martinet who had to be obeyed to the letter, operating within the constraints of local customs of secular and religious formalities. The Tour Program was equally tight and rigid. It was etched in stone and had to be followed with obsessive precision. But our guide’s English was perfect and his command of facts and Israeli history was indeed impressive. There was an awful lot of must-see” sites, and many required an appointment for the visit. We had booked a private tour and guide for our visit, but that turned out to be superfluous - except for the cost. In fact, the only difference between what we experienced and what, as Joyce refers to as the “Sweaty Masses” experienced, was the fact that we arrived at the sites in an SUV rather than a humongous bus! Once there, however, we became part of the large groups that had an appointment at the same time as ours. Nevertheless, our guide was very good in making the required reservations and getting us to the sites on time. That was the good news. The bad news was that it turned out that most of the Israeli portion of our trip was appointment driven, with dire consequence if we were to stray from the prescribed schedule. This resulted in us moving from crowed site to site in accordance with an exhausting, almost military drumbeat, following a straight jacket agenda with virtually no “down time”, leaving us drained at the end of the day. There was neither time nor energy left for some of the things we might have wanted to do – like SHOPPING or leisurely entertainment.

The national language of Israel is Hebrew. This, and the fact that most of the public signage is in archaic Hebrew script and nearly everything closes early on Friday and all day Saturday in observance of the Shabbat, gave a clear signal that, although the country is ruled under an English form of parliamentary governance, it is actually a very militant Theocracy. Between the old anachronistic dietary laws and the strict observance of the Shabbat, we felt as if secular life was totally and sometimes annoyingly subordinated to the Orthodox Jewish religious laws, customs and rites!

We spent all but two of our ten nights in Israel at “Dan” hotels. The first was in Tel-Aviv, then Haifa and the last was in Jerusalem, where we stayed at the stately King David Hotel, also a Dan. The Dan in Tel Aviv was fairly new, and its location on the shore of Mediterranean was delightful. The Haifa Dan was pretty scruffy and had seen better days. However, it is situated high above the sea and it offers great views of the magnificent bay that frames the city and its port. The rooms at the King David Hotel were basic, but this was offset by the distinguished history of this vintage hospitality as a place where heads of state and notables on missions of international importance have always stayed. This was reflected in the impeccable five-star quality of the service. In all three of these hotels, the rooms were strictly Holiday Inn quality and the food forgettable to say the least. The options for dining were limited to self service, all-you-can-eat type buffets, which always carried the same kosher and vegetarian food and which the masses of riders on the behemoth tour buses pounced upon at the hotel cafeterias. In all fairness the staid King David Hotel in Jerusalem did offer an alternative. It was a very formal and pompous table service dinner which happened to be the only place in the hotel where meat was served. Of course… there was always room service!

Beyond these “Dan” hotels, we spent two nights, with great expectations, at a Relais & Chateaux spa-driven property which, I must say, was far more “Relais” (in the old days, a way station for coaches, now a way station for crowded tour buses) than a “Chateau”, for those who are used to the pampering typically found in this class of hospitality.

The Jordanian portion of the trip was more light-hearted, adventure-laden and not interminably steeped in the Bible. To our relief, it was not only interesting, it was FUN! We also had a guide, Samir, who did not take himself quite so seriously, and who was not driven by any obsessions. He even had a pretty good sense of humor!!

Having drawn this contrast between Israel and Jordan, it is now important to bear in mind that, as a travel experience, and if one tries to truly understand the region, it is best to eschew the artificial political borders that the governments of the world have imposed on this part of the Middle East. The histories of the countries that occupy the land are so intertwined that it is impossible to write about our Journey in terms of Israel and Jordan as separate entities. When you see the region as one place, overlaid by many cultures, it is really the appreciation of the region’s HISTORY that becomes the common denominator.

