[img]96|left|||no_popup[/img] Dateline Jerusalem — I often make comparisons between Israel and California.

Israelis who have visited California agree that the two places are similar.

For example, it is said that the only place to find Joshua trees, inherent to the Mojave Desert and in almost every backyard in the Antelope Valley, is in Israel.

In Palmdale/Lancaster (Antelope Valley), it is illegal to uproot the Joshuas without transplanting them elsewhere. Sort of like an endangered species of plants.

The Salt of the — Earth?

I saw a sign today showing the direction to the Dead Sea (Yam Ha’Melach), the literal translation being Sea of Salt.

Does that sound familiar?

In California we have the Salton Sea. The Dead Sea is so full of salt it is impossible not to float even if you don’t know how to swim.

Both are at the lowest point. The Dead Sea is at the lowest elevation on earth, its shores being more than 1300 feet below sea level. The Salton Sea is the lowest point in California, its shores being over 200 feet below sea level.

Both are in the southeastern area of Israel and California, respectively.

I have a fascination with mountains. One of my favorite places is Vasquez Rocks, off the 14 Freeway. The outlaw Vasquez hid in those mountains for years, escaping the law.

Did You Know?

Most TV and movie Westerns filmed there, as well as Star Trek.

One can see the millions of years of the mountains’ formation, through the various “ages,” surviving wind and sandstorms, floods and earthquakes (it is part of the San Andreas fault).

Yet, the mountains in California look very much like those in Israel. The colors, texture, vegetation, or lack thereof, of the mountains and hills in Israel all remind me of those in California.

Their similarity is almost eerie.

Even the coastline, especially that of Northern California with its cliffs and caverns, looks like that of northern Israel.

Reminding Me of Home

Driving down Route 1 along the California coast is like driving from Nahariya, one of Israel’s northernmost cities near the Lebanon border,which is famous for its underwater caves. However, the waters of the Mediterranean Sea are much bluer and more beautiful than the waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Also, not as many sharks.

One difference between California and Israel is that the buildings in California don’t seem to be more than about 150 years old, except perhaps for some of the Franciscan missions and the”on Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles.

Yet in Israel, one can see antiquities that are thousands of years old. The entire country is an archeologist’s dream dig.

L'hitraot. Shachar

Shachar is the Hebrew name of a California-based attorney and former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy who moved to Israel last year.