July 1, 2004

En Boqeq

private beach of a spa

Found this area very nice but when turning around it said DANGER MINES...

February 18, 2006

February 25, 2006

Massada
May 16, 2005

When the Jewish rebellion erupted in 66 CE., a group of Zealots headed for Massada. They knew that Herod had built, about 100 years earlier, an impregnable fortress on its summit which he intended to use as a sanctuary in the event of Cleopatra or local dissidents trying to usurp his throne.

With the fall of Jerusalem 4 years later in 70 CE they were joined by survivors fleeing the capital and some essenses from Qumran (about 960 men, women and children). In 72 CE the Roman Governor, Flavius Silva, arrived at the foot of Massada with the Tenth Legion, auxiliaries and 10 000 Jewish slaves. The defender, Eleazar Ben Ya’ir, war-time speech: “Let our wives die before they are abused and our children before they have tasted of slavery and after we have slain them, let us bestow that glorious benefit upon one another mutually, and preserve ourselves in freedom, as an excellent funeral monument for us”. he then exhorted them to destroy their money and burn the fortress but to spare their provisions. “For they will be a testimonial when we are dead that we were not subdued for want of neccessaries, but ... prefererred death before slavery”.
They “gave the longest parting kisses” to their wives and children and then slew them. Then they cast lots to choose 10 men to despatch the remainder. Again they cast lots to select one to kill the survivors. With this done, the lone Jew “ran his sword entirely through himself”. Details of the mass suicide and the oration were provided later by two women and five children who hid in the underground caves and lived to tell the tale.
Today, Massada has become a symbol for men who cherish freedom. The defiant cry of recruits to the Israel Defence Forces Armoured Unit swearing the oath of allegiance in an annual ceremony on its summit: “Massada shall never fall again!”

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