First, there is the ancient history…

It can be traced at least as far back as the 17th Century BCE. Moving forward at a speed even H.G. Well’s time machine could not have imagined, the history of the Land passes through the biblical age of the Patriarchs in the Book of Genesis, on to the exile of the 10 tribes, until the First Temple was built by King Solomon around 1000 BCE. Its subsequent destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BCE then led to the construction of the Second Temple in 516 BCE. In the course of these centuries, David emerged and managed to slay Goliath. We actually saw where this epic event presumably took place - of course, all we saw was a very wide valley, so we had to imagine rather than really see the Israelites and King Saul confront Goliath and his Philistines. The place looked like any other piece of turf, but we were in a mood to believe anything! Later, the Land came under Persian domination until about 300 BCE, when Alexander the Great ushered in the Hellenistic Period, bringing us to the age of Herod, the long-lived king of Judea from 37 BCE to the year 4 BCE, when he finally died.

Second, we move further ahead in time and we reach the Christian era and the history of Christianity…

It began during the time when Rome dominated the universe and became a major player in the birth and evolution of Christianity. Our encounter, as time travelers, with the Roman civilization, involved a not to be missed visit to Jerash, which we have found to be the best preserved ruin of a Roman City we have ever seen, far larger and far better re-created than, for example, Ephesus in Turkey. Our Israeli guide, however, could not resist showing us the Roman excavations of Bet Shean and, as if laboring under a conditioned reflex, he felt obligated to chauvinistically proclaim that these were the best in the Middle East. Having seen Jerash some 15 years ago, we let that pass, not wishing to spoil such pristine and passionate loyalty! When we later reached Jerash, with Samir, our Jordanian Guide, we felt completely vindicated in not showing the requisite enthusiasm over the Bet Shean archeological site; indeed, Jerash far surpasses any Roman antiquity I have ever seen. It is the best by any stretch of the imagination…even though it is located in Jordan and not Israel!

Built as a city of 20,000 by the Romans, Jerash had been destroyed and was buried under ruble after an earthquake in 747 AD. Archeologists have been busy for many years exposing the ruins for the world to appreciate. We saw them some fifteen years ago and the progress is nothing less than astounding. Hadrian’s Arch, the triumphal entrance to the city has been rebuilt and is the introduction to a large oval plaza, or “Forum”, which is the central point from which the rest of the city takes form. Even after two millennia, one can clearly discern that this was a “city” in the purest sense of the word. There is a definite plan, and it comes to life with a spectacular mile-long Champs Elyse-like central spine the Romans called the Cardo Maximus. It is paved with huge, flat, roughly hewed lime stones and it is wide enough to allow two or three horse-drawn chariots to clatter abreast down its length at full speed. In fact, the flag stones still carry the grooves made by the repeated use of chariot wheels on the sedimentary rocks. The Cardo Maximus is flanked by a colonnade which frames the remnants of shops and by the magnificent reconstruction of the Temples of Artemis and Zeus. When this avenue of columns with their well preserved Roman and Corinthian capitals ends at the Forum, it does so by opening into an “agora”, or market place. At that point, off on a side, one can then approach the Hippodrome, where the famous chariot races were held. At the other end of the Cardo, there is an impressive semi-circular, 5000 seat amphitheater with 35 tiers that possesses acoustical qualities that are remarkable, even by today’s standards.

But for us, the piece de resistance was the hippodrome. This was where Nancy and Joyce became Ben Hur, and where I watched them go around the racing circuit in a chariot pulled by a team of wild horses. They were holding on for dear life, with the horses straining on the reins, while they were standing precariously in a two wheeled chariot. I could almost feel Nancy or Joyce bite the dust. If that were to happen, they would get little sympathy from me; they were just having too much of a good time! They cornered the narrow end of the racing circuit several times, at speeds that would have turned Joyce’s blue Porsche Carrera, which was languishing idle at home, green with envy.

Of course, the ladies did have some help in this sport. A Roman Legionnaire climbed on the chariot and took his place between them. In all fairness, it was he and not them who controlled the horses. Actually, the exploit was part of a daily performance in the Hippodrome, where Jordanian Special Forces dressed to the hilt in full Roman Legionnaire regalia, complete with helmet, shield, armor, sword and Pilum (lance), and did their daily performance. About two dozen stood in colorful formation and demonstrated the Roman manual of arms, including the various tactics of defensive and offensive deployments that the armies of Rome had used to conquer the world. After a demonstration of gladiatorial combat during that same occasion, it occurred to us that Americans, with their passion for football and hockey, are probably missing a good bet by not expanding their entertainment into a truly exquisite kind of bloody field sport.

