It's a snowy January day in Madaba, Jordan in the year 2022. I have been on a journey since the beginning of December 2021 to change the paradigm of my life. I have spent five weeks in Sharm El Sheikh, South Sinai, Egypt. My second time in Sharm. And now I am finishing up my journey in Jordan, after spending three weeks exploring, Madaba, Wadi Rum and Petra. (Yes, I climbed all over Petra.) However, the highlight of Petra was experiencing Petra at night. As I walked through the candlelit, Siq, (a narrow rock canyon) I was transported into a magical realm. The Siq leads you to the Nabatean city of Petra. Candles are lit up on the desert floor as you are greeted by the famous treasury building of the Nabateans.
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| The Treasury At Petra, Jordan |
Right now, I am staying at a VRBO apartment in Madaba. The family who owns the apartment are delightful. If you don't know Madaba is the home to Mount Nebo. Mt. Nebo is where the Israelites settled before entering Canaan, modern day Israel. Moses has said to have died on this mountain. After Moses's death, Joshua became the leader of the Israelites, and brought them into the land of Canaan in 1200 B.C.E.
Fast forward to the year 2022, it is cloudy, dreary and cold. It's around 7:00 in the morning and a taxi driver, a friend of the family from the apartment is picking me up to enter Israel through the West Bank. I originally wanted to fly out of Amman, Jordan to Tel Aviv. However, the cost was astronomical because instead of flying directly to Tel Aviv, the Jordanian government has the airlines fly from Amman, Jordan and go all the way west to Istanbul, Turkey, only to come back to the Middle East to Tel Aviv.
So, here I am in the car going to the Israeli border and crossing the river Jordan as a solo traveler. This will be my second time in Israel.
As I am getter closer to the border, I see billboards with men with machine guns, with masks and turbines on their heads ready to fight. The words on the billboard were in Arabic, and I didn't want to ask the driver, what did the words mean? I am thinking to myself, oh my God this is Hamas or Hezbollah, wanting to recruit people into their cause. But at the same time, there is beautiful sunlight streaming down from the heavens overlooking Israel.
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| The Jordan Valley Overlooking Israel |
So now, I am at the Jordanian border with the West Bank. A Jordanian man helps me with all my paperwork to get across the Jordan river. They take my passport, and I am concerned if I will get it back. They give me my passport 10 minutes later. And then I get on a bus, as I am the only one on the bus besides the driver. We have to go through a check point, show my passport and then we cross what looked like a footbridge over the Jordan river.
I am now on the other side, the West Bank. I get off the bus and right away my luggage is thrown into a conveyer belt along with my purse. I pick up my luggage and I get to an agent, and she says, you have to wait for the time on your card which is 11.00, it is now 9:00 in the morning.
So I wait, I go back to the agent at 11:00, and there is a problem. She said, my covid test is not valid then she said, it is valid. Then she said, you have to reapply for entry online. So, I go back online and there is a problem with the website. Now, I am being interrogated, the agent is asking me where were my parents were born? What are their names? She kept asking me over and over again. They wanted proof where I was staying in East Jerusalem. I had to provide proof. Now, I don't have my phone and computer lined up and this is a problem now.
For five hours, I am being interrogated, the Israelis were not going to let me in. They had suspicions I had a Jordanian passport, because 99.99% of tourists are not entering Israel through this border. Finally, they let me enter Israel through the West Bank.
In this time period one had to take a covid test, as you left a country and then when you enter another country. So, I took the test, had to get a taxi from the station. The Taxi driver drove me to Jerusalem. I am staying at an Airbnb, a five-minute walk to the old city with the Damascus Gate and the New Gate right at my fingertips.
My entry through the West Bank was an invaluable experience. Israel has control over this border as well as Gaza. I feel that is part of the conflict, the Palestinians don't have control over their borders. However, if the Palestinians had control over the borders, would they be as tough as the Israelis? Probably not. And that puts Israel in a very vulnerable position.
My first trip to Israel, I wasn't aware that 28 countries in the world DO NOT recognize Israel. It was an eye-opening experience, to realize Israel is not recognized. I left Israel asking myself, how long does the state of Israel, have left?
The Israel-Hamas war started on Simchat Torah, for those of you who don't know, this holiday ends a cycle and starts a new one. All services start reading from the beginning of the Torah (the Old Testament) from the Book of Genesis and onward, through all the books and completes next year at the same holiday.
Israel has a right to exist. Just like the Palestinians have a right to exist, but without terrorists' groups controlling them.
Israel and Jews are the scapegoats for our society. In her book, The Scapegoat Complex, Jungian Analyst Sylvia Perera says, "In the Western World the scapegoat role has fallen onto Jews and other minorities. These groups have often carried values needed by society as a whole, but values the culture prefers to keep in the shadow."
You can see in history, “Blame the Jews, it’s their fault.” Look what’s happening right now, Israel is to be blamed for their misfortune. The world does not have empathy for Israel or the Jews.
As a scapegoat myself, I recognize the blame people put on Israel and the Jews. Since I was three years old, I grew up in a Jewish Neighbor on Long Island. And my Personal Training business attracted all Jewish people.
I am Jewish by choice. There is a great saying, Jews who have converted, were Jewish in another life and found their way home. The great Kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria declared, "In our present Aquarian Age, the souls of the Exodus generation shall again become incarnated."
Can you step back and learn about the conflict with an open mind, and about the history of Canaan, Israel, Judah, and Palestine?
