Wednesday, April 21, 2010

The Burma Road

On Yom Haatzmaut we went on a hike with some of our daughter's friends to one of the most important sites related to the 1948 War of Independence. The trip leader was Ken Quinn who is an experienced guide. We drove past the area of Latrun, where there were several major battles, unfortunately won by the British-trained Jordanian Legion, the best Arab fighting force at that time. The British had built a huge Taggart fortress there, named after the architect who designed them, to "pacify" the populace. But, when the British withdrew they transferred it to the Jordanians (who incidentally had illegally invaded the country). So there was a bulge into what became Israel that was part of the West Bank controlled by the Jordanians. When the IDF defeated these forces in 1967, the Fortress was captured. Since it no longer had any strategic significance it was taken over by the Armoured Corps as their museum and is visited by tens of thousands of people on Yom Haatzmaut, particularly kids who love to climb on the tanks. Since it was so crowded, we did not stop there but went further down Rte. 3 to the road to Neve Shalom, where there was little traffic.

Neve Shalom is a village where both Jews and Arabs live together. Although they often don't agree they still manage to maintain their community. Off to the side is a dirt road that leads through the countryside to another dirt road that is both rocky and steep. This is the so-called "Burma Road," named after the road built in Burma in 1938 by the Allies using local peasants, who labored for months in extreme conditions to build the road that enabled the Allies to supply the Chinese through Burma. The Israeli version was built by the Jews through the hills of the Jerusalem forest in 1947 in order to supply Jerusalem, which was cut off, besieged and bombarded by the Jordanian Arab Legion. The main road to Jerusalem goes through narrow canyons and many convoys of hastily armored trucks were shot at on the road and many Jews were killed.

In order to break the siege, the Israeli higher command ordered an alternate and parallel road be built that was secret so that the Arab maurauders could not ambush them. This was done successfully under the command of Col. Mickey Marcus, an American officer, who was unfortunately killed by accident (as seen in the film "Cast a Giant Shadow"). We hiked part of that road, still in a relatively inaccessible part of the country, in the blistering heat. The gradients were indeed steep and it is a wonder how they managed to get trucks through there.

Then we returned to Modi'in where we enjoyed a traditional barbecue at the home of one of the friends and had a very nice time. Of this group of friends, mainly from the University of Maryland, there were 6 couples present of 8 who made aliyah and in the apartment there were 17 children. This is how our little country grows.

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