Day 8 - The Tastes of the Negev Desert

Thursday morning began with many of us feeling that we were not yet ready to depart, knowing we were leaving a little bit of our hearts in Jerusalem; and then just two hours later, we were being captivated by the contrasts and the depth of our experiences on "Day Eight: The Tastes of the Negev Desert." During our bus ride south, Muki gave us an informative tutorial on the curiously complex Israeli parliamentary system.

Our first stop was Kibbutz Yad Mordecai, a kibbutz originally founded in the 1930's and named in memory of Mordecai Anielewicz, a commander in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.  This was the "honey" part of our milk and honey tour. Some of the kibbutz founders learned how to work with bees from two Australian soldiers, and they brought 19 hives for the kibbutz. 

Today, this kibbutz is the 2nd largest supplier in Israel, with over 4,000 hives spread across the country.  And the honey they produce here is a major brand in Israel and is, we can attest, quite delicious.  Several of us spent some time contributing to the Israeli economy, purchasing honey for Rosh Hashanah.

Even more tasty were the many varieties of tomatoes and also cucumbers we picked and sampled on what is known as "The Salad Trail," a unique touch-and-taste farm located in the Northern Negev.  We met here with an expert agronomist and were so impressed with what this agricultural community has accomplished, focusing both on the business of agriculture and care for the environment.  

And it was good to relate this day to another kibbutz visit earlier in the week, learning that this agricultural community utilizes the very same Bio-Bee system we saw developed at Kibbutz S'de Eliyahu!

In between these two stops was an extraordinarily informative, sobering, and inspirational visit to Moshav Netiv Ha'asarah. This moshav was originally located in the Northern Sinai for many years, but as a result of the peace treaty with Egypt in 1979, all of the residents had to be uprooted; and they had to start all over again, choosing their current location, literally on Israel's border with the Gaza Strip. The woman who spoke to us came to Israel from England as a child; she is now a mother of five and a grandmother of many, and the wife of an Egyptian Jew who is an agricultural specialist on the moshav, and whose work took the family to Egypt some years ago.  She now focuses on what she refers to as the "power of dialogue," speaking locally and sometimes internationally.  She told us about a Palestinian woman who is doing similar work but for whom it is more difficult to be so open about what she does. They text each other daily to check on each other.  

While being committed to the urgency of dialogue and problem solving, she was brutally honest about the very real, day-to-day security concerns on this Moshav: mortar shellings, rockets launched from Gaza, the tunnels, and the 15 seconds adults and children alike have to get themselves into a safe room or shelter when the alarms go off.  And those alarms have gone off more times than any of us would choose to count, and there has been tremendous damage.  She talked about being terribly frightened during one of the alerts last summer when she wasn't sure at first if her husband and some of her grandchildren were safe. And yet, her refrain was clear and unwavering that "we must learn to live side by side."  

Hearing about what the Moshav residents have endured the last 15 years was powerful; walking through the Moshav and seeing with our own eyes the many security precautions built to protect the pre-school children and seeing the houses that bore the brunt of the rocket attacks took us to another level of understanding the reality a community like this lives with all the time.  And perhaps most stunning was when our tour bus dropped us off at a spot in the fields of the moshav where we could literally see the tunnel built by Hamas, discovered in the war last summer. It was a tunnel that the Israeli soldiers had to re-bomb only two weeks ago, when they discovered that it was being rebuilt by Hamas.  It was within easy, easy walking distance. Some of our group experienced real tension, being so close to the border - and that tunnel - and we wanted our bus to come up and retrieve us.  Our guide explained that the reason our bus was some yards away from us and well below where we were standing was because they didn't want Hamas to see the vehicle; they know that the eyes of Hamas are always watching this Moshav. We could clearly see Hamas headquarters across from us with no need for binoculars.

And yet 71 new families will be joining the current 230 families in a very short time, and there are discussions underway about an additional expansion to Moshav Netiv Ha'asarah. The strength and resolve of this community who want peace, who accept a two-state solution and who live dual realities of striving for dialogue and peace and always waiting for the next alert made a lasting impression, no doubt, on all of us.

By late afternoon, we were leaving these three amazing Negev communities and traveling on to Tel Aviv, for just a brief introductory glimpse to this vibrant, cosmopolitan, growing city. We quickly checked into our hotel and then on to a most interesting dinner at Blackout, a non-profit restaurant where you eat completely in the dark and where the waitstaff is all visually impaired or blind.  

What a day and night of contrasts and new realities and just one memorable experience after another.  

This country is extraordinary.