Israel

Marinda asked that I post about my latest Israel trip. I was able to shepherd one of our Generals around recently. We had one especially great day when we took a helicopter tour around the country. We got to see the border with Syria where the civil war continues. We saw some regime artillery actually fired and dropped into one of the villages. Pretty amazing to see the fighting firsthand. Last time I observed artillery was when I was at Ft. Campbell. We then flew along the Jordan River to the Dead Sea, over Jericho and up to Jerusalem. We made several low passes over Jerusalem. I'll have to post some pics. We landed in Jerusalem in order to attend the opening ceremony of the Holocaust Remembrance Day at Yad Vashem. Before the ceremony, we had time to run down to the Old City. We went through the Armenian quarter and around the southern wall to the tomb of David. Quite a few Orthodox Jews were praying over his grave. Really neat. Then out along the edge of the city, the Mount of Olives is visible with the Garden of Gethsemane just down the hill. The General is an avid Christian and was moved I think to see the Mount of Olives and realize our proximity to Gethsemane. We continued down to the Western Wall of the temple and walked toward where the Holy of Holies used to be (now the Dome of the Rock). The Temple Mount was closed unfortunately We then walked back throughout the Old City, stopping briefly at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Catholics believe Christ was crucified, buried, and resurrected. There was a choir and organ going as mass was ending. We walked some of Via Dolorosa and the "stations of the Cross." We then got back to the hotel and changed into uniform and headed to Yad Vashem. Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Peres both gave speeches and the ceremony. Netanyahu's speech was very interesting. He called on world leaders to pay attention to evil in the world - Iran in particular. The General was on the front row and shook Netanyahu's hand when he came in. I was on the sixth row. The ceremony was outstanding. A violinist played an amazing, moving piece to kick it off. They honored six Holocaust survivors - one for each million killed in the Holocaust. Their stories were incredible. How they suffered and, more significantly how they survived, overcame, and went on to have families and normal lives. To close the ceremony, an Israeli soldier, called the "IDF Chief Cantor" sang a Jewish prayer a cappella. It was fantastic. Amazing experience. The full ceremony is here: Subtitles are in Hebrew, but when they show the Holocaust survival stories later in the ceremony, they are in English, too. Skip ahead to watch. Really well done.