Day 8 Israel

After an early morning lecture on the City of Jerusalem from our tour guide Avi, we headed out from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. Along the way we stopped at an IDF base. The military apparently thought we were a birthright group (meaning we were Jewish) and were rather surprised to learn we were Americans on an educational trip. Needless to say we got to see things and people that can't be repeated or posted online, something most Jews, most Israelis, and all tourists don't get to see.

Plain and simple: we don't hear about 3/4 of the things going on in Israel. The IDF soldier talking to us literally showed us video after video of terrorists training and carrying out attacks against Israel from Gaza. Many of the attacks happened in the last 6 months! As someone plugged into these kinds of things, I was stunned I had not heard about them. One of the more frightening developments: Al-Qaeda is beginning to operate in Gaza and Hezbollah is infiltrating the US from our Southern border. Don't believe me? Ironically enough, Stratfor, the largest private intelligence firm in the world, discussed Hezbollah infiltration into the US in their most recent newsletter analysis of geopolitical intelligence.

We also got to see about 25% of the weapons confiscated from the Turkish Flotilla. We got the whole story; aka, the story not reported by most news agencies. These were not peace activists. They did not attack the IDF soldiers with sticks and metal poles. They attacked with swords, spiked clubs, and huge knives. The IDF soldiers were armed with paintball guns. These "peace activists" were carrying large sums of Euros and their personal wills with them! On top of all that, they were strung out on heroin. This is not what was reported. Three of the four ships in the flotilla decided to dock in Israel and let them search the items before going to Gaza while 1 ship decided to try and run the blockade of Israel AND Egypt. These people knew what they were doing and were prepared to be martyrs, not peace activists.

We then toured Better Place, an Israeli electric car company. We also got to test drive one of their cars. The car we drove was Renault sedan that was completely electric. They say they have deals with Renault and Nissan and are working on others. The car has a range of 100 miles and a top speed of 85 mph. When I got in I asked the employee with me if it was okay to floor it on the test track and he encouraged me to do so. As someone who drives a Firebird and a motorcycle, I was very impressed with the acceleration of this car. There was no break in acceleration either from shifting. When you floor it, it goes. They are also working to implement a system of battery switching stations; the replacement for gas stations.

After checking into our hotel in Tel Aviv (1 block from the Mediterranean) and swimming we went to dinner and had a lecture from Dr. Jonathan Rynhold, a professor and researcher at Bar-Ilan University about the political climate of Israel and the prospects for peace in a changing world.

Note: I am really looking forward to living on the Mediterranean in Egypt for 6 months. What a wonderful ocean!