Finally, quite beyond the Ben Hur experience, our journey through time shifted to the New Testament. And so, archeologists yielded to historians who devoted careers to chronicle and ponder every step and event in the life and death of Jesus Christ. We empathized as we walked the Via Dolorosa and the Stations of the Cross. Indeed, it was painful; but not because we were burdened by a cross. Rather, it was the TOUR BUSES that were the source of our torment. We were constantly assailed by them and by the crowds they disgorged. Nonetheless, we did have the opportunity to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Mount of Olives, Nazareth, Mary’s Well, the Crusader Church of St Anne, the Church of the Visitation and other shrines and holy places related to Jesus, his Apostles and his family. Of course we also visited Bethlehem and the almost ecumenical Church of the Nativity, which is actually divided physically into the three branches of Christianity - Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Syrian Orthodox. It seemed to us a little strange that this most sacred of sites actually happens to be located not in Israel or Jordan, but in the Palestinian Territory, making access there a bit tricky, involving crossing into Palestinian Territory with a new guide and new transportation.

But History, like Life itself, moves on. The land of Israel, dominated at the start of the Millennium by Christianity and the Holy Roman Empire, turned to Islam in the wake of the crumbling of the old Roman Empire and the ravages wrought by the Huns and the Germanic tribes. Eventually, the land became subject to Byzantine rule around 636 AD. Thus Palestine, as it was called then, was controlled by the Arabs until the Crusades, which occurred from about 1100 AD to 1300 AD. This latter period in the region’s history has proven to be a blessing for the tourist industry, as it left in its wake a phenomenal collection of hilltop fortresses built by both the Crusaders and the infidels as well. We had a chance to climb and crawl around the fairly well preserved remnants of three of these huge medieval defensive structures, two of which happened to be in Jordan. One was the Castle of Saladin on top of a mountain in Ajloun, about 70 kilometers from Amman, the Jordanian capital; the other fortress was Karak Castle. This one, also on a mountain top from which much of the geography of the area could be observed, was built by the Frankish Crusaders. We tried to imagine what it must have felt like to assault and try to breach these seemingly indestructible walls. There is plenty of evidence that the sieges and battles for these objectives must have been bloody and ferocious. Among other epic movies, these castles inspired a Hollywood blockbuster called “The Kingdom of Heaven” which was about the war for the control of Jerusalem between the Crusaders, under the Leper King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, and the infidels, headed by Saladin, the leader of the Arabs. Coincidentally, last yea, we had been to the Atlas film studios in Morocco, where this epic had been produced. It was therefore a real thrill to compare what we had seen of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives with the cinematic version of that same view. In the same way, the actual experience of walking and climbing around the ruins of Karak Castle gave life to the movie version of the Jerusalem siege.

The passion for fortresses and Palaces in high places designed for high-placed potentates brought us to Masada, the Palace Fortress constructed by Herod the Great as one of a series of unreachable bastions he could escape to if rebellious subjects were out to get him. Since our ambition was not to conquer the place, but merely to gaze upon it, we were relieved that a cable car got us to the top in ease and comfort. No one was dumping boiling oil or shooting arrows at us! The visit, however, gave us a poignant perspective on the heroic saga of the 960 or so Jewish Zealots, including men, women and children, defended the rock for years, repelling repeated attempts by a Roman Legion numbering over 15,000 to dislodge them. In the end, rather than surrendering only to become Roman slaves or be forced to perform acts repugnant to the Jewish culture, the defenders opted to commit mass suicide and ride into history as biblical martyrs.

Proceeding with the unending unfurling of the Middle East history…

We reach the 7th Century AD. The followers of Mohamed sweep through the region, converting many to Islam. He is believed to have made a journey on horseback, after his death, to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, from where he ascended to heaven. In 691, Caliph Abd Al-Malik built The Dome of the Rock over the site of Mohamed’s supposed ascension. It may not have been golden at that time, but today its aura makes it the most recognizable icon in Jerusalem’s skyline. Decades later, the El-Aqsa Mosque was built there. Jerusalem was now sacred to three major religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam … and peace continues to be elusive. In this connection, one of our stops was to visit the politically sensitive West Wall Tunnel, which follows the Temple’s West Wall, (the “Wailing Wall”). It is located actually under the Muslim precinct and is perilously close to the Islam-held Dome of the Rock. It should be noted that the journey through the Tunnel probably sounds a lot more interesting than what we saw.

