Touring IDF Bases with Israel Celebration Tours
In coordination with Israel’s Ministry of Tourism, Israel Celebration Tours can schedule tours and meetings at IDF bases for groups visiting Israel. Groups are guided by military officers and can include lectures about the military and Israel’s geopolitical situation.
Ancient Israel
Three thousand years ago, according to the Bible, God sent Abraham and his family to the land that became known as Israel. By 1,400 B.C.E., Israel had grown into a sovereign nation with business relationships, many trading partners, a growing population, and a standing military to protect itself against threats from other competing nations in the region.
By about 200 B.C.E, the powerful Roman army was invading and conquering peoples in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The Jews of ancient Israel tried to resist Rome’s seizure of their lands and assaults on their holy places. By 132 C.E. the Romans had defeated the Jews, made them slaves, and evicted the majority from their land. They renamed the land Palestina. For the next two millennia, bereft of its people, the land lay largely uncultivated, a way station between the lands of Africa and growing Arab kingdoms.
The Return to Israel
Throughout the next nearly 2,000 years, facing oppression in every country in which they lived, the exiled Jews never gave up hope of returning to their spiritual home, praying daily for deliverance back to Israel. Slowly, century by century, new waves of Jews braved a return to Eretz Yisrael, the home of their ancestors, slowly reclaiming the land. During these times, the Jews were not sovereign, not able to govern themselves independently in their ancient land, so they could not have an army to defend them.