june 15, 1999 upper galilee, kibbutz machanayim alright. now well-armed with millennia of bloody middle eastern history, i bus my way up north to the refreshingly green and fertile upper galilee, right on the southwest border of the also lovely but beleaguered golan heights. i've found another" servas" host, and i'm really looking forward to spending a couple of days on a real live kibbutz. i've heard about these idealistic, hard-working places for most of my life, having american friends spend summers working in the fields - planting trees, sh
Middle East, 1999, chapter 18, the sea of galilee
june 17, 1999 holy christian sights in the upper galilee well, with a good night's sleep in quiet machanayim, i take advantage of my two day car rental and start out the next morning, heading south along the west coast of the "kinneret" (hebrew for the sea of galilee). i'm once again following eran's and rivka's itinerary, tracing the steps of jesus as a young man building his faith and his flock. my first holy site is tabgha, a small seaside village with an immaculately restored church and courtyard where jesus is reputed to have performed sev
Middle East, 1999, chapter 19, “tzipperese” at the mitzpeh amuka
june 18-22, 1999 mitzpeh amuka the next day, back on my own two feet again without the rental car, i'm driven by eran up over the mountain - to the mitzpeh amuka to visit my "old friend" from svat, moshe tzipper. you remember him - tzipper - the zen beatnik from the painter, mike leaf's, who tried to create a telephone "shiddach" for me? well, i've taken him up on his offer to come "visit him in the forrest". so now, i'm on my way. eran, en route to svat to see his indigent mother, explains to me that a mitzpeh is a state designated piece of
Middle East, 1999, chapter 20, belly dancing in amman
june 23, 1999 amman, jordan i've lost track of time in the magical forests of mitzpeh amuka for almost a week. so, waking up in the cool morning air one eventful morning, i decide to re-immerse myself in harsh mideastern reality again and continue my trip - by finally taking off for jordan. i've been trying to convince tzipper to go with me for days. perhaps that's one of the reasons why i've been hanging around so long. he's been to jordan before. he has a car. he knows the ropes. i'm hoping my patience and rhetoric will be rewarded. but -- life isn'
Middle East, 1999, chapter 21, pissed on and off the kings’ highway
kings' highway, jordan june 24, 1999 i'm rolling along the kings highway - racing the sun south - from amman to petra, the fabled rose-colored, sandstone-carved city of the ancient nabateans. getting a rental car on friday, in closed-for-sabbath amman has eaten up most of the day, and there's a lot to see. first stop - madaba. to make up for some of my lost time, i decide to skip jerash, the supposedly classical roman jewel in the mountains of gilead. it's a painful but necessary decision. one of the most difficult of travel. which sites to see,
Middle East, 1999, chapter 22, petra, the cliff’s notes version
june 25, 1999 petra, jordan okay. i've driven the kings' highway from daybreak and finally arrived. without incident. petra. rose colored city of the nabateans. the one must see sight in all of jordan. by eight o'clock, i've changed some money with an ATM card at the local bank of jordan in wadi musa, eaten a quick continental breakfast (even though i'm on a different continent), and i've paid my twenty dollar admission to the once-lost, but now very-found, ancient city of petra. in fact, that's my first impression of this great triumph of t
Middle East, 1999, chapter 23, wadi rum
wadi rum june 25-26, 1999 well, i've made my decision to leave petra, and i'm back on the kings' highway, again racing the sun south, this time towards wadi rum, the magical and sprawling desert of lawrence of arabia. right near the saudi border. sure, petra was not to be missed, but a desert full of thirsty, binocular-ed, and water-bottled tourists feeding off the sales-hungry locals (or was it the other way around) have turned the spectacular rose-colored landscape, the win
Middle East, 1999, chapter 24, back from aqaba – and the nba
june 27, 1999 aqaba, jordan bright, sunlit, azure blue and aquamarine green waters. deep crimson, purple, and multi-colored, live coral reefs. the gulf of aqaba. right across from egypt's great sinai peninsular. the view from the opposite, jordanian side. another quick dip in the red sea, a few arab-dressed barbie dolls from the abundant tourist shops near the docks for my nieces back in oakland, a fresh humus and green salad lunch for my exit fortification, and poof - i'm back in eilat, waiting for the last bus to jerusalem. deja vu. customs
Middle East, 1999, chapter 25, tel aviv take two – synchronicity, violence, & facades
june 28 - july 4, 1999 tel aviv wow. i'm chillin' in my own apartment in neve tzedek, the formerly old world, yemenite, now trendy, tel aviv neighborhood between the bright lights of downtown and jaffa, just about three blocks from the glistening mediterranean beach. well, maybe not quite my own. you see, i lucked out. on the way to the russian compound from the moravs in jerusalem, i made a few calls from a phone booth in rehavia and i hooked up with roni myers from south africa. i had met her at the shantipi world music festival, and she ha
Middle East, 1999, chapter 26, full circle
july 4, 1999 tel aviv - los angeles it's my last day in tel aviv. my last day in israel. my last day in the mideast. i'm going home. sad. i stick to my routine - do nothing new or out of the ordinary. i take my walk, buy leora and roni, my generous neve tzedek hosts, some fresh-cut flowers from the market, and oh yes, i buy a "USA today" - that's new. i see my maniacal candy stand vendor - from a distance - the one who threatened to bash my skull in with a club just a few days back. i make sure he doesn't spot me out of the crowd. to my surpr