Today was our day to explore the Golan Heights, a former part of Syria that seemed to us to be lushest part of Israel. While most of the area from Tel Aviv to Akko was fairly arid area, the hills around the Sea of Galilee and the low mountains of the Golan Heights were lush in comparison. First up was a 1.5 hour hike in one of the may national parks, the Hermon Stream Banias Nature Reserve. The hike dropped down into a canyon that head a combination of walkways and paths along a nice looking river.
Halfway through, we started running into large groups of school aged Israeli kids. It was funny to see how much the teenagers resembled teens at home... down to hiking with eyes glued to phones, to shouting out greetings to us and laughing.
Eric managed to make the hike a loop... not an out and back... Eric and I hate out and backs!
When we left the park, we drove up the hillsides until we reached Nimrod Castle (yes, I find the name funny too). A pretty extensive castle and defensive lookout post on the slopes of Mount Hermon. We hiked around here for an hour or so, and Eric continued to talk to us about the castle, but also about the people and cultures of the Golan Heights.
We stopped for lunch in one of the five Druze villages in the Golan Heights. From learning about the Druze from Eric, they seemed like a culture like the Kurds who spanned a number of borders and didtn't really belong anywhere / belonged everywhere. The Druze people follow an offshoot religion that originated from Islam. Funny enough, it also incorporates facets and figures from many religions, but was founded way before Baha'i (around 1050AD). There are close to a million Druze, and they are a community that frowns on marrying outside the Druze people.
The lunch spot was run by a really nice guy that spoke little English, but Eric was there to translate the words of the Arabic speaking owner. I don't know this for a fact, but after seeing pictures of his kids and grandkids I'm pretty sure they either frown on or don't have contraception in these towns!
The Israeli Druze are a religious and ethnic minority among Arab citizens of Israel. In 2019, there were 143,000 Druze living in Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, 1.6% of the total population of Israel and the Golan Heights. Even though the faith originally developed out of Ismaili Islam, Druze do not identify as Muslims. In 1957, the Israeli government designated the Druze a distinct ethnic community at the request of its communal leaders. The Druze are Arabic-speaking citizens of Israel who serve in the Israel Defense Forces. Members of the community have attained top positions in Israeli politics and public service.
Everything changed for Israel after the 6-day war. Faced with pressures from the Arab nations surrounding them (mainly Egypt, Jordan and Syria), instead of imploding, they used surprise and superior tactics to take the Golan Heights from Syria, everything up to the Jordan River from Jordan (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza strip and Sinai peninsula from Egypt. So much of what continues to shape the entire region can be reflected in what led up to, occurred during and took place after that brief war.
Eric used the drive up to the old Syrian military headquarters building to give us a background on the war. He then talked about Eli Cohen, the spy that had laid a lot the ground work behind the success of the 6-day work and who was executed by the Syrian government when discovered. It's a pretty cool story, and if you don't want to read about it, check out Sacha Baron Cohen in The Spy. The headquarters building itself was pretty cool - completely gutted and filled with graffiti. From the roof, we looked out to the border fence separating Israel and Syria.
We capped off the day with a visit to a local winery called Pelter Winery, in what critics describe as
"Not the best wine but there’s a good vibe"
and
"A very scary dog came growling at us when I went to go into the winery, and the brilliant people working there refused to put the dog on a leash, claiming that this is his house. Lots of other better wineries here."
It was a good vibe, and Kim and Alex did ending up buying a bottle. The company was the best part of visit though (and I liked the dog, so I don't know what "Ken M. from Ohio" was talking about in his review!
Have I mentioned how many lawyers are in Israel? They have put signs up all over the country with prohibitions (you can't even "Jump Of"!) against everything in order to cover someone's ass.
We had a really nice dinner at the highly reviewed Magdalena with Eric and called it a night early!
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