Escape to the South - Part 1

Just so you know, we were not really escaping anything, but this trip was planned as an opportunity for some rest and relaxation from the intensity of the classroom portion of the trip. The weekend consisted mostly of hiking for long hours through the desert in various terrains under the hot sun while drinking gallons of water to stay hydrated to see some sort of archeological phenomenon and then walking back. I did say rest and relaxation right?

All joking aside, this trip was incredible. Yes, there were miles of walking in the hot sun, but what we saw made it all worth it. Our tour guide carried a .45 on his hip too – pretty cool.

On Friday, we left Tel Aviv and headed south past Be’er-Sheva to Aredat where we stopped for lunch at a rest stop before heading to the nature reserve. When we began hiking into the wadi, we quickly realized just how hot it really is in the desert and just how important it is to drink water. (Don’t you like my IDF hat and sweet shades!) After hiking in and back out, we visited the 2^nd century Roman military outpost ruins and then headed north along the coast of the Dead Sea to our lodging for the weekend.

That night, we had a class from our guide, Ram, on the different Palestinian terrorist organizations – Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad of Palestine. You may be familiar with Fatah because it is the political party that was started by Yassir Arafat. You have obviously heard of Hamas who now holds power in Palestine, and Islamic Jihad is not involved in politics but is concerned with creating a borderless Islamic state to include Palestine. He discussed their relationship to one another in Palestine, and concluded by telling us about his many interviews (somewhere in the vicinity of 60 two-hour interviews) with imprisoned terrorists. Very interesting! (This is Ram.)

Where we stayed was a pretty simple place with small buildings containing 4 rooms each for two to three people per room, and the food was great! And the view – we were on top of a mountain overlooking the Dead Sea.

Following our formal class with Ram, many of us retired for a beer and gather around Ram to hear about some of his undercover operations in the Gaza strip and Lebanon during his time in the IDF and Israeli intelligence services. Some enjoyed a game of spades. Eventually we all went to bed to prepare for another interesting day.

Look soon for the next entry about the Escape to the South.