Northern Israel Day 2

Tonight's my second-last night in Israel. It is somewhat bittersweet. On the one hand,
I am happy to go back to Canada. I miss my family and other loved ones. On the other
hand, I have only begun to really enjoy myself. The family in Karmiel was super awesome,
particularly today. They took me on a trip today. I was taken to Rosh Hanikrah which is the Israel-Lebanon border and Akko. I didn't go there just for this picture (above). There are amazing grottos there and an incredible view. Just like this:

I was able to go into the grottos and see the waves crashing into the rock. The story behind Rosh Hanikrah was that once a train could go through there via tunnel and reach Beirut en route to Europe. It was built by the British to move ammunitions to the Egyptian front in World War II. When 1948 came and the British left, the Israelis bombed the tunnel to prevent the Lebanese army from moving in to attack Haifa via the tunnel. Here is the old rail tunnel. Beyond this rock is Lebanon.

Next we went to Akko which is a very old port that once served as a key trade route. Napoleon tried to capture it and could not. We went through the old city as seen here:

Akko is very Arab in its makeup, particularly in the old parts. When we were walking through, we could hear the muslim call to prayer from the local mosque.

We ended up dining at a restaurant located right on the waterfront. I had humous with ground beef. It was very tasty. With a beer, it came to less than $10 a person. That would have been impossible in Toronto.

What was neat about the restaurant was that next to it was a peak from where about six kids were doing diving stunts. Pola's husband Arie was able to snap this really cool photo for me of a guy jumping in mid-air. He was lucky to avoid the rocks down below:

Then again, there is nothing cooler than..............Arab Bamba!

Maybe the path to peace starts with the Arab Bamba. Let us only hope. I was certainly feeling a sense of unity seeing this. Those of you who are unaware, Bamba is the biggest snack in Israel, chalk full of peanuts and nutritional goodness.

My next post will probably be in Canada so I will now say thank you to Israel for great times. It is time to go back to normal life in Canada. To work and study but with a sense that I had the chance to breathe a little. To feel somewhat liberated from the mundane and to now see that routine as always inter-changeable with the thrills of travelling. I had the chance to see Europe and Israel up close. Had the chance to visit family I had not seen in ages and to help other family members rediscover lost relatives. I have a great feeling of accomplishment from both. This trip has been completely worth it. Many circles closed. One day left.

Northern Israel

I am in Karmiel, a place that absorbed 171 katyusha rockets during the recent Lebanon War.

I came here because my second cousin Polina from my dad's side and her family live here. She is a phys-ed teacher who knows soccer so well she can even lend an opinion on the Swedish Cup. Quite amazing.

Pola as we call her has three kids: Sharon (29), Lior (25) and Sarit (24). Lior is in Los Angeles with wife and no kids. Sharon has a wife and no kids and Sarit has a boyfriend. The boyfriend is Indian Jew which is quite rare but I know there is a community around Bombay albeit tiny.

Sarit told me about the horrors of the katyusha rockets. She told me that the first time a rocket fell, she was in complete shock. Nobody expected Karmiel to be hit as it is surrounded by Arab villages like Majd-al-Krum and Dir-el-Assad. Those villages were hit and there were deaths sadly.

Most of the shelling was not accompanied by an initial siren. Lots of running into the shelter located in the home. Sarit lost weight and hair. It was quite the stressful experience. One occasion she claims to be particularly stressful, was when they took a chance that there would be no bombs and they drove somewhere. The missiles began to rain down and they started driving at 120 km/h until they figured they had gone enough south beyond the rockets' range.

All in all, Karmiel absorbed 171 rockets. Other places were much worse. Kiryat Shemona which is a stone's throw from the Lebanese border, absorbed about 4,000. Safed and Nahariyya were hit quite bad too. Nahariyya had a case where a woman got out on her balcony and was killed by a direct strike.

There could have been a similar situation in Karmiel. I saw a balcony where the missile went right through it and hit the road. Beyond the actual impact of the strike is the fact that a hit generated a spread of hundreds of round ball bearings that could go as far as 100 metres. That particular strike caused damage to all the cars parked in the street that day.

I could not take a good photo of that balcony but I have posted here a few photos of missile damage and piercings caused by the ball bearings.


Note the piercings on the wall caused by ball bearings. Ground zero was about 20 feet from this side of the house.











This photo was taken in another site. A high
school was hit and the windows are still pierced.
However, they were too dark and far away to
take a photo of so I snapped some nearby.
Note the piercings of the ball bearings right
through this steel pole. The pole was 40 feet
away from ground zero where the missile
struck.

Here is a shot taken from the same area. This road sign is still down, not yet fixed now two weeks after the war. I know the sign looks like it is up but it is actually lying on the ground, probably torn from its foundation by the ground shaking upon impact of the rocket.

The proof is in the photo below.















Along the way, I saw a house whose roof has not yet been fixed. It has no attic as the roof is completely damaged. I couldn't take a photo of it as I was too far away when I saw it. All in all, quite the eye-opening tour. I feel for the people who had to go through this and I also feel for the innocents of Lebanon. War sucks.