You may not realize it, but Israel is actually a very small country. This past summer, our family took two brief vacations; one near the very northernmost part of the country, the other at the southernmost point. I have indicated the two sites with graphics of suns on the map at the right.
During the first vacation, in Eilat, my husband and older daughter went for a walk one evening. When they returned, they told me that after a brief stroll, they had come upon a sign that informed them that the border with Jordan was just a few meters ahead. Although theoretically Israel and Jordan are at peace, it is not a country one would feel comfortable stumbling into in the middle of the night.
Several weeks later, we traveled to the north, to a moshav called Ramot Naftali, just a few minutes' drive from the town of Qiryat Shemona. One day we decided to take a drive down one of the many scenic roads in the area. All too soon, we saw signs reading "Gvul Lifanecha" - "Border Ahead." A few meters more, and we would have been at the fence that separates Israel from Lebanon.
To reach Eilat, we had a drive of nearly five hours. When we traveled to Ramot Naftali, the drive was much shorter, perhaps two hours. In fact, the distance from Qiryat Shemona to Eilat is only about 530 kilometers, or around 315 miles. (By the way, from Netanya on the coast to the closest border with the West Bank is 15 kilometers, or less than 10 miles).
Of course I had known Israel was a diminutive country, but coming up against those borders during both of our trips made me physically aware of that smallness in a way I hadn't been before. It is one thing to know that the borders are there, and another thing entirely to encounter them when you least expect it. I now have a much greater appreciation for all that we have here, and how vital our army's constant vigilance is to our survival. |
