POST REFLECTS RECENT TRAVEL IN ISRAEL
Against the sea, the daylight is going rose while the lights of the new-old city of Tel Aviv twinkle in the gathering dusk. There is still enough light to see the crashing surf from where we stand in what was once Joppa, or Jaffa.
A prayer call rises from a nearby mosque and sings a counterpoint with church bells. Far below us are the remnants of city walls, centuries, millennia deep.
This was the crossroad of the ancient Middle East. Trade from Egypt came north toward Babylon on the Via Maris or “way of the sea”, took an east hook here at the river Yarkon, went across the Shephelah, took another turn to the north, right to Meggido, and then across Galilee to Damascus and the East.
Solomon and Ezra imported cedars to Joppa and then schlepped them up to Jerusalem. From Joppa Jonah tried to head west, only to return and take the Via Maris to Nineveh. Peter was served his first non-Kosher meal on a rooftop here. Greeks, Romans, and all the invaders of the centuries have come ashore at Joppa. Early pilgrims of more modern times landed here; there are still visible remains of German, Russian, and African settlements.
Today Jaffa is largely Arab, a split from the war of independence when Israel claimed Tel Aviv, just beside, and left Jaffa behind.
It is all one city now, ruin on ruin with gleaming modern blocks capping the top. The church bells linger against the call of the imam. An Israeli bride poses for a picture on the hillside, white dress gleaming against the ruins.
Darkness falls and we head north to the new old city.
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