Eventually, the crusades came to an end and so did the exploits of Saladin and Richard the Lionhearted. The Mamelukes, known as fierce Mongolian warriors endowed with the spirit of Genghis Khan, arrived from Egypt. They defeated Saladin and, together with the Ottoman Turks, ushered in the modern times. They controlled the region until WWI, when England acquired dominion of the area by fiat from the League of Nations. This is where modern history can be said to begin. Before diving into the complexities of the events that led to the establishment of the State of Israel, however, I want to go back to the tale of our travel experience…

In considering this trip, we wanted to see Petra, Little Petra and Wadi Rum again. After a horrendous ride from Amman to Petra, during which we ran into a blinding rain, mud and a flesh-carving sand maelstrom, we finally made it into Petra. We had last visited the place some fifteen years ago, when the town had not much more than a small hotel, a bunch of horses and donkeys and perhaps a shop or two. Once in the ancient site itself, one walked or rode a horse or donkey through what is called a “Siq”. This an astounding narrow, natural, rocky chasm or defile, not more than perhaps 20 feet wide, flanked on both sides by walls of solid rock formations that rise straight up more than 150 feet. The Siq continues for perhaps three quarters of a mile and then explodes into a large agora-like space. This is the Times Square or Piccadilly Circus of Petra. It is the all purpose meeting area where guides find their customers, horses and donkeys leave their riders and the tourists look for any lost members of their party. There are usually sellers of arts and crafts at that location and it’s a good place to buy such souvenirs as little bottles of colored sand with one’s name poured in the mix. More importantly, the agora at the end of the Siq is really the foreground and the setting for the most spectacular site at this rocky wonder - The Treasury. This is a Greco-Roman sandstone carving, as big as an ancient temple. No one is quite sure what it was used for, but some sort of storage function would seem to fit its purpose. In any event, both the Siq and the Treasury have been immortalized by the memory of Indiana Jones riding through the Siq and emerging in front of the Treasury surrounded by camels.

What greeted us this time in Petra, some 15 years after our first visit, was a cluster of several large hotels, including a massive and sensibly luxurious Mővenpick where we stayed. We were also greeted by the infernal infestation of big tour buses that, like locusts, had beaten us to this destination. Joyce was disappointed that riding horses through the Siq like Indiana Jones was no longer allowed, nor were donkeys. It wouldn’t be until we reached the Treasury that Joyce and Nancy could get their camel ride, and I my “Suzy” ride, a name I use romantically in memory of the ass for which I had developed some real affection fifteen years earlier.

And so, Joyce and Nancy hiked the Siq and I rode through it in a ridiculous and a very bumpy horse-drawn cart. I felt like something out of Monty Python! When I rented my Siq “transportation”, I asked the man providing the carts, on a whim, if by chance he knew Harbi, our guide from fifteen year ago. We looked at each other and, when our eyes met, I was flabbergasted as he exclaimed “I am Mohammed, Harbi’s cousin! I recognize you! Don’t you remember, I was Suzy’s owner? You’ll see Harbi when we reach the Treasury on the other side of the Siq!” And so, a little later, we were reunited with our former guide who had gotten married, spawned two children and was finishing a new house for his family. As it was last time, he insisted on bringing us home to meet his family and share a meal. We were so touched when he showed us the photos from 15 years ago, still in the album on his coffee table.

Beyond Petra, in Wadi Rum, we had a hilarious incident. Like Petra, we had been in Wadi Rum before. At that time we had met an intrepid Sheik with a rakish moustache framing a generous smile of brilliant white teeth. He had a Jeep in which he took us for an incredibly thrilling and wild ride through the desert. The same sort of thing was on the menu on this trip. However, we did not have our private Sheik, nor did we have a private Jeep at our disposal. Instead, we came upon a motley collection of perhaps a hundred or so vehicles of all kinds. It was like a “Road Warrior” rally. After our guide finished his negotiations, he led us to our vehicle, a truck older than the surrounding hills with some of its parts dangling, ready to fall off. And then we met the driver. He was full of aplomb and very polite … no moustache … and all of 10 years old!!! To calm us, our guide told us not to worry, he was a much better driver than his father, and he would bring his younger brother with him, just in case we ran into trouble.

