The Goodman’s Blog

Chapter 83

November 2019 ALIYAH IN OUR 60’s FROM ARLINGTON HTS, IL TO CAESEREA, ISRAEL (Part 83)

SUZANNE & HOWIE GOODMAN

Howie and Suzanne Goodman were valued members at Beth Judea until they decided to make aliyah in 2009. The Goodmans have agreed to provide us with a blog on their experiences as new olim in Israel. Though we continue to miss the Goodmans, we can all look forward to reading about their adventures in Israel through their blog.

Aliyah in Our 60’s –November 2019 - Part 83

We hope you had very nice holidays.

Howie had his 75th birthday on September 30th, the first day of Rosh Hashanah, and we were in shul. Our daughter and son-in-law, Beverly and Dani, wanted to do something special to celebrate, so Dani suggested a day trip to the Golan Heights on October 2nd. The grandchildren had school, so it was only the adults.

Most of us know the history of what is called “The Golan.” It was captured from Syria in 1967 by Israel. Among other things, Syria wanted to block the sources of water for the Kinneret (Sea ofGalilee, ed.) and fired artillery and rockets into cities in Israel such as Metula and Kiryat Shmona. A Netflix movie,

Map showing The Golan “The Spy,” shows Israeli spy Elle Cohen learning a lot about Syrian military plans. We also wrote in a newsletter about a year ago about a three-day tiyul in the Golan. Our earlier tiyul concentrated on the Golan near Syria

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Howie was excited since Dani had just been on active duty in the Golan near the Lebanese Border. He also knew the military history of the 1967 and 1973 wars as well as the incursions of the IDF into Lebanon in the 1980’s through 2000.

From Caesarea, it is about a two-hour drive to the Lebanese Israeli border. We traveled through the Hula Valley, and Dani pointed out where his headquarters was for his active duty in early September. We stopped for breakfast at a center filled with restaurants and enjoyed a true Israeli breakfast. As we were eating, the owner/chef of the restaurant greeted Dani. The chef’s father, who was a recon person in Dani’s infantry company, arrived.

We then continued to travel north and arrived in Metula. Metula is the furthest northern city in Israel and is on the Lebanon border. It is about 3 miles from Lebanon. The population is about 1400 residents. It is one of the wealthiest moshavim, or agricultural settlements. A moshav is a joint effort farming group and smaller in Israel. Metula was founded by Russian immigrants in the late 1890’s. Baron de Rothschild bought the land from a Lebanese Christian.

Over 150 rockets were fired at Metula during the 2006 war with Hezboulah in Lebanon, and it became a ghost town during the conflict. Up until 2000, when Israel left southern Lebanon, there was “The Good Fence,” where Lebanese residents would come to receive medical assistance from Israel and have jobs in Israel established.

Wikipedia states the following: Hagader Hatova) was a term that referred to :הגדר הטובה :The Good Fence (Hebrew“ Israel's mountainous 80-mile northern border with Lebanon. The beginning of the Good Fence coincides with the beginning of the civil war in Lebanon in 1976 and Israeli support for the predominantly-Maronite militias in southern Lebanon in their battle with the PLO. From 1977, Israel allowed the Maronites and their allies to find employment in Israel and provided assistance in exporting their goods through the Israeli port city of Haifa. The main border crossing through which goods and workers crossed was the Fatima Gate crossing near Metula. This provided essential economic stability to the administration of the Free Lebanon State and the later South Lebanon security belt administration.

Israel states that before 2000, approximately one-third of the ophthalmology patients at Western Galilee Hospital were Lebanese who crossed the border through the Good Fence and received treatment free of charge.

The Good Fence ceased to exist with Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 and disintegration of the South Lebanon security belt administration and the SLA militia.”

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We walked around an area of hotels and shops in Metula. It has many bed and breakfast places and is quite a charming location. The Canadian Center has an ice rink and the city has a hockey team. There is a lookout called the “Duda Outlook.” It is perched on the upper slopes of the hill southwest of Metula with spectacular views. To the south you can see the Hula Valley, to the east the Golan (including Mt Hermon and the twin volcanoes of Avital and Bental), and to the north the fields and hills of Lebanon: the Ayoun Valley is in the foreground, while on the horizon it’s easy to spot Beaufort Castle, a Crusader fortress in Lebanon. The day we were there was very overcast, and it did Metula looking into Lebanon not clear up until late afternoon.

We also stopped at a crusader period fortress near Metula.

Dani had a military topographic map. He pointed out where we were and showed where Bev and Dani many battles were fought in 1967 and 1973, as well Suzanne and old Howie as the operations into southern Lebanon throughout the years from 1985 to the present. He knew the stories and names of all the commanders of these battles.

We then drove near the Nimrod Fortress which we wrote about in our September newsletter. As we were heading for a Druze Village for a late lunch, Howie mentioned to Dani that he had not been to Mount Hermon. In a second, Dani turned our car and said we were going to Mount Hermon! This is a peak that is about 7300 feet above sea level and the highest point in any part of Israel or the annexed area of the Golan Heights. There is a UN outpost at about 9400 feet that is called the “UN Hotel”. It is the highest location of UN peace keeping forces and separates Lebanon forces from Israeli forces.

