Tour Guide's Insight (S)

Before going on to the Jordan photos, I wanted to tell you some of the things that Yehuda, our tour guide told us.

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel but Tel Aviv is the cultural and economic center.

Arabs are sent to Jewish schools if their parents are educated because they learn more.

If Arabs don't pay taxes their villages don't have roads and schools. Mayors of these urban villages are part of the family that live there and they don't make their family members pay taxes.  What these villages need is to have Jewish mayors.

The Administration of Education requires that students take certain subjects like English, math etc.  If the school is not teaching these subjects, they don't get the Administration of Education's support.

On the Jordan side, sewage water goes into the Jordan River and the Jordanians put spring water into it to keep the smell down.

Lots of buildings are being built tall because there is no more land in Tel Aviv.

In 1954 Israel didn't have any date palm trees so some Israelis went to Iraq on false passports and found someone to grow 70,000 tiny date palm trees for them. They smuggled the trees into Iran then through the Suez Canal and finally after 4 months they got the trees into Israel. 50,000 of the trees died but 20,00 were still alive. Now Israel has a lot of groves of date palms.  Some date seeds were found in Israel that were 2,000 years old.  These seeds were planted and grew.  They are called the dates of Judea. More recently Israel has bought date palm trees from Morocco and California. There are a lot of date palms south of the Sea of Galilee. They put something in the water so the date palms don't grow so tall making it easier to pick the dates. The fresh dates that I tasted in Israel were so delicious! Israelis make a lot of date honey. Our guide said there is a delicious recipe putting date honey over chicken.

Israel has different colored tomatoes-orange, green and yellow. They also have a zebra tomato that has black stripes. It has a long shelf life so it is easier to export to different places in the world.

Israeli fields are green, but how does that happen when there is not much water? Israelis have developed a system to use purified toilet waste for irrigation water.

Israel has a mini Silicon Valley with 26 major US companies in this country.  They  like using the young Israeli brains to think outside the box. If you are in the military, you have to speak up if you have a better way to do something.  The leaders in the army are obligated to tell and teach the soldiers to think outside the box.  All young people serve three years in the army. After serving many will go to high tech jobs. Israel has a high tech army. There are computer screens in all army tanks.  They got  F16s from the US and instead of keeping them the same, the Israelis took all the things out and put in their own equipment.

There are only a few golf courses in Israel because the Israelis aren't too eager to play golf and stand outside in the heat of the sun.

The crop dusters fly over fruit trees 3 times a year to kill the med fly.  If this fly gets into the fruit, the fruit will be spoiled when it reaches the United States.

While traveling on the bus we passed a big dairy place that produces 60,000 gallons of milk a day.

The crusaders were not angels when they came to Israel.  They slaughtered everyone that wasn't like them.

Israelis are trying to cut down on the cat population so when a cat is spayed a notch is cut out of her ear. They can tell if a cat has been spayed by looking at her ear.

Most electricity in Israel comes from coal.  Don't use much gas because the pipes are sabotaged. Water is heated by solar in homes in Israel.

7% unemployed   Salaries are not high enough

United States grows wheat for Israel.

Israel produces potassium and has developed a way to refine it by using cold water so they can sell it cheaper than the United States because the US uses hot water to refine potassium, that costs more.

Israel receives two inches of rain per year.

Everything Israel produces has a market in Europe.

Israel grows 9 different types of olives for oil.  Only two of the types are to eat. The olive tree is a symbol of abundance, blessings and peace.

Israel has special peaches.  They can last for two weeks without spoiling.

If you sneeze three times together, the Israelis say you will have good weather the next day.

People in Israel drink a lot of coffee.

Hebrew is the national language of Israel. It is written from right to left in its own alphabet.