i miss Israel....

I am back in Virginia- packing and preparing to move to DC on Sunday. I am very excited about my upcoming internship, but I can't help but miss Israel. In my last post, I mentioned some of the places that we visited. There's no way that I could cover every place that we visited, but I will highlight a few more places.

Knesset- the Knesset is an old Jewish term for the political body. The Knesset is like the British Parliamen, and is the House of Representatives of the State of Israel, the seat of the legislative authority, and symbolizes its"democratic character." The Knesset has 120 members who are elected in free and democratic elections. The Knesset derives its power directly from the citizens of the State, who elect their reps by the political lists running in the election.

We had the privilege of meeting with a Knesset Parliament member.

The Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum- the most complete and oldest version of the book of Isaiah (Dead Sea Scrolls)- written more than 2000 years ago- was on display at the Museum.

Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem- precious man. We had the honor of meeting with "His Beatitude"- the current Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem who is the 141st successor of James, the brother of Jesus. He was elected to the 141st primate of the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem in August 2005. The Patriarch of Jerusalem is like the Pope of the Greek Orthodox Church. He has a humbleness about him that is unmatched.

Wailing/Western Wall- We witnesses the swearing in of new Israeli Defense Force soldiers at the Western Wall. When the soldiers sing the Israeli national anthem "Hatikva" and take their oath of allegiance to the State of Israel, they are handed their weapon and a Jewish Bible.

The Military Court in West Bank area- We were able to visit the Military Court in the West Bank area and watch a terrorism related case. After visiting the court, we discussed whether the military court met international law standards. The goal of the Zionist movement was to establish a Jewish state with high ideals of the rule of law, so did this trial foster a national positive sentiment and consciousness? In my opinion, the Military Court was meeting international law standards in the manner that the trial was conducted, how the accused was treated, etc. Regardless, they gave more justice in that court than a US soldier would have received in a court in Afghanistan.

The Supreme Court of Israel- We visited the Supreme Court of Israel and had the opportunity to meet Senior Israeli Supreme Court Justice Elyakim Rubinstein. He took a break in the middle of a trial to come and speak to us. We were then able to sit in on 2 terrorism related trials in which he presided.