Pictures from the "War Zone"

While in my zealous anticipation, it occured to me how my past travels may need some descriptions of their own. In light of the currently posted photographs of Israel, it may be appropriate to mention the limitations and exceptions of my past travels.

Israel is a country of true wonders. Although built up greatly in the last fifty years, it is a remarkable spectacle of history, war, modern life, activism, youth, and suffering. The most striking element was the little known beauty of its landscape. While Israel's history is still somewhat vague (depending on who's viewpoint is studied), there are few who do not know of Israel itself and religion is an immediate association with this country.

My personal views on religion are quite biased, and so perhaps my conclusion as to Israel's past, current, and future problems are thereby immediately at fault: religion has always caused more bloodshed then any other philosophy, theory, or idea. This is why Israel's landscape is so astonishing. Here is a land considered barren and even useless other than for its historical implications. The West and the middle-West/East is fighting for a tiny piece of land that supposedly has no value other than its biblical center. (Notice that China and the Eastern lands have never cared to affiliate their beliefs with Jerusalem or Israel - maybe not the whole world has lost its head!) What most of the world seems to forget is Israel's incredible potential in its natural resources and landscape.

Most of the images of Israel posted on this blog come from the cave with stalactite deposits. This is a cave about halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. To think that something so simply formed over a period of thousands of years could produce something so beautiful is humbling. If nothing else, this cave made me realize the virtue of patience and simplicity. While people were killing each other over religions, land, and power, while civilizations rose and fell, while billions came to this world and left it, while animals roamed, volcanoes erupted, men learned to write and speak, write books, build fires and wheels, develop codes of law and destroy each other for the sake of their own greed, this small beautiful cave stood and formed in one place growing its sculptures with quiet patience, simplicity, and the submission to each individual drop of water.

You might also notice the photograph of the miniature Bedouins. Unfortunately this was the best photograph I had of the Bedouins as the real camps were always shot while driving at high speeds from a great distance. They reminded me greatly of the cave in that their history is tied to the land as much as the caves and the nature of the land is. Instead of allowing themselves to be controlled by the history and by their beliefs, they live on this land without any attachment to any particular power. Surprisingly enough, these nomads are religious ( or so I have been told), yet instead of killing for the sake of anyone, they move along their way and help anyone who might leave them to their own devices. They have an attachment to the deserts of Israel without having a single brick laid to steak their territory. If the state of Israel should rise or fall, they will remain on the land. Through the history of Israel, the Bedouins have dwelt upon this land despite Rome, Egypt, Syria, and Israel itself (past and present). Sometimes I wonder if they emerged from one of the lost tribes themselves, but this is quite unlikely as they do tend to lean toward Islam. Bedouins are resourceful, sharp, and have a unique wisdom that predates to an ancient knowledge of the land.

Modern technology and human progress are undeniably incredible. And yet, sometimes I wonder if we go too far in human development out of a need to create an unnecessary life of comfort that separates those of us who can from those who cannot. Though this is a topic for a separate article. Without scientific advancement and a desire for knowledge, religious norms of stoning for a slight offense and cutting off our right hand for so-called "blasphemy", torture for the sake of martyrdom or as punishment of choosing the wrong faith, would still be in place. Scientific development allowed us to learn and understand on a cognitive level the meaning of pain, reason and empathy.

And yet, I hope that these Bedouins and any other nomads remaining will preserve their lifestyle for the rest of us that come and go in turmoil. I hope that we do not continue to manipulate the excuse of religious dogma to pursue the need for power, or because of a need to prove our self-righteousness and cultural superiority. Also, that while we need to preserve our own footsteps and knowledge of the land of our ancestors that connect us to a greater spiritual belief, something that seems intrinsic to human nature, that we remember the initial reason for a religious structure: to live a life of thoughtfulness, kindness, peace, and understanding of our greater surroundings as we impact each other with words and deeds.