And so we got underway and rejoined the cavalcade of jalopies that had assembled a fair distance away. Everything was fine until the armada moved to its next destination to nowhere in the desert, after having stopped to climb a sand dune. This meant restarting the engine, which had conked out. Well, surprise, surprise, it wouldn’t start, and the two brothers morphed into mechanics. The older one, our driver, opened the hood, walked a few yards until he found a suitable rock and then … with some assistance from his brother working the controls, proceeded to bang the engine with all his might. There we were, it was getting dark and cold, we were stuck in the middle of a desert with two kids who did not seem to have a clue on how to get us out of this situations. This was the point at which Nancy, Joyce and I could think of nothing better to do than to break into hysterical and unstoppable laughter, as we realized the absurdity of our situation. Eventually, the kids managed to coax the engine back into action and, despite all odds, we got back safely. Cut, fade … … and we now leave the Jebel desert to complete the historical account of our Middle East Travels.

We had started with the patriarchs in the Book of Genesis and then traveled through the ages all the way up to the Twentieth Century and WWI. This is really when the Modern History of the region can be said to begin. It is difficult to fit into the narrative of our trip, yet it is so compelling and central to what the Middle East is all about that it cannot be glanced over for the sake of making this more easily read. As such, it simply cannot be glibly trivialized and dismissed in a few paragraphs. Therefore, a somewhat longer-than-Sesame Street version of the events is worthwhile.

For the sake of simplicity, I’ve assumed the starting point of Israel’s modern history to be the rise of Zionism which, in reaction to growing anti Semitism, got underway in 1897 when Theodor Hertzl convened the First Zionist Congress in Basel. This group eventually became the forerunner of the Israeli Government. In 1948, the State of Israel was finally established after nearly two thousand years of Jewish dispersal, and after 55 years of epic efforts to create a Jewish homeland. The more than 70 years since Israeli independence have been marked by seemingly endless wars with neighboring Arab states and the Palestinian-Arabs, followed by endless negotiations. Nevertheless, peace has been achieved with Egypt and with Jordan, and Israel’s democracy, or more properly its theocracy, has survived under difficult circumstances. Indeed, the country has prospered despite war, ethno-religious conflict, boycotts, and mass immigration and terror attacks. Since the creation of the Jewish state, the percentage of the world’s Jews in Israel has grown. At present, about 40% of the world’s Jewish population consists of Israeli residents. This is not surprising, as evidence of a Jewish presence in Israel dates back 3,400 years, back to the formation of the religion. Over the course of this long history, the Jews have been dispersed several times and then returned from exile, buttressed by the power and influence of the Old Testament.

By the 19th century, the Land of Israel was populated mostly by Muslim and Christian Arabs, as well as Jews, Greeks, Druze, Bedouins and other minorities. In 1844, Jews constituted the largest population group in Jerusalem and by 1890 an absolute majority in the city. But it was a relatively small majority of the whole population, as it made up far less than 10% of the region. When the British conquered the area in 1917, they named it “Palestine” and defined, by Mandate from the League of Nations, the national boundaries of the Middle East, including modern Israel, the West-Bank, Gaza and Jordan among others. In the meantime, anti-Semitism, pogroms and the growth of nationalism in Europe led to an increase in the number of Jews who considered the possibility of re-establishing themselves as an independent nation. As indicated above, the First Zionist Congress proclaimed the decision “to establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine” and that decision was affirmed under international law. The movement made little political progress before the First World War in 1914. It was regarded with suspicion by the Ottoman rulers of the Holy Land. Zionism attracted religious Jews, secular nationalists and left-wing socialists. Socialists aimed to reclaim the land by working on it and formed collectives, like Kibbutz’s. This was accompanied by Revival of the Hebrew language.
During World War I, the British sought and got Jewish support in the fight against Germany. As part of the consideration for this, the British foreign minister, Lord Balfour, promulgated the Balfour Declaration of 1917, stating that “…the British Government favored the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”.

