Good luck Fred
I´ve done that myself and I know other people from Italy and Spain also, but if you have a look to the INT rout it goes all around the coast, apart from Cesaria Maritima there is not much to see, that you are not going to see, in your long Journey. you will miss all the wonderfull Galelee , mount Hermon and the Golan heights, west side of the Jordan valey, all worth while. Although I was lucky then, I cross from Nazaret to Jerusalem, now a days it does not look posible any more,
still Good Luck y Buen Camino!
Alf