Tel Chai

I have just returned from a short holiday in Israel including a tour with two of my sons of the north of Israel. This included a visit to the Bahai Gardens in Haifa and as we left Mount Carmel we saw the smoke cloud from the catastrophic fire in the Carmel forest. Later that day as we were in Acco we could see the cloud of smoke which had blown out miles to sea with the red sun behind.
On Friday we drove to the far north and visited the Tel Chai monument to the fallen members of Hashomer who died defending Hanita. Their names are listed and includes Joseph Trumpeldor who is a hero to both the left and right wing in Israel. To refresh your memories, Trumpeldor had been a highly decorated officer in the Czarist army in the Russian war against Japan in 1905 where he lost an arm. He moved to Turkish ruled Palestine and joined a collective in Upper Galilee. He was a founding member of a Jewish self defense group called Hashomer who tried to prevent Arab marauders from attacking the isolated Jewish settlements in the Yishuv. He and a number of others were killed in an ambush at Kibbutz Hanita and he reputedly said (in translation) "It's good to die for our country", but this has been disputed.
Nevertheless there is a famous monument of a roaring lion at Tel Chai, which is visited by many people every year and especially at Chanuka because of the association with the fight for liberty of the ancient Maccabees.
He was a Chalutz which has inspired left wing Zionists, but the fact that he also represented a Jewish hero has also inspired right wing Zionists as well. In any case we found it a very moving place and there is a special atmosphere associated with the site.