My visit to Nearby Samaria-1982

Above is a home in Kfar Saba.

Nadene Goldfoot

October 7, 1982

In 1980, my husband and I moved to Israel and went into a 10 month re-training program in Haifa with 40 other people who were all preparing to be English as Foreign Language Teachers. We were hired to teach in Safed "Tzfat" in the northern Galilee, a stone's throw from the Lebanon border. We were on Succot vacation and were able to take an ACI prepared trip to Samaria. ACI stands for Americans and Canadians in Israel. They were a g-dsend to us in helping out with all our problems of living in Israel. The following is from my book, "Letters From Israel.", pages 220-221.

We picked up two older ladies in Karmiel in our new red Fiat and drove into Haifa, and met the bus we were to take on the Carmel. (This was the same area that just recently suffered a horrible forest fire). We went to the West Bank, or Samaria to be more specific, and it was quite an eye opener for us. Ha, I had to get up at 5:00 am and went to bed at midnight because we had such good late night TV. I woke up sneezing, which was a surprise, and took an allergy pill, so fought sleep all day and night. It was so terrible. Yes, I do get that way once in a while and can't stop sneezing.

Anyway, what happened was that we drove on the highway from Haifa to Tel Aviv along the coast. It is a lovely drive, and turned left at Kvar Saba, went into that little teeny town and out of it, and we found ourselves in Samaria. I was so shocked! It's practically on the other side of the highway.

We stood at a plaque where Sharon and his men had fought not too recently and saw our highway and cars. It was unreal! We drove deeper into Samaria and saw Arabs, sheep, a little Arab town outside Kafar Saba, and in the distance Ramalla, which was a larger Arab city.

I saw lots of land that looked somewhat like Eastern Oregon, and finally came some twenty-five minutes later to a Jewish settlement where we had lunch in their succa. We brought our own sack lunches with us.

This settlement is made up of mainly Israelis and a few Americans who are very dedicated and Zionistic. One of their people is a non-Jew who is a Japanese man recently from Japan who has a paper factory there where he makes paper for computers. He goes to services, and once got all dressed up in his Japanese robes and proceeded to take movies of the Friday night services until he was asked to please stop.

They are building beautiful homes but no apartments there, and are almost ready to move in. The establishment is six years old. You know that house in Ontario on the corner with the red tile roof and wood sides? One house I saw looked like that one. The other houses had the same roof but were made of cement.

The point is this. The shape of Israel decided by the United Nations is really weird. They gave us the seacoast from Haifa to Tel Aviv, and that's it. The land adjacent to us is ancient Samaria and Judea. How dumb! We should have that land.

We continued from this place to the Roman ruins where King Ahab, a Jewish king, also lived and we walked all around. The weather was so warm and pleasant. I got a suntan from it. It was incredible to see all the stonework, columns, and amphitheater. Then we went back to Haifa and drove home. We had left Haifa at 8:15am and got back to Safed at 4:30pm with lots of time to rest and explore at the ruins. No wonder Begin didn't want to give up Samaria and Judea. Remember, it's within stone throwing distance of our highway. You just wouldn't believe how close it is to us. The problem is that they don't just throw stones at us anymore.