Israel/Palestine

Flying out of Athens on Cypress airlines, I had a layover in Larnica on the island of Cypress. First, I was a little bummed out because I could have taken Olympic Airlines direct to Tel Aviv, although the stop over in Cypress was time well spent. Larnica is a beach town on the island of [...]

Today I am in Mitzpe Ramon, known for the dramatic Maktesh Ramon Crater. Situated on the edge of the crater, Mitzpe Ramon is a quiet, lazy town. In Be’er Sheva, I couch-surfed for two nights, Saturday is the Sabbath, and everything is closed in Be’er Sheva. I am couch-surfing in Mitzpe Ramon for two nights, [...]

God has set a seal their ears and eyes and hearts. Their eyes see thins that are the opposite of what they are; they hear wisdom as gibberish and raving. Their hearts have been transformed into a home of self-love and vanity. A winter’s tangle of dark shapes and pride has possessed them. Their hearts [...]

The first three pictures are of the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul. I have seen a lot of cisterns and this is the most spectacular one built, dating back to the sixth century.Quick update: I am back in Tel Aviv from the Negev desert and will be arriving on the organic farm tomorrow. I am looking [...]

I arrived on the organic farm last Friday; I find the situation to be beneficial, despite the hard work. I do have my own room with a bathroom and a kitchenette, satellite TV and free wireless Internet is included. In addition, food is included and the family has expressed if I need anything to just [...]

I am into my second week of living on the organic farm, and everything is working out as planned. We have been busy with the strawberries—the strawberries are the moneymaker. Every morning we pick and bag lettuce and then weed, clean, and transplant the strawberry beds. This situation is ideal—good food, nice family, although busy, [...]

The fourth week of organic farming is completing; I will be staying until January 4 on the farm, which a couple from Canada will be arriving on the fourth. The family suggested to head north, and stay at their sister’s house that lives on a Kibbutz near the border of Lebanon. I will most likely [...]

I am sure you have heard from the news about the fighting in the Gaza Strip. I thought of writing about a few facts about the Gaza dilemma. An important aspect to understand is that Gaza is a welfare state supported by the West that includes the United States, Canada, the European Union, and Israel; [...]

To continue with a few facts from observing the war in Gaza, one subject to note: the outside international countries, citizens, unions, and other organizations are appalling, and ghastly, according to how they loose the prime context within the subject. There are a few subjects the media, and the third parities avoid mentioning. First, the [...]

While the bombing in Gaza continues into the second week, the Muslim world is outraged and the IDF resolves to achieve there objective of ridding the dilemma of Hamas. Updated 2/15/2009, as you can see Israel did not topple Hamas. Israel does not have a solution to the problem that they created by cutting off [...]

Today I am staying just outside of Nahariya in Northern Israel. The border of Lebanon is just over the hill. Nahariya experienced rocket attacks during the war in 2006. Today it was reported in the news that Hezbollah will refrain from attacking with rockets against Israel. The Lebanese government said they do not want the [...]

Last night three rockets were fired into Israel from Lebanon. I slept through all the excitement. One hit Nahariya and two in the field somewhere. Today there are planes and helicopters flying everywhere in the sky. Everything is fine, the way I see it, is if a there is a direct hit on the house [...]

A couple of twisters appeared on the coast yesterday prior to the thunderstorm we experienced. A tornado twister can create havoc, although most stay off shore in the sea.Today has been slightly calm. There might have been a rocket that landed near the Kibbutz late morning. The Kibbutz set off its air-raid siren followed by [...]

A few days ago I visited Akko (Arce). A colorful history surrounds Akko dating from the nineteenth BCE. Situated as an important port, Alexander the Great established a mint here in 333 BCE. The Egyptian Ptolemites took control of Akko after the death of Alexander. In 200 BCE, the Ptolemites lost Akko to the Syrian [...]

Today the sister of the family of the organic farm is driving me to her brothers house. I will have the place to myself and should be able to stay for a week, although I am going to ask if I can stay two weeks. I responded to an ad for a room with an [...]