After World War I, the League of Nations formally endorsed the terms of the Balfour Declaration, requiring the creation of an independent Jewish Agency that would administer Jewish affairs in Palestine. Britain signed an additional treaty with the USA (which did not join the League of Nations) in which the USA endorsed the terms of the mandate. Arab attacks on isolated Jewish settlements and British failure to protect the Jews, led to the creation of Jewish militia dedicated to defending Jewish settlements. That was the birth of the Palmach and the Haganah. Following the 1929 Arab riots, the Revisionist Zionist leader, Jabotinsky, created a right-wing quasi-terrorist militia called the Irgun, which merged in the thirties with the Haganah and the even more militant “Stern Gang”. Eventually, this rise in military capacity evolved into today’s well respected “Israel Defense Force”. Jewish immigration grew slowly in the 1920s. However, the increased persecution of European Jews by the European Fascist powers (such as the Third Reich) resulted in a marked increase in Jewish immigration. Concerned that sympathy for the Palestinian Arabs would damage Anglo-Arab/Muslim relations, Britain responded by creating a Royal Commission chaired by Lord Peel. The Peel Commission recommended the partition of Palestine into two separate autonomous regions for Jews and Arabs, with Britain maintaining overall control of the territory, including a population transfer to secure full separation between the communities. The proposals were rejected as unworkable by the British Parliament.

However, in 1939, the increasing probability of a major war in Europe prompted Britain to focus on Arab goodwill and prevent immigration by the growing numbers of Jews trying to enter Palestine. The result was the 1939 White Paper which restricted Jewish immigration to 75,000 and a promise to establish an independent Palestine under Arab majority rule within the next ten years. The White Paper was published in November, 1938, two weeks after Germany annexed the Sudetenland. The night it was published a massive pogrom took place in Germany and some 30,000 Jews were sent to concentration camps, 200 synagogues were destroyed and 91 Jews murdered. The White Paper was passed into law by Parliament in May, 1939, a few weeks after Chamberlin folded to Hitler’s demands and acquiesced to Germany annexing the rest of Czechoslovakia. The White Paper broke with the terms of the British Mandate decreed by the League of Nations as well as with the Balfour Declaration.

In March 1940, the British High Commissioner for Palestine issued an edict banning Jews from purchasing land in 95% of Palestine. In 1943 the USSR released the Revisionist Zionist leader, Menachem Begin from the Gulag and he migrated to Palestine and increased his conflict with the British. Begin’s family had been murdered by the Nazis; any action in support of the Germans was anathema to him. At about the same time Yitzhak Shamir escaped from the camp in Eritrea where the British had been holding him without trial and assumed command of the Stern Gang. From 1939 to 1945, the WW II years, 72% of European Jews were murdered, including my parents.

The Second World War had turned all surviving Jews in central Europe into refugees. Almost all wanted to leave Europe, and many opted to move to Palestine. A stream of small boats carrying stateless (and paperless) illegal immigrants caused the British to take counter measures against the Jewish community, and in June 1946 the British arrested thousands of Jews, including the leadership of the Jewish Agency, holding them without trial. In July, 1946, continued anti-Semitism and pogroms in Eastern Europe impelled the drive to escape the Continent.

Meanwhile, in Palestine, the Haganah, Irgund and related Jewish resistance militias, like the Stern Gang, decided to form a unified Jewish resistance movement against the British, who saw the tide of immigration as a threat to their governance. The union of the parties in the Jewish resistance broke up over the July 1946 bombing of the British Military Headquarters in Palestine at the King David Hotel. The bombing killed 92 people, most of them civilians. In the days following the attack, Tel-Aviv was placed under curfew and over 120,000 were interrogated. The British government decided to imprison illegal Jewish immigrants to Palestine, holding them indefinitely and without trial on Cyprus. The prisoners were mostly holocaust survivors, including children and orphans. They were later moved to Palestine and interned at a rate of 750 a month. The hostile climate that prevailed during this period was so acute that many had to remember the fact that WW II was over and that the Brits were actually the good guys!

