Just months ago I stood there, very taken with this fine example of an Eastern Strawberry Tree, the host plant for the Two-tailed Pasha butterfly. That trail was near the peak of Mt. Meron, at the tipped tippy top of Israel, the Upper Galillee region. The tree, well you see it here, OMG! beautiful. The butterflies? Saw several, had to be there before 6:50 AM, but they refused to allow me within 30′ of them, each seen on the trail floor.

Why this post today? From this trail you look down upon Israel’s border with Lebanon, and well beyond that, into Lebanon. Hours ago, an IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) patrol was ambushed on a road along the border, with two IDF soldiers killed and several wounded. Hezbollah terrorists killing Israelis, on the land given to the Hebrews by . . . . Within sight of this trail.

I have a daughter, son-in-law and two grandsons living in Israel.

Oh, how I hope that some of you support this tiny nation, the refuge of the bony skeletons dragged from their European homes and thrown into the ovens.

Jeff