I started a new photo site. It was a toss up between Picasa or Flickr; both sites are integrated with Mac, although Flickr and Facebook are appended to the new iPhoto 09. I decided with Flickr, and you can reach my Flickr site from the side bar, you can also subscribe to the RSS feed. [...]

I’ve been slowly contemplating different hosting sites, blogging sites, photo sites—It’s a toss up choosing what direction to pursue. Slowly, I have been studying WordPress.org, although there are several features that Blogger offers that WordPress does not, I will be sticking with blogger, but I might change the template. If I were into podcasting, and [...]

Today I arrived in Jerusalem by bus and found the flat, which is walking distance from the central bus station. The flat is basic, but clean and livable, although slightly cold. Jerusalem itself is quite cold in the winter, even though, there’s no comparison to the Upper Midwest of America at this time of year. [...]

On Friday, I went walking through the old city of Jerusalem. I found myself at the western wall and took the above picture. In addition to Islam and Orthodox/Catholic Christianity, the men in Judaism are favored over the women. The men own the largest area of the wall. Although, the wall itself is small compared [...]

The knowledge of the story of Bethlehem and the birth of Jesus is worldwide, the manger, wise men, Joseph and Mary trekking down to Bethlehem from Nazareth. The Church of Nativity found its beginning early in Christendom’s era—it’s the oldest continuously operating church. In 326, the era of corruption for the followers of Jesus, the [...]

I posted information about the First and Second temple eras of Jerusalem and of the City of David on ClearlyPersonal.com, in addition to adding many pictures. Staying in Israel for a length of time it is clearly noticeable that Western interests are manipulating the situation of the Palestinians. After the partition in 1948, nobody really [...]

A couple of days ago I wondered around East Jerusalem. Between the Damascus Gate and the Herod Gate remains a rock quarry that dates from the times of King Solomon. During the era of the first temple, this rock quarry provided stone for many building which they used throughout the ages. Today, the entrance is [...]

I posted an article concerning the travel industry and writers on Clearlypesonal.com. Interesting enough, just today a popular travel blogger decided to surface his honesty despite what other travel writers or bloggers might think. Nomadic Matt revealed there is no secrets to long term travel. It’s true, there are no tricks to the trade. Using [...]

Masada, situated high above the Dead Sea, the rock flat plateau is where King Herod built an impressive palace. Masada proved to be the last bastion for the Jewish Zealots against Rome in 73/74 CE. In the end the Jewish Zealots killed each other with the last committing suicide.The story of Masada was recorded from [...]

I visited Jericho today that is considered Palestine. How is the region considered Palestine? Entering Jericho you have to drive through an Israeli checkpoint, half a kilometer we pass a checkpoint of the Palestinian police/authority, they gave us a piece of candy as a welcome gesture. Entering Jericho you view the Palestinian flag, their cars [...]

The last few days I have been driving around the North and the Golan. I met a young person at the hostel in Haifa and invited him to see Megiddo and Beit-She’an; two places that are difficult to visit independently like most of the sites here in Israel. We discussed and agreed that Israel is [...]

I decided to head back to Haifa today, I will visit Caesarea tomorrow with the car. Today I drove the Golan, and on the way back to Haifa, I drove through Cana, and Nazareth, two predominately Arabs towns. In the Bible, Cana is the town that Jesus turned the water into wine; Cana is just [...]

When exposing the truth of a government, religion, or a cultural entity, it is crucial to not generalize and combined the common people within the context. Generalizing the common people, racism is at the doorstep; people are a product of their upbringing, most are subjected to automatic behaviors and do not know any better because [...]

I just posted over 300 pictures of Israel to Shutterfly. I have a few more important articles concerning about Israel I will be posting.

Throughout the three months of visiting Israel, I have continually searched for the truth of what happened from the partition of Palestine in November 1947 to the time the Jews proclaimed their independent state in May of 1948, which the Arab states attacked. The younger generation is clueless within their opinionated colorization of the situation. [...]

I received an anonymous comment and here is my response. Here is a fine example when a person attempts to justify the subject by changing the context. Keep in mind the context of the article is the Jews entering Palestine through the door of war. Anonymous has left a new comment on your post “The [...]