Our Tour included the visit to an internment camp which had been mothballed and turned into an historic exhibit. For me it was real enough and brought back memories of WW II when, eons ago, I had visited my father in a very different time and place, what was really a very similar camp. Clearly this was not a Nazi Death Camp, but it did manage to evoke the degrading experiences of forced detention under more or less abysmal living conditions. Also related to this aspect of Israel, we visited the Palmach Museum in Tel Aviv and several other places that together, sent a strong message about the country’s fearsome military might and how it got there. The Palmach, we learnt was really the root of Israel’s military establishment having been formed as a strike force in 1941, and counting at least three future Israeli Premiers among its veterans as well as such celebrated martial icons as Moshe Dayan. After we returned to the US, we rounded out our education by renting Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint’s video “Exodus” and Kirk Douglas’s movie: “Cast a Giant Shadow”. In all three videos, the Palmach, the Irgund and the Haganah are prominently mentioned in Israel’s struggle for independence and Arab aggression.

After the Palmach museum, we went on to walk around, the impressive Tank Division Memorial in Latrun which was so prominent in the 6 day war; and we ended at a naval base, squeezing ourselves inside what seemed a completely functioning a submarine. Also, as part of our visit we were also guided through a Kibbutz established to hide a clandestine underground munitions factory housed under the communal laundry. We were told that the noise generated by the washing equipment, effectively dampened that emanating from the munitions manufacturing process. All these sites were replete with lots of audio visual presentations and, of course, the ubiquitous tour buses were always there in full force. The overwhelming feeling at the end of these visits was that Israel is a fearsome, as well as fearless, determined, unrelenting, well capitalized, nation, well armed and well mobilized, in a constant state of defense readiness, and to say the least, supremely capable of defending itself against the most overwhelming odds.

The modern history of Israel culminated in 1948 when Israel at last becomes an independent Nation. Britain decided for, I am sure, good and sufficient reasons to refer the Palestine problem to the UN and on May 14, 1948, David Ben Gurion (the first Prime Minister of Israel), publicly pronounced the Declaration of the State of Israel as he stood beneath a large portrait of Theodore Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism. In September, 1947, one month after partition of India, the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine recommended partition of Palestine, a suggestion ratified by the UN General Assembly on November 29, 1947. The result envisaged the creation of two states, one Arab and one Jewish, with the city of Jerusalem to be under the direct administration of the United Nations. And that’s where we are still to-day.

Fighting between the Arab and Jewish communities of Palestine began in November 1947, immediately after the UN decision to create a Jewish state. The Arab States declared they would greet any attempt to form a Jewish state with war. The fighting spread as the British gradually withdrew. The Arab League could not invade before the British withdrew, but planned to invade the day after the British left. In this phase, before the British departure, the struggle was a civil war. Arab forces consisted of village militias buttressed by the Arab Liberation Army, a force composed largely of Arab volunteers from across the Middle-East, but which included European mercenaries, British deserters, German Nazis and veterans of the Croatian Waffen SS. The Jews had their militias as well, including many World War II veterans and a professional force several thousand strong called the Palmach. Initially, the Arabs had the advantage, as the British maintained an embargo on Palestine’s seas preventing the Jews from importing arms or man power, while Arab states could supply local Arabs, who also occupied more strategic areas and out-numbered the Jews. The Jews, however, were better organized and believed themselves to be fighting for their lives. Jewish taxes had funded both the British army in Palestine and British support for the Arab population, so the Jewish economy benefited from the British departure while the Arab economy collapsed as the war expanded. The Jews had an independent taxation system through the Jewish Agency and could raise funds more effectively. In the early stages 100,000 Palestinian Arabs, mainly the upper-classes and better off, fled to neighboring states. Before May, 1948, 150,000 more fled or were evicted during fighting as the Jews slowly overpowered the Arab forces. Jewish preparation for the Arab invasion led to the eviction of hostile Arab communities who controlled access routes. In Haifa, the Arab Higher Committee (which was based in Syria) refused to allow a negotiated cease fire with the Jews or allow the Arab population to remain under Jewish control, thus contributing to the departure of the city’s Arab population. There was particularly heavy fighting on the road to Jerusalem, which was cut off from the rest of the country. This led the Jews to destroy most of the Arab villages along the narrow route they eventually established between Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv. The impending Arab invasion provided an incentive for Palestinian-Arabs to leave in the expectation that they would soon return. In 1948, Jews were known as a nation with no military tradition, who had been easily slaughtered over the preceding century, while the Arabs were a famous warrior nation and an Arab victory was widely anticipated.

