News letter from Alien III 
9th June, 2001 (typed 1st July, 2001)

News Letter from Israel

Dear Friends,

Israel, this is possibly the best country I have ever visited. I know that I have never had a better time in any other country and this is thanks to some special people I met here. From the time I arrived in Ashkelon Marina I got to know Gingy from the boat next to Alien III and as time went by I also got to meet his wife, Mandy, and their two daughters, Bat and Sheli and their boyfriends, Yotam and Jordan.

It was Gingy, who on my first days here helped me contact Michal who had sailed with me in Australia. She invited me to Jerusalem to stay with her are Yariv, her boyfriend, in their big 3rd floor apartment overlooking part of Jerusalem. Michal has a degree in photography and works in a photography shop and also photographs weddings. Yariv is an officer in the army and is also studying architecture. Whilst I stayed with them I met some of their friends.

Jerusalem is an incredible city, one of the best cities I’ve ever visited with lots of surprises. It is a city of many opposites, both modern and old, both religious and non-religious, both Jews and Arabs. It is also very clean here. Occasionally it snows there bringing the city to a stand-still – but being here in the summer.  I didn’t get to see that!! The buildings, both old and new, are built of a light coloured stone and also many foot-paths and fences are of this same stone. The city is built on many high rocky hills, with deep valleys all around it.

Never have I seen so many people talking on mobile phones. At one point I wondered if these black boxes were a new growth on their hands that they kept putting to their ears – but no it wasn’t .

The fashion is from the skimpy sexy outfits to the complete cover-up, including hats of the very religious women and the black top-hat, long coat, black trousers, full beard often with long curls down the side of the face of the very religious men.

These people try to pressure others into not driving or cooking or using electricity on the holy day (Saturday) each week. There is quite a bit of friction between the very religious Jews and the non-religious.

I was surprised at the Arab population that lived in certain areas throughout Israel and indeed even in some areas of Jerusalem. The Arabs and Jews seem to be good friends and I didn’t feel any animosity between the two. The Arab areas were not so clean unfortunately.

The old city in Jerusalem is an education in history as is the whole of Israel. I know that I did not learn a lot at school or from the Bible – but it is all here to see and learn and if I had a few more months to spare, even years, I would have spent time here.

While in Jerusalem I took a bus to Massada where a fort was built covering the top of a mountain 1,300 feet above the Dead Sea, situated on the shores of the Dead Sea which is about 400 meters below sea level. This was built around 70 CE. Nobody that I have asked knows what CE stands for, but my book on Nepal says it’s the Common Era and by the date and age of some things I think it is BC and AD, whichever, is very old. This is really an amazing place and tragic history where the Israelis living there at the time killed themselves after standing against a siege for two years by the Romans.

From here I hitch-hiked to Ein-Gedi – on the shores of the Dead Sea – a rocky beach where I had a swim and floated with ease in the extremely salty water.

The road systems and condition of the roads in Israel is excellent – lots of very modern cars, like I never remember seeing in Australia, nice air-conditioned buses but after Asia seem very expensive. They are more expensive than Australia. The roads do get congested at peak hours and if there has been an accident.

Israel is a tiny country, North to South is 470 kilometers and east to west 135 kilometers at its widest. It is bordered on the one side by the Mediterranean Sea and on the others sides by Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt.

I saw many young girls and boys, especially the soldiers hitch-hiking all over the place. I never had to wait long for a ride either, and often the second car to pass picked me up.

After spending some time back on the boat I went with Gingy and Mandy to their lovely 2 storey house in the village of Zichron Ya’acov. This is a partly restored village and partly very modern. The town is built on a hill with views to the sea and the surrounding valley. Between the village to the sea there are many fish ponds and lots of banana, grapes cotton and other fruits are grown.

Gingy and I did a trip to the Sea of Galilee in the north-east of Israel, through Tiberias and around the shore to Kibbutz Ginosar. This is a very productive area in agriculture and horticulture. At the Kibbutz Ginosar we went into their museum to see the ancient Galilee Boat which is about 2000 years old. It was found in 1986 after there had been a drought and the water in the Sea of Galilee had gone down and it has taken 14 years of work to preserve and display this boat. It is beautifully presented.

Continuing north we visited the Hula Reserve and saw lots of 3 feet long cat fish swimming in the swamps there and a coypu – which is rather like an otter with a long thin tail. At the farthest north in a town called Metulla we went to the “Good Fence”. This is on the border with Lebanon and isn’t really a fence but a gate in it. The fence is the international border between the two countries. Since 1976 the Israeli government opened the gate in order to give medical and other aid to the residents in South Lebanon.

