View from my room at the hostel on Agron street, Jerusalem.
I am writing this blog in the air conditioned comfort of an Israeli Youth Hostel on Rachov Agron (Agron street) not far from the old city of Jerusalem. The sun is shining and the days are warm. How good it feels to escape the winter. And what a privilege to be in the land of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It has been quite an adventure just getting here!
I have visited Israel twice before, once in December 1993 for 3 weeks and once in 2004. Now is my third trip. I have seen Israel over a twenty year period. My trip in 2004 was a real walk of faith as I came with virtually no money and ended up staying for 6 months! I had just begun reading the Torah in Hebrew then.
I have spent most of the last ten years since learning Hebrew working on believers properties for food and rent which got me out of the hussle and bustle and allowed me to study the Torah and improve my language skills further and even create a website about the regathering of the 10 lost tribes of the House of Israel. Over the last few years I have eased myself back into the working world as I was not getting so much out of my studies. There are times and seasons in our lives.
לַכֹּל זְמָן וְעֵת לְכָל־חֵפֶץ תַּחַת הַשָּׁמָֽיִם׃
Ecclesiastes 3:1
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
The good Lord has arranged some work for me over the past 6 months. After spending about half a year trying to save some money for either a caravpan or a trip to Israel, I decided to pack up my bags and fly once more to Israel and leave the saving for a caravan for another day. My ancestors may indeed have descended from the 10 lost tribes of Israel, but due to their long sojourn in Scotland, they learnt to be frugal. I booked a cheap ticket from Melbourne, Australia to Tel Aviv during the peak of the fighting in Gaza during operation Protective Edge. And I flew via Malaysia airlines to Kuala Lumpur and then transfering to Royal Jordanian Airlines making stops in Bangkok, Amman and finally Tel Aviv. The food and movies were good and the Jordanian pilot knew how to land as well as take off. However I knew full well that Jordan has close ties to the Palestinians in Gaza.
After enjoying some pretty good air plane meals compared to what I have had in the past I got off at Amman, Jordan to catch my connecting flight. And that’s where the adventure began in earnest. Our connecting flight to Tel Aviv, Israel had been cancelled. In fact they hadn’t been flying there for about a week I believe. But they didn’t bother notifying their customers! Anyway if you want to live life on the edge, and your ancestors come from Scotland, then Jordanian Airlines is just the ticket. And if you’re a sucker for punishment then book during a time of war and world wide Muslim riots in major capital cities like London, Berlin and Paris.
Jordan is a country with a large ‘Palestinian’ population. And because of this brotherhood and other factors, Jordan was upset by Israel’s self defence against missiles from Gaza landing in Israeli towns including Beersheba, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Perhaps they thought that Israel should lay down to sleep at night while the enemy drops fire and steel upon their heads and digs tunnels under their beds. Thankfully Judah has not completely lost his roar or ability to do what has to be done. Despite massive anti semitic media bias, Israel is standing up for her self. Netanyahu folded many times to American pressure to pointless Ceasefire agreements that don’t achieve anything good for Israel except prove the faithless wickedness of Hamas who break them before the ink dries on the page. Hamas uses the time to reposition their men, rockets and defences. If it was not for the brazen, cowardly foolishness of Hamas, Netanyahu would be giving away the land for empty promises from an unworthy enemy. Thus through the eye of faith (emunah in Hebrew) we can see the hand of the mighty God of Jacob forcing Israel to rise up to the challenge and deal with the enemy.
Anyway, back to my airport adventure story, set in Amman, Jordan…
We were politely told by airport staff that our connecting flight was cancelled, a fact that Jordanian Airlines forgot to mention when we boarded their aircraft, even though this had been known beforehand and had in fact been going on for days.
We were told that we could forgo our tickets in exchange for a bus to the border with Israel, so long as we left our ticket with them and somehow absolving them of responsibility should something happen. And then we were told that we can go on the bus after paying 40 Jordanian ‘Dinas’ for an entry Visa into Jordan, which is the currency of this banana republic, because we are now visiting their Country and leaving the transit area of the airport. To add to the insult we were told that if we go by bus the airline takes no responsibility should something happen to our person while going by bus (i.e. shot through with bullet holes by some crazed Muslim on a mission for Allah).
Once the small group of israeli’s and foreigners had absorbed this we bloody mindedly decided to take the bus. After mucking around trying to get the ATM money machine to turn our credit card plastic into 40 Dinas we proceeded to customs for the Jordanian stamp of approval and traditional hospitality including retinal scanning and waiting in consternation as some of our bags were lost, including all of mine!
About 2 hours later we have our bags and can pass through more scanners to get to the bus stop. If Jordan conducts it’s wars like they run an airport then they will never be a threat to a flee infested camel let alone Israel. That may sound harsh to delicate European ears who look at the Israeli-Palestinian issue with one eye closed, but this little airport episode has been an introduction into the anti christian, anti semitic and lawless lands of Allah and his murdering backstabbing pedophile prophet. That said, I did enjoy my meals on Royal Jordanian Airlines.
I look forward to the day when Arabs will be free of the lie called Islam and will bow in true submission to the loving and forgiving God of Israel, and to His Torah Law of Liberty and to His Holy Son, Yeshua HaMashiach who shed his blood for the forgiveness of sin that we may become sons of the living God. What an offer of mercy and love and yet this free gift is rejected and even the godless Europeans would prefer the cruel false God of Islam and his false prophet Muhammed. The world is surely an insane asylem, run by the inmates.
The bus stopped and we unloaded our belongings and lined up at the scanner. Then we loaded back on the bus again and travelled a few meters to the next building and had to unload our luggage again and get our final exit stamp.
Then we had to line up to pay a few Dinas to pay for a short bus ride to the Israeli side of the border. I didn’t have the money and I couldn’t use my credit card. Thankfully a kind soul gave me the money and put hazed the tickets.
We then loaded up on the next bus after waiting a while and crossed the border into Israel proper.
