"I'm in Israel!"

We proceeded to the Mount of Precepts with the Jezreel Valley to the south and Nazareth to the north. Nazareth, Jesus’ boyhood town, was a well developed city. Back in Jesus’ time the town might have had twenty families or so. This is probably why He was scrutinized for being form Nazareth; it was a “nobody’s town”. We descended the mount to our hotel for a relaxing evening on the Sea of Galilee. We were on the south end of the Sea, I think it was the prettiest location on the Sea with the Gohlan Heights to the east. The next morning was Saturday, Sabbath day, so there was no one on the roads. We drove past the only cliff on the Sea, thus the key location of where Jesus had cast the demons into the swine and the swine ran off a cliff and drowned in the Sea. We kept repeating to ourselves, “I’m in Israel. I’m in Israel!” We ascended the Gohlan Heights, a twenty-five mile flat platto of little towns and farming fields. Susan guided us to a cliff that over looked the oldest synagogue in the world – the Sea of Galilee was beyond. To the north of this cliff was a waterfall and a bird cage where buzzards were being raised and released to soar over the Gohlan. We left here and headed to a historic battlefield. We drove right beside Syrian’s border where for forty years the borders were peaceful between the two countries until recently.