Looking down at a Wadi (dry riverbed) from one of Mitzpeh Yericho's hilltops.
Yericho (Jericho)Looking to the west, the towers of Jerusalem poke through the horizon.
The "Twin Towers" on Har Hatzofim, a.k.a. Mount Scopus, in the neighborhood of Givat Tzarfatit (French Hill) in Jerusalem.Mitzspeh Yericho itself has about 300-400 families (I've heard different numbers given at different times.) The settlement continues to expand from hilltop to hilltop, government building ban or no.
A new "Givah," hilltop, of Mitzpeh Yericho in the bottom left.
Looking to the North.
Looking Northeast one can see Kfar Adumim and Allon.
Downhill is Vered Yericho (Jericho Rose.) It is situated right on the edge of Jericho itself, though relations with the locals are relatively good. Relatively being a relative term.
Vered Yericho and Yericho itself.
The clump of green is Vered Yericho. The building to the extreme left is the Yericho casino, a vestige of the corruption induced by the Oslo peace process.
More photos tomorrow. Stay tuned!
The plains of the Jordan Valley are referred to as the "Aravah," rooted in the word, "Maarav," west, as they are the immediate western side of the Jordan River. From Mitzpeh Yericho, in the distance, one can see the reconstituted agricultural kibbutz of Bet Haarava.
The green fields of Bet HaArava.
The soil here is fertile but loaded with salt from the evaporating Dead Sea, and must be washed clean before anything can be grown. The weather is also violently, mercilessly hot during the summer, and it is an incredibly inhospitable environment. Beit HaArava was originally established by Jewish refugees who had been members of Zionist youth movements, who fled Nazi Germany in 1939.
Immigrant families landing in Beit HaArava.
Scouting out the western shores of the Dead Sea.
Kibbutz life
Established adjacent to the Jordan River, along the northern tip of the Dead Sea, Beit HaArava was a productive settlement, and was also involved in the first attempts at extracting minerals from the Dead Sea through evaporation.
Building evaporation ponds.
Completed evaporation ponds.
Mining the Salt
Of course, in 1948, Beit HaArava was to be first in line to be struck in the invasion of the Jordanian legion. The leader of Beit HaArava, however, managed to make a deal with King Abdullah of Jordan that the settlement would not be touched. He then drove to Tel Aviv to tell Ben Gurion, Israel's first Prime Minister, that Beit HaArava would not need to be evacuated. Unfortunately, he arrived on May 14th, 1948, the day of the signing of Israel's independence declaration. Ben Gurion was a bit busy that day. So he headed back and was kileld in a car accident. Ben Gurion, not knowing of the deal, ordered the settlement's evacuation. Only five soldiers stayed behind to fight the invading Arabs, and were killed in its defense. The Jordanians, under the command of the British General Glubb Pasha, had the decency to bury their victims.
Beit HaAavah is significant to Tanach because it appears in the book of Yehoshua as defining the border of the tribal region of Binyamin (Benjamin):
In chapter 18:
"And [the border of the tribe of Benjamin] passed along toward the slope opposite Aravah northward, and went down unto the Aravah; And the boundary passed along to the slope of Beit Choglah northward; and the end of the boundary was at the north bay of the Yam HaMelach (the Salt Sea, the Dead Sea) at the south end of the Yarden; this was the southern boundary... This was the inheritance of the children of Binyamin, to its boundaries all around, according to their families. Now the towns of the tribe of the Bnei Binyamin according to their mishpekhot were Yericho, and Beit Choglah, and the valley of Ketzitz, And Beit HaArava"
After the Six Day War, the soldiers began making makeshift memorials to those who died in defense of the kibbutz back in 1948. Eventually, the bodies were found in a collective grave, and a small memorial was built to the fallen.
In the distance, a group of John Hagee Christian tourists at the graves of the fallen.
Some of our tour group at the sign pointing to the grave.
The grave stone.
The soldiers were a bit unhappy about being distracted from their normal soldiering routine to cater to a bunch of tourists and cleared us out after a few minutes.
"Eeeh okay. Please to get on the bus now!"
Actually, there's one more point of interest in the above photo. That small tuft of trees directly over the head of the soldier who is to the left is Beit Hoglah, a small outpost where Machon Meir guys volunteer and where I spent a shabbat once.
Our next stop was about five kilometers to the north. For Christians, this is the spot where their religion's Jewish founder took a dunk in the Jordan river, so it's surrounded with Christian monuments. Across the river is the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which has poured money into renovating these memorial spots, to give tourism a boost.
This spot had special meaning for the John Haigee group (at the water's edge.)
In fact, this is approximately the location of the crossing of the Jordan river from Har Nevo (Mount Nebo) on the east side to Gilgal in the west. In fact, unlike at the Sea of Reeds (Red Sea,) in this case, the entirem nation crossed over all at once. Unlike other Tanachic references to Beit HaArava and Yericho as specific locations, the Jewish encampment under Yehoshua at Gilgal is a reference to a large area, which it would have to be to hold the entire nation of Israel, at that time numbering approximately 2.5 million including women and children.
The Jordan river, placid and wide. Relatively wide.
Yours truly in front of the Jordan.
Unlike the crossing of the Yam Suf (Red Sea) the miraculous crossing of the Jordan River did not involve a split, but the water in the Jordan reversed course and exposed dry land for a significant section of the river's length. The Kohanim (priests) entered the river first, at which point the river turned back, and all of Israel passed over. Each tribe took with them one stone from the bottom of the Jordan river, making a pile of twelve stones as a monument to their crossing at the encampment of Gilgal.
Our next stop was the northern shore of the Dead Sea (I seem to be coming here a lot lately.)
A British vacation house built on what was once the shore of the Dead Sea during the British Mandate (1917-1948.)
After Jews were free to return to the Arava region in 1967, after a 19 year absence, the Labor movement, which still controlled the entire state system, began the debate over what to do with the newly captured territory. Having reached the decision to settle, the first new settlements were built on the ruins of those which existed prior to 1948. Beit HaArava was one of the first, founded by the kibbutz movement. It was only one year before 1968, which was remembered worldwide as the year liberalism transformed into a more anti-establishment ideology. This is, not coincidentally, also the year Palestinian Nationalism was invented. The Israeli left gradually drifted into the same anti-establishment sentiments seen worldwide, which was particularly ironic since they were, themselves, the state. While the first labor-party Kibbutz, Beit HaArava, was founded by the Labor movement, and survives to this day, the secular-socialist settlement movement never really took off. The movement had already peaked and was in decline. Instead, it would be the religious settlers who would provide the bulk of the numbers for this new wave of building.
Meanwhile, the state made some deals with Arab investors across the river in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to try to develop the region. Such deals, of course, had to be kept secret, since Israel and Jordan were still at war, and Jordan still claimed this region as its own.
The hotels, built along the northern Dead Sea, never really took off, and today their ruins still litter the roadside.
An abandoned, 1970's-era hotel.
The hotel had an ampitheater, open to the dead sea, where concerts could be held.
The Ampitheater
The shores of the Dead Sea used to come right up to the steps. Today the sea has retreated probably about a kilometer away as it slowly dries up.
Steps into the phantom water.
One tenant (grasshopper) never checked out. 
The hotel is in need of some minor structural repairs.
On the walls is a cool-looking mural of the Holy Land, based on a Midieval manuscript.
The Galilee
The Hula
The artist got creative and painted flames shooting out of Sdom (Sodom.)It's not pretty, but the structure still stands. Given the building ban and housing crunch in the Jericho region, perhaps some day some enterprising youth will come to put the structures back to use as a yeshivah or a school. I know just the types to do it.
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