A Trip to Israel and Jordan
Recently, I traveled to the Middle East, specifically to the nations of Israel and Jordan, and wanted to share what I experienced, and what I learned. I was actually born in Israel, 17 years ago, but ever since my parents' time was up at the German embassy in Tel Aviv when I was 2 months old, I never went back to the area. This was the main purpose of the trip (visiting), but what I came back with was much greater than just seeing my place of birth.

While in Israel, I tried doing and seeing as much of the area as possible. This ranged from seeing the Lebanese and Syrian borders in the north, to Jerusalem for 2 days, staying in the Kibbutz Ein Gedi at the Dead Sea for a night, and driving through the Israeli desert in the south to get to Jordan, where I visited some locations with a tour group for 2 days. However, rather than sharing the beauty of all these locations, which are definitely worth visiting, what fascinated me way more was the stories of individuals in different places, and the physical boundaries that exist which are destroying much of the beauty throughout the different nations.
I'll start in the north with the border to Lebanon, and the Golan Heights at the border to Syria. At the border to Lebanon, on the coast of the Mediterranean, there are beautiful natural caves, with waves crashing in, but if you follow a few signs and walk 200 meters, you get to a large, closed gate with barbed wire, surrounded by even larger walls, more wires and cameras, and a soldier with a weapon that is about 75% of his body size. There are walls with bullet holes, and about 10–15 big barriers before you can see the first signs of Lebanon. Visiting Lebanon from Israel is impossible. Meanwhile, further east at the Golan Heights, I could see Syria from the top of some hills/mountains. Later, while driving along a road that was very close to the border, I could see Israeli tanks rolling along the roads, and one army base after the other; there were at least 25 of them. It was actually advised by governments when driving along this road to not get out of the car or leave the road at any moment — on the sides of the road there were buildings completely destroyed by bullet holes. Later on, I met the first people in the area. A Fox News reporter was recording a broadcast about the apparent ceasefire, and he had heard shots fired from Syria earlier on in the day. Though it was fascinating, it made me think a lot about how war is ruining this beautiful region of the Earth. Hundreds to thousands to millions of people fleeing, put in pain every day, yet from the top of a mountain, the region looks like a peaceful, beautiful place, and it's hard to imagine what happens there every day.

The second of three "regions"/areas I really learned a lot from was Jerusalem, as well as travellng through the West Bank to get to a beach on the Dead Sea. Jerusalem (Old City) is split into 4 quarters: Muslim, Christian, Armenian, and Jewish. It was incredible to actually see so many differences between quarters, yet they all live in the same few square kilometers. There are also Christian visiting Muslim and Jewish holy sites, Muslims visiting Jewish and Christian holy sites, and Jewish visiting Muslim and Christian holy sites. It shows that humans of all different faiths can live together in harmony, as long as respect exists, which quite obviously does. However, just a few days after I was there, Israeli security guards are attacked (and killed if I remember correctly?), in response they set up metal detectors, resulting in protests. Unfortunately, attacks and protests happen all the time in Jerusalem. I "understand" why, with the history and all that, but I still, to a certain extent, don't understand why people can't just enjoy this beautiful city, in which several major religions have some of their holy sites rather than fighting with each other, and ruining it for everyone else (which obviously the majority do, but some just don't).

Visiting Jerusalem was followed by a drive to the Dead Sea, to the Kalia Beach, which is in the north of the Dead Sea, directly in the West Bank. As fascinating as the Dead Sea was, at 47°C, way below sea level, floating in the water, the drive there was just as fascinating, but in a different way. The road was an Israeli transit road, of which several exist that go straight through Palestine. The drive lasted over an hour, but I didn't see a single Palestinian license plate. The street is surrounded by huge walls or fences, with barbed wire, cameras, etc. Of course this is for security reasons, and there have been attacks at some points in the past, but it made me wonder if this is really the solution. Is it really logical to completely close off one group of people from another? Is it really a good idea, and promoting peace to make one group of people feel superior to another, by giving them a large street, high walls, and security, while the other group don't even have tarred streets, just dirt roads leading to and through their towns?
Finally, I spent 2 days and nights in Jordan, where I believe certain stories moved me the most out of the whole trip. The whole time in Jordan was spent with a tour group of people from all over the world (USA, Mexico, Australia, China, etc.), organized by Desert Eco Tours. After a night in the border city of Aqaba, in a "interesting" hotel (tour group were the only ones their, dinner was prepared exactly for 8 people, not any more, internet shut off directly after I googled if Jordan had any internet laws or censorship), we drove for 2 hours to Petra. Petra, an ancient city carved out of stone was amazing, something I would recommend to anyone.

After the first half of the tour, with a tour guide, we were set free for 2–3 hours to explore whatever we wanted. With my father, I climbed up to the monastery, which takes around 45–60 mins to reach. After that, one could climb even further for several different viewpoints. Throughout all of Petra, there are locals selling clothes, drinks, etc. with tiny stands, even getting their children to sell things. At the top of one of the viewpoints we met a local, his story moved me, a lot. We were the only ones up there. Two little dogs were laying on a rug, asleep, but I could see the dehydration, and in a way suffering in them, it did make me tear up a bit. I decided to buy a coke from the local, for two Jordanian Dinar. He also offered us some of his tea for free. He told us that he actually lived in a cave near there, and that in total he earned 3 Jordanian Dinar that day, two of which came from me. The little stand was his life. After about 10 minutes we had to go, to not be late for the meeting with our tour. To this day, I haven't forgotten the little dogs, and his story, and it just makes me want to help more in the world, to reduce suffering of humans and animals. This has actually kind of turned into a career goal for me later in life.
The second night in Jordan was spent a little outside Petra, in a local Bedouin camp. We actually met a German-speaking Bedouin, which was quite funny, and it was a very nice night, at a campfire watching the sun set behind desert rocks, and returning late to the sleeping tent.

The next day, our tour group took a jeep tour through the Wadi Rum desert, where Lawrence of Arabia, as well as The Martian was filmed. At one point, when most of the group had returned to the jeeps, and a few climbed on, we had a chance to individually talk to our tour guide, Muhammad, a really nice guy. He owns a farm, and makes all food himself, which we actually had later (he had brought chicken, as well as ingredients for a really good salad). Muhammad told us that in recent years, as the war started and ISIS became stronger, tourism had significantly decreased. The day before, when we went to Petra, it was said that officially, there were only around 300 visitors. This is compared to an average of 5,000 to 7,000 several years ago, and on some days, this went up to 12,000. Tourism is a driving economic factor for the region, and an incredible amount of people live off of it. Without it, unemployment and poverty thrive.
After having lunch, of which all of the food was from Muhammad's own farm, we drove back to the border, and went back to Israel, for the flight back to Germany the next day.

Also, a message that I personally want to say is that Jordan is a safe country. As opposed to some of its' neighboring countries, any form of terrorism is extremely rare their. Even now, I would recommend trips there, as it is a beautiful area, and a once in a lifetime experience. Many believe that the area is dangerous at the moment, and of course, even in Jordan something could happen, but the chance is not any greater than in Europe or anywhere else in the world.
Special thanks to Desert Eco Tours/Why Jordan? Tours, which really made the days in Jordan amazing. (Not an advertisement/promotion, it was really great)
If you want to visit Israel and Jordan, I really recommend you go, you may never know how the security situation evolves, and it's definitely worth it!

