Newcomers in an Ancient Land
Sunrise Over the Golan
I crept along a dirt road under a black dome studded with stars on my way to my job as a volunteer in the vineyards of Kibbutz Dan. At four in the morning, only the chirping of crickets and the crunch of my work boots broke the peace along this deserted stretch of the pre-1967 border between Israel and Syria. Until the rest of the work crew arrived at six I would be alone. Or would I?
DANGER, EXPLOSIVES, KEEP OUT warned the faded signs in Hebrew, English and Arabic on a haphazard barricade of rusty barbed wire, broken concrete, thorn trees and weeds. From just beyond, I could hear a faint braying and catch a glimpse of something white and flowing. A parachute? My heart pounded and my red hair stood on end as adrenalin surged through every cell in my eighteen-year-old body. But on closer inspection, it was only the billowing jellaba of a Syrian farmer tilling his fields with a hand-held plow drawn by a recalcitrant donkey. Such a biblical vision made it hard to imagine that conflict still wracked this ancient land.
One by one, the stars winked out, the sky turned pale, and a rosy glow backlit the massive shoulders of the Syrian hills hunched over the valley. I knew those silhouetted hills hid bunkers; and in those bunkers crouched soldiers; and in the cross-hairs of their Kalashnikovs I could be a target. Yet for a moment, a wild part of me dared imagine the sight of a naïve young girl in khaki shorts and shirt might offer a welcome distraction from the tedium of war.
By now opalescent clouds of apricot, lavender and magenta were gathering at fever speed. Just when it seemed the light could get no brighter, a blinding fire-ball burst over the mountains. Quaking in my boots, yet quivering with delight, I stood transfixed by the beauty and danger of this ancient land where I was now a newcomer.
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A Taste of the Journey
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Newcomers in an Ancient Land Excerpt from the Introduction: Israel Then and Now
The Israel that greeted me on that distant, dusty road no longer exists except in memory. Today, parts of the Promised Land have been paved over to such an extent that the life and landscape of the early sixties in this story may sound fantastical. Humming freeways carry a population of nine million between skyscrapers…
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Newcomers in an Ancient Land Excerpt – Chapter 1: Making Life Happen
As a young woman my mother had made her own Atlantic crossing to bring my sister and me from England to America. Our parents had met in the midst of World War II, when Dad was an American GI stationed in Britain and Mom was coordinating live entertainment for the Rosy the Riveters, working in…
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Newcomers in an Ancient Land Excerpt – Chapter 4: Gingit!
I couldn’t resist the beauty of the nocturnal sky as I crept up on deck alone. A shimmering canopy of stars arched over the cobalt sea, falling to the horizon like a fishnet tugged tight by unseen hands. Flying fish played in the ship’s wake, their silvery tails and bellies twisting and flashing in the…
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Newcomers in an Ancient Land Excerpt – Chapter 5: Hitchhiking
The Negev Desert was a land of extremes – by day a white-hot griddle; by night a blackened skillet; at dawn a copper pot; at dusk a painted gourd. Its unforgiving rocks and sharp scent reminded me of my early childhood in Texas and Kansas, where the harshness of the land had somehow made me…
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Newcomers in an Ancient Land Excerpt – Chapter 15: Night in Eilat
I shuddered at the thought of venomous vipers, as snakes were called. But darkness had long since fallen and I could no longer put off finding a place to sleep. The youth hostel was full, my fair weather English friends were sleeping on the beach, and I’d finally given up on finding my road partner…
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Newcomers in an Ancient Land Excerpt – Chapter 22: Sunrise over the Golan
Sunrise over the Golan. The pitch black sky was studded with stars as I crept down the dimly lit paths of Kibbutz Dan on my way to work in the kerem..