Metulla is a lovely town with a big swimming complex and ice-skating rink and lots of happy children! Not a tourist to be seen and also not a lot of people. It is a nice well maintained town with lots of nice houses.

We followed the border fence at times, and then back to the coast and north to the border again, where there is high security. Many radar units I couldn’t count them and then down the coast, through Nahariya, Akko, Haifa and back to Zichron Ya’acov.

My next adventure was with Danny on his new 41 foot Hunter Sailing Boat “Solymar” together with Gingy and two other crew. One of the crew had not long finished a rescue operation in the collapsed building in Jerusalem killing many people at a wedding reception and gave an interesting account of how they go about such a difficult task.

We sailed from Tel Aviv, where he keeps his boat to Haifa. A beautiful boat, good company and good weather.

Next day Danny’s remaining crew arrived – in total we were 11. All boat crew were given T-shirts and Caps and we participated in a race with over 70 other boats in remembrance of sailors lost in a sunken submarine some 32 years ago. The submarine was purchased from England and almost made it to Israel before disappearing and it was only found a few years ago. I fought back tears as the 70 boats circled a submarine and wreaths of flowers were dropped into the water. A large boat stood by with the families of the lost sailors.

After this ceremony we raced to the ancient port of Akko with the wind picking up in the afternoon. It was very exciting, sitting with legs over the side, looking a long way down and coping with the odd wave. One boat lost its mast.

At Akko we wandered the streets in this Arab part of town walking to the sailing school. There was food and a display of photos of the submarine and her crew. Prizes were awarded. Everyone was given a medal. Many children took part in open sail boats – all of them seem to learn sailing at a very
young age.

Another day we spent some time at Sdot Yam, a Kibbutz near Caesarea, where Gingy was born and his father, who is in his 80’s and wife, his two sisters and one of their husband live. Kibbutz are not what I expected. They are not small agricultural communities run by volunteers. Sdot Yam is on the sea, beautiful setting, good beach, reef and small protected harbour. It has a factory that we were shown through that produces a stone slab/tile by mixing various sands, powder and resin. This is then compressed and baked to make a product better than stone. The resin accounts for only about 2% of the product. Over 70% is exported to the USA and some also goes to Australia. Definitely a good money maker for the Kibbutz. They also have a museum with lots of stone pillars and statues from ancient Roman times.

The dining room there can produce 1000 meals a day!

I meet a woman, Yael Artzi who does sculptures in stone. She is quite famous and also did the memorial for the Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, who was shot dead in Tel Aviv some years ago. When I was in Tel Aviv I saw this memorial. She has some very interestng and big sculptures.

We also visited another Kibbutz Ma’agan Michael and had lunch with Yotam’s parents in their two-week old kibbutz home. This kibbutz has many huge fish ponds for growing fish for eating, a small dairy and a big factory that makes place irrigation fittings and a zoo.

Security is good at the kibbutz – you need a card to activate the gate to get your car in. Both places had nice gardens and lawns.

While I have been here I have met lots of good and interesting people and have eaten extremely well. The variety of excellent food would be hard to beat anywhere.

Gingy, an Olympic Sailor, fisherman and an extremely interesting and exciting navy career. I met his uncle, a retired ships captain who had spent his entire working life at sea and also does not like the Suez Canal either.

The rest of the world does not always hear all that is happening in Israel. I know this first hand and I also know that I still know very little. Life goes on here the same as any normal country. Israel closely resembles Australia in parts with its roads, cars, buildings, gardens and people – but to be honest I feel very safe here. The crime rate is low, drugs not a big problem and it has that feel of a close knit country community of Australia.

Sure a few bombs go off occasionally and shots are fired in some areas, but you could be killed just as easily in Australia or any country. Israel is safe and the people very nice.

The media is misleading. It tells only of the bad and does not give us the full story. It is biased against Israel – or so I feel. You can’t form a true picture if you don’t come and see it for yourselves – and of course everybody sees it in a different way. I know some yachties feel uneasy about the amount of soldiers that carry guns – but to me that is good security and they are only a common sight at bus terminals.

I have here a month now and must move on. Joyce is still with me but she will depart in Cyprus. Also leaving with me to Cyprus is Amit, Sheli and Jordan, all from Israel. We depart today the 9th June.

This letter will be received a bit later because it is far to long for me to type and it is thanks to Mandy that you get this. She will type it and send it when she returns to Israel.

Bye for now

Best wishes and love

Steve