EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/JnvULfd.jpg)
Would putting up just this mosaic which my glorious wife just made be considered too lazy for a blog? I dunno but this, at least for me, really is a picture worth a thousand words.
Anyway, did you know that 1/3 of Israel (and 2/3 of Israeli Negev desert) is designated a "firing rage" of the IDF and thus inaccessible to general public with the exception of Saturdays and public holidays (after prior arrangements with the IDF nonetheless)? Or that being after dark close to the Jordan or Egyptian border (even in areas that are full of tourists in daylight) can get you deported from the country?
Israel is really weird in its approach to these things. Israelis are really into outdoors and traveling (a fact known probably way too well to anyone who ever visited places like Patagonia) and the country is full of hiking trails, natural reserves and open campgrounds, even though more than a half of it is pretty harsh desert. Yet a significant portion of the country is off-limits to various levels; strangely the firing ranges and nature reserves have a strong tendency to be right next to each other.
However, even more strange is the reluctance to properly mark the boundaries between those two kinds of land. While at first glance it might seem as mere negligence, after many experiences, I now tend to think that there is more than meets the eye. It's not that hard to understand either - how would you like to live between fences your whole life? Israel is small, overpopulated and not exactly in a friendly neighborhood, so pushing the visible boundaries as far as you feasibly can goes a long way towards fighting the feeling of living in a cage.
So in the end, you may often drive or walk up all the way to the barbed wire on all the seemingly "hot" borders without nobody bothering you (at least in daylight), often following a marked trail to some minor natural or culture highlight in the desert. The firing ranges being poorly marked is still a little bit disturbing - I don't know about you, but I find the idea of being accidentally fired upon a little disconcerting. But at least the minefields are always clearly marked!
