The Importance of Remembering

Yad Veshem, literally a "memorial of the names," is the Holocaust Meseum in Israel. These are a couple of pictures from the outside of the Museum: One is a Biblical quote on an archway leading to the Meseum. Another is simply a sign, Yad Veshem. And the last is a sculpture of a man who did much to save the children victims of the Holocaust. I'll have to find out his name and country of origin at a later time. The directors of the Meseum request that no pictures be taken inside, so I repspected their request. The inside of the Meseum really is quite moving. The rest of the pictures come from Har Herzl (Mount Herzl). Har Herzl is a "very nice" grave site where there are burried many political leaders (including Golde Meyer) and many soldiers. Here, the tomb of Herzl himself, one of the first British visionaries to voice his favor of a Jewish State. The other picture...just pretty.

And life goes on.

In 2003 the Frank Sinatra Cafeteria of Hebrew University was bombed by a terrorist. Hebrew University is home to many students from many different nations, ethnicities, and religions (including Muslims), so the attack was not entirely logical. Several people were killed and many injured. Since then, there have been no more attacks of this kind against Hebrew University. The tree seen here at a angle commerates the site and the event. The force of the explosion blew the tree sideways, but did not uproot it. The slanted tree has since been made into a memeorial showing the persitance of life. The cafeteria can be seen in the background of the top picture, and still serves a mean lunch.

Politics and Protests

"Olmert Go Home! Olmert Go Home!" Those were the chants coming from the protestors I went to go see one Tuesday morning at 9:30am. Except the chants were in Hebrew, which sounded more like "Olmert Habeitah! Olmert Habeitah!" Many of the protestors were army reservists frusterated with how the administration had handled the use of the reservists during the most recent war in Lebanon. The rest were disgruntled citizens with the same concerncs and complaints. The protestors wanted two things: That Olmert (Prime Minister), Peretz (Defense Minister), and Chalutz (Military Cheif of Staff) all resign. Two, that there be an official inquiry into the administration's handling of the war in Lebanon. The protest took place at 9:30am due to the fact that this was the time of a meeting between Olmert and many officials regarding the official investigation. Regarding the pictures: The night before the protest, I made my way to the camp of the "rebels" and was invited to dinner with them. Big E, featured center, spoke some English and explained to me the purpose of the protest. Moshe, to our right, had just a couple of hours before completed a protest walk from Haifa to Jerusalem, a distance of some 100 miles plus, which took a week to do. The other pictures are from the day of the protest. Security was tight, and there were two instances where I thought the police might confiscate my camera. They hate people taking pictures. The protest was peaceful and televised at that. This was about two weeks ago, and we have yet to see what will come about in the political realm, and if any of the desires of the protestors will beocme a reality.

Shepherds

In the Judean hills there are many caves. During the time of the Roman occupation the Jews hid in these caves and used them to facilitate their revolution, which was started by Rabbis, interestingly enough. After exploring the caves my friends and I came out into the light of the setting sun and got to see this Judean shepherd. So, the next time you happen to be reading the Psalms and you think of David the shepherd pasturing his sheep in the rolling green hills of a place like Ireland, think again. Maybe a picture like this is somewhat closer to reality.

We're Back...In The Negev

Finally, we're back. After a month of not being able to get any images on to this blogspot, my deepest apologies to all, here are some of the latest from Israel. Alot had happened in a month, so there will be alot of catching up to do. Hopefully this streak of being able to post prictures will continue for some time.

This is the Negev. Two thirds of Israel is the Negev, a big and, needless to say, arid desert. The grave is that of David Ben Gurion, Prime Minister of Israel and the man with the dream to transform the Negev into a land of agriculture and greenspace by redirecting the water resources of Israel. His dream has yet to come to fulfillment. The deer type animal is an Ibex. It lives in the Negev and they poop alot. It's fun to throw their poop at girls because they freak out...the girls that is, not the Ibex; they don't care. We traveled to a place in the Negev called Mizpe Ramon. It is basically a big crater. Beautiful, as you can see. Israel is trying to bring more and more tourism to the Negev, although to be honest, their are not a whole lot of incentives to go there. Great for biking and backpacking. The tourist "industry" in the Negev makes most of its money from selling bottles of water, something very important in the desert. So this is the Negev.