An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings
Archive for Israel
Trip Recap - Links
After I recuperate, I’ll share some thoughts about what I learned while on vacation, but for now, I’m putting all the links here for the benefit of Cindy, Vicki, Marty, and….dang, I need some sleep…you know who you are!
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Playing Tourist On Day 13
I had no idea how terrific it was to actually sleep till 8 am, but ya know, I could get use to that again. Since it was our last day in Israel, and we were pretty much on our own for a while, we decided taking it easy would be a good idea. Little did I know….
We sat on the mini sized ‘veranda’ for a bit watching folks down on the beach. It finally occurred to me to snap a couple of shots of our view.
Look to the right, and you see….
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Who Knew….
….that some of the BEST Italian food could be found in Israel? Yeah…came as quite a shock to me too. We’re not talking just pasta type stuff, although they did have a few varieties of that too. No, I’m talking about a chunk of veal, cooked in port and some type of berries. Tonight was the first time I finished an entire meal in months…it was THAT good!
We had a leisurely stroll back to the hotel, where I promptly got my hand smushed in the elevator door. I thought the dadburn things were suppose to automatically open if a person, or a part of a person was detected by the sensors? Evidently, not only are the front desk folks rude, but so is their elevator. No, no broken bones, as best I can tell, but I sure am going to have one heck of a bruise, back and palm. Naturally, I let out a yelp that brought one of the employees running…sorta, and the Mr decided it best to see what happened instead of talking to the yahoos at the desk. For some reason, they both thought it just surprised me. Well, DUH! Getting a hand smushed is always a surprise, but I do believe there was some pain involved, which is what caused the yelp!
I think I’ve got everything packed the way I want it for tomorrow, stuff I’ll need on the plane, stuff Avi is going to ship back for us, and stuff, well, lots of dirty closes and a few trinkets in the big suitcase to be checked. Sorry to say, some of the stuff we got for a few folks will be following us…hopefully, within the next month. I’m not sure why it wasn’t shipped last week, but hey, what do I know, right? We could have done it ourselves, and it would have been there within days of us getting home. 
I get the impression tomorrow is going to end up being much longer than it normally would be. Like maybe 28 hours, intsead of just the usual 24.
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Playing Tourist On Day 12
Well, honestly, we didn’t play tourist all that much. We switched from one good hotel to one crappy hotel. Why is it crappy? Not because it’s run down (actually, the room is semi swanky), but because some of the reviews I read on Trip Advisor were right, the staff is less than helpful, and EXTREMELY rude.
We weren’t able to go to our room right away, so we were told they would store our luggage in a room, and the bellman take it up once it was our room was ready. What better way to spend a few hours than wandering the Old City of Jaffa, where you can buy almost anything, except Carolina Panther t-shirts.
So, we grabbed a cab and headed off, trusting our luggage would be stored and safe. Our intention was to go to the Jaffa Antiquities Museum. We mentioned this to Avi yesterday, and he said it would be a good place to go. As a professional tour guide, don’t you think he would have known it was only open to tour groups, by appointment only? sigh… So much for THAT idea. There was a pretty cool arch thingy outside though.
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An Election Mistake?
I wasn’t going to do any political posting while on vacation, but when I came across this in the Jerusalem Post, I just couldn’t stay silent.
‘Obama to endorse Arab Peace Plan’
US President-elect Barack Obama is planning to base his peacemaking efforts in the Middle East on the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, The Sunday Times reported on Sunday, quoting sources close to Obama.
That ‘Arab Peace Initiative‘ is nothing more than a large pile of male bovine excrement!
The Arab Peace Initiative, based on the Saudi peace plan of February 2002, calls for a full Israeli withdrawal from all territories taken in the Six Day War, including east Jerusalem, in exchange for normalizing ties with the Arab world.
Many of us knew BO was pro Arab, but even we didn’t know he was going to screw over one of our closest allies so quickly.
Quoting an adviser to Obama, the report states that during his visit to the Middle East in July, the President-elect said Israel would be “crazy” to refuse a deal that could “give them peace with the Muslim world.”