On May 14, 1948, the last British forces left Haifa, and the Jewish Agency, led by David Ben-Gurion, declared the creation of the State of Israel, in accordance with the 1947 UN Partition Plan. Both U.S. President Harry S. Truman and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin immediately recognized the new state. Arab League members Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq declared war and announced their rejection of the UN partition decision. They claimed the right of self-determination for the Arabs of Palestine over the whole of Palestine. Saudi-Arabia and Sudan also sent forces to participate in the invasion. The invading Egyptian and Iraqi armies were poorly trained and equipped, as the British had feared they would support the Nazis during the Second World War. The Jordanian “Arab Legion” however, was well trained and had aided the British in Palestine. Many Arab Legion forces were still in Palestine when the British left. Arab Legion commanders were high-ranking British officers. The invading Arab armies were initially successful but met far harder Jewish resistance than they expected, causing them to slow their advance. Following the announcement of independence, the Haganah became the Israel Defense Forces and the Palmach were required to join and cease independent existence. Large numbers of Jewish immigrants, many of them World War II veterans and Holocaust survivors now began arriving, and many joined the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). When the fighting resumed, Israel gained the upper hand. In March 1949, after many months of battle, a permanent ceasefire went into effect and Israel’s interim borders, later known as the Green Line, were established. Following the ceasefire declaration, Britain released over 2,000 Jewish prisoners it was holding on Cyprus and recognized the state of Israel. On May 11, 1949, Israel was admitted as a member of the United Nations.

The war for Israel’s Independence was the costliest in its history. Out of a Jewish population of 650,000, some 6,000 men and women were killed in the fighting, including 4,000 soldiers in the IDF. The exact number of Arab losses is unknown, but the estimates ranged from 10,000 to 15,000. According to United Nations figures, 711,000 Palestinians left Israeli-controlled territory between 1947 and 1949 and, over the next twenty years 850,000 Jews (almost the entire Jewish population) left the Arab world. At the end of the war, Egypt remained in occupation of the Gaza Strip and Jordan annexed the “West Bank” and eastern Jerusalem, including the Old City. The new state established a 120-seat parliament, the Knesset, which first met in Tel Aviv but moved to Jerusalem after the 1949 ceasefire. In January 1949, Israel held its first elections. The first President of Israel was Chaim Weizmann. David Ben-Gurion was elected prime minister. Early on, a religious status quo agreement was reached between Ben-Gurion and the Rabbinate. One component of the agreement was the exemption of seminary students and orthodox women from military service. Zionists, led by David Ben-Gurion predictably dominated Israeli politics and the economy was run along primarily socialist lines.

In 1950, the Knesset passed the Law of Return, which granted all Jews and those of Jewish ancestry and their spouses, the right to migrate to and settle in Israel and gain citizenship. As a result, mass immigration doubled and the new Jewish population bolstered by some 700,000 immigrants, left an indelible imprint on Israeli society. Most immigrants were either Holocaust survivors or Jews fleeing Arab lands. The largest groups were from Iraq, Romania and Poland, although immigrants arrived from all over Europe and the Middle East. From 1948 to 1958, the population rose from 800,000 to two million and thus we can trust to the future that having survived such a turbulent history up to this point, there is no question that Israel is not only here to stay but also seems destined to remain a major player on the world stage. We can hope however that it assumes this role with better cheers than has been engendered by its past!

For Nancy, Joyce and I, this was clearly a trip for the ages. Despite the inconveniences, the attitudes and the drudgery of some of the sites on our itinerary, it was a transforming experience. However, I think that for all three of us, while it was a very satisfying expedition, we know that in a small corner of our mind, we are glad we won’t ever have to do it again. As for me, I feel relieved that in 1947, when I had the choice to go either to the US or to Israel, I opted for the US. And while I have never felt guilty about that decision, I’m sorry that it took over 60 years to go and see what Israel is all about.