Where's Beit El?

I just got an email from someone who wanted to know. This person doesn't live in Israel, but I'm always amazed how many people in Israel don't know where Beit El, Shiloh, Ariel, Efrat, Ofra, Hebron etc are. Even worse, there are soldiers who don't know.

When I was a kid, we had to learn the names of all 48, then 49, then 50 states. Oops! Now you have some idea of how old I am. That's sure lots more complicated than learning the Israeli map. Israel is much smaller.

I frequently find people "tremping" who don't know where they are going. That is dangerous.

Here's the letter I sent:

Thanks for writing. Actually I work in Beit El and live in Shiloh. It's location is just north of Jerusalem. We used to go straight north and drive through Ramallah, then Beit El and then 20 minutes later, on the same road I was home in Shiloh. Then during Oslo times, they made a bypass road, since it wasn't practical to go through Ramallah, and Oslo made it unsafe. Since the road went east and then north, it no longer goes right past Beit El. There's a T junction east of Beit El, and then it's another 10 minutes or so until you make it to Beit El.

Now the main road passes Ofra and continuing north you're in Shiloh.

I hope that helps