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It was quite a ride on a lengthy serpentine road that finally led us to a location that had snow plows lined up! This is where Israelis go to snow ski in Israel.

We couldn’t reach the peak because the road was closed Plows at Mt. Hermon by IDF personnel.

Ski lifts

There are four remaining Druze villages in the Israeli-annexed portion of the Golan Heights - Majdal, Shams, Mas'ade, Buq'ata, and Ein Qiniyy - in which 23,000 Druze live.

We ate lunch in Mas’ade and then started the two-hour trip home. Dani drove next to the fence separating Lebanon from Israel. There are many areas with signs warning of land mines. He also pointed out where the Israeli IDF vehicle was fired upon in September and the attempt to fool the Lebanese into believing they had wounded our troops.

The elections for the forming of a new government in Israel seems like the movie Groundhog Day. Nothing has been resolved. The Blue and White party was given the chance to form a government by President Rivlin but chose not to attempt the challenge. The final official numbers gave Blue and White 32 seats, while Likud had 31 seats. Neither party can reach a coalition of 61 seats without a unity government of both parties.

Likud is now trying to form a government and has until December 18th to be successful. As of the 10th of October, it doesn't appear to be a possibility. Will there be a third election? No one believes that can happen without a real backlash from the voters. What that would mean is difficult to predict.

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Our Shearim September tiyul (day trip by bus) was to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art which we have visited on a previous trip. Currently they are showing an unusual exhibit for an art museum. It is called “Solar Guerrilla; Constructive Responses to Climate Change”. The exhibit deals with global warming that has become a serious issue.

You Tube on Watergen opening plants in USA https://youtube/cKK12lmbiTs

We all must agree that this has become a concern and has developed into a political debate. The museum guide seemed to have a script and got off to a bad start when she quoted some misinformation. Someone in the group started shaking his head and pointing his finger, which caused her to react and scold us on our manners. We looked up some of stories and things she stated, and they were incorrect. Several of our group wrote notes to the museum correcting her on giving political misinformation. We felt her responsibility was to explain the exhibit and not give political views. Anyway, it was an interesting display of the methods cities have used to try to cut down on pollution. They had one of the machines (Watergen) that has been invented in Israel to convert hydrogen to water. Sadly, it wasn’t working that day.

Tel Aviv Museum of Art has an outstanding permanent collection, and the guide explained other artworks including some by Monet.

After the tour, we had some time to look at a few other exhibits on our own. One different exhibit was The Thread, a 15-minute video by Hans Op de Beeck. It is a love story between two life sized puppets and is operated in Japanese Bunraki style.

Another interesting exhibit was Yael Burstein’s Pure Hard White World, a contemporary collection done in black, white and brown. It is displayed on a pure white carpet that requires taking off you shoes or putting on “booties” before entering to keep it clean. One of the works which we are sending a picture looks like someone put their fist through a wall.

The museum is continually acquiring new works and has areas of the museum for children to experience art.

After the tour we were free to enjoy lunch. Seven of us went to a coffee restaurant bar named Dovnov a few steps from the museum. It is mostly outdoor tables, had English menus, good service, and the food was excellent. We enjoyed delicious fresh salads, spaghetti and sandwiches with lemonada (lemonade) with fresh mint. Prices were very reasonable. We highly recommend this place if you visit the museum, Opera House, or are in the neighborhood on your trip to Israel. .

Page 6 ALIYAH IN OUR 60’s (continued from previous page) Beautiful Caesarea beach with aqueducts is a short walk from our house, and we go there often. We pick up plastic cups and bottles that are left by others. In September our scientist daughter heard that an organization was doing an official clean up event at Caesarea beach, and she grabbed the kids and us to check it out. Yarok, which means green in English, is a new organization that has begun doing clean up events at different beaches in Israel. They set up tents on the beach where volunteers explain the

Alon our seven-year-old grandson with cigarette butts Garbage collection site Movie about sea turtles. pick up and pile up the bags of garbage that is collected. Plastic bottles with tops cut off were given to kids to collect cigarette butts. It is a “contest” for the kids, and they were rewarded with drinks and popcorn. The drinks were served in metal cups which were washed in tubs instead using of disposable cups. The popcorn was given out in a cone of paper. They had a huge shelter tent with a big movie screen showing an ecological cartoon movie about turtles. Families could relax there and get out of the sun. It was fun, and we hope that it will create more awareness. We wonder why people using the beach can’t simply take everything they bring home and leave our beach as they found it. Kol ha kavod (congratulations) to Yarok.

We continue to work on our project to repurpose our synagogue and community center. We still need additional funds to meet our goal but are getting a bit closer. For the newsletter after this one, we will have been on a tiyul to Dimona and will share that event with you.

Shalom!

-The opinions expressed are those of the authors and may not represent those Congregation Beth Judea- ed. Suzanne and Howie

We hope you enjoy the this installment from the Goodmans, who have graciously agreed to blog for our congregation their experiences as Olim in Israel. If there are specific topics that you are interested in hearing about of if you just want to stay in touch with Howie and Suzanne, you can reach them at: [email protected]

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