And I would like to say that Barack Hussein Obama is “crazy” for believing that such a reckless plan would ever bring any kind of peace to the Middle East.
According to the paper, Obama’s advisers feel that the time is right for such a deal as Arab countries fear rising radical Islamic movements and a potentially nuclear Iran. They have reportedly told Obama he shouldn’t lose time and must begin pushing his policies within his first year in office while he still enjoys maximum goodwill.
Israelis I’ve spoken to were extremely concerned about an Obama presidency, and evidently, they had good reason. If he believes that giving up land won back through war, land that has been cultivated to provide food for all citizens, Jewish and Arab Israelis, will bring about peace, then it is all too obvious he is the wrong man for the job of POTUS. The Palestinians do not want peace. They want all Jews dead, just like Adolph Hilter…who, by the way, was a great friend of Arabs during WWII. Why? They had a common goal….the eradication of the Jewish people.
“Whenever the process stalls, there will be those who will pull out the Saudi plan,” one senior official said. “And the Saudis have an interest in pushing this out there now, to put on a ‘constructive face’ with which to greet the new US president.”
Sorry, sucking up to the Palestinians, or any other Arab country, will not bring peace….not to the Middle East, or any other part of the world. Appeasement accomplishes nothing more than showing your enemies you are weak, and I fear that is exactly what the United States will be under a Obama presidency.
Also, PLEASE read this post from The Liberty Sphere.
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Playing Tourist On Day 11
Luckily this morning, we didn’t start doing the tourist thing until 10am. We had all the stuff pulled together that we are shipping home, instead of trying to lug it through the airport. Not that we’ve bought a lot of stuff, we haven’t, but even little stuff gets heavy if there’s enough of it, right?
Avi took us to see the former home of David Ben Gurion. He donated the house to the State, which of course, annoyed his offspring to no end, considering the money they could have gotten by selling it. I can’t believe how expensive even small apartments/condos are in this country….and they are twice as expensive in Tel Aviv.
It’s a rather unimposing house, with it’s own bomb shelter in the back yard. What impressed me was the library…..all three rooms of it. Books on just about every subject by all kinds of folks, even Greek philosophers.
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Playing Tourist On Day 10
This morning, we started our day right next door to the kibbutz. There is a small, but rather impressive museum, housing just one item. Well, honestly, if there are other items, we didn’t see them. This was quite a sight, all by itself. Click on the link to read all about the discovery.
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Playing Tourist On Day 9
As has become the norm, we were up bright and early, rarin’ to go! After a decent breakfast at the ‘guest house’ of the kibbutz, we’re off. (Warning: I took a lot of pictures today…be happy I’m not posting ‘em all! heh)
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Playing Tourist on Day 8
This morning we took flew back to Tel Aviv to be picked up by Avi, our guide. Now, I’ve had some issues with my first name getting through security, but this was by far, the most interesting. The guy was unbelievably polite! Honestly, TSA could learn a LOT from Israeli security folks!
We got to Tel Aviv around 11 and immediately started our trek north. First stop, Caesarea! The Mr and I both noticed this sign before heading into the park:
Well, why not! Vegetarians need love too, I suppose. 
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Playing Tourist On Day 7
We actually got to sleep a little later today. However, since we have gotten use to waking up early, sleeping till 7 was later. No major rush to go anywhere, but we did want to take in the The Underwater Observatory Marine Park here in Eilat. I’m not real big on fish stuff, but the Mr likes it, so I guess it’s only fair to let him choose what we do once in a while, right? J Well, I do kind of like looking at the different types of sea critters, I just don’t know diddly about them, other than I don’t like to eat them. They taste fishy, don’cha know.
So, we took a cab ride. The town isn’t all that big, and we thought perhaps we could walk….well HE thought maybe we could walk, I didn’t think it was such a great idea….but the lady at the tour desk said it was a bit farther than you’d think. She was right. Perhaps 30 years, and quite a few pounds ago, we could have walked it in an hour. Now? It would have taken us a couple of days, and a trip to the emergency room.
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