Day 4 - Israel Trip

Left Tel Aviv early in the morning heading first out to Caesaria. Drove along the Med and despite the rain it was a beautiful drive. Build during time of King Herod – named after Caesar Augustus

Build 100bc – born to a Bedouin tribe – forced to be converted into Judism Became a powerful officer in the army – Romans did not know what to do, it put Jewish king in place, Jews hated Herod – built as a Roman pagan city, Flavius wrote a lot about Herod – he killed his children so they would not take power away from him. He built Masada as a place to escape to. Roman governor lived here, Pontius Pilate lived here – 7th century, Muslim came and conquered and destroyed – Crusaders in 1099 important not as a site but as a harbor and built a small city and conquered again by the Ottomans/ Deserted again – 4000 people can sit in the theater. The original walls and most of the city are in the sea but you can see the outlines of the place.

We left there and went to the Galilee Mts to Nazareth. We visited the Church of the Annunciation. The spot where the angel appeared to Mary and told her she would have a child. It is relatively new church but very interesting with the ruins that you can see underneath it. Nazareth is an Arab city today which produces a lot of tensions. When the Pope visited in 2000 the Arabs put up signs all over the city basically say there is no god but Allah. Some are still up

We then left and drove down to the Sea of Galilee (which in reality is a lake not a sea) and up to the Golan Heights. To quote Henry Kissenger, you can read out it, you can study it, but until you see the territory from the heights you do not understand it. I now understand much better why the Israelis do not want to return it to the Syrians. We then drove across the Heights – which is a plateau about 80 miles long – all overlooking Israel – to the Sea of Galilee and the town of Tiberious for lunch at a place called Decks. It was right on the Sea and the food was outstanding.

After that we drove to Jerusalem along the Jordan Valley. By this time it was dark and we were not able to see very much. We arrived in Jerusalem about 7pm just in time to go to dinner. Tomorrow will have meetings again all day starting with breakfast.