Dear Friend,

If you ever plan on experiencing Israel and the Holy Land, now may be a good time for you to make that trip or pilgrimage.

Why? There are several good reasons. First, because of the safety and security measures in effect; second, because there are small crowds right now, you will have the country virtually to yourself, and the sites and sights can be really “YOURS”; and third, because you will find every Israeli alert and on their guard, which means that you’ll have thousands of friends keeping an eye out for your safety as well as their own.

Personally, I have always felt safe in Israel. My family and children live, work and play here. And we have choices, because all of us are also U.S. Citizens. Having lived in many places in the USA over many years, I can honestly say that I feel much safer in Israel than I do in sections of many American cities (which brings to mind a subway ride one night in Brooklyn, a wrong turn in Watts, and a walk on Chicago’s south side. With a guide I never would have been in these locales in the first place).

So allow me to share some things that I know you’re thinking about as you consider plans for travel to Israel and the Holy Land:

           1.  Tourism is the second largest source of income to our Israeli economy. If it were only for economic reasons alone (and in truth it is so much more than that), we take your safety and security with the utmost seriousness. In fact there is nothing – I repeat, NOTHING – that is treated more seriously in Israel than the safety, security and well-being of her citizens and visitors. When you are HERE WITH us, you are ONE OF us.

           2.   All guides and drivers remain in constant touch by cell phone and radio with various entities to ensure that visitors to Israel are kept away from places where there is even a hint of disturbance. (We have more cell phones per capita than anywhere else on the planet, and we use them constantly.) There is NO WAY we will put you (or ourselves, for that matter) in harm’s way.

           3.   Israelis have grown up being taught to notice and look for anything that seems out of place (such as an unattended piece of luggage or grocery bag, an automobile parked in the wrong direction, etc.). When we see something like this we all know exactly what we need to do (immediately contact the authorities for handling), and that’s exactly what we do. So there are literally millions of pairs of eyes looking out for one another, around the clock.

           4.  Because we use our own special travel vehicles, there is no need for us to use public buses, and we always keep a low profile. Because our days are full and active, our clients are almost always tired at the end of the day and after dinner head for the pillows in their hotel rooms.

           5.  We do not visit the West Bank hot spots you see on the news (Hebron, Nablus, Ramallah) or the Gaza Strip.

           6.  The REAL ISRAEL is not what the major news networks show you. The media can also make your own hometown appear unsafe. Here the media really has it all wrong. The only way to know what's really going on in the Middle East is to read news that originates in the region, and to come here and see for yourself. Over and over our clients tell us, "I don't know what we and/or our families were worried about. We felt VERY safe, and we WERE very safe."

           7.  On the rare occasions when there is a disturbance at a particular place (like the Wailing Wall or Temple Mount), it's only temporary (usually no more than just a few minutes). The news networks will show this disturbance, but they never show how quiet it is the next day or mention how quiet it was in the days and weeks before. Why? Because QUIET isn’t news.

           8.  Although many of us Israelis are not religious in an orthodox sense, most of us are spiritual. It’s part of our heritage. So when we deal with safety and security issues in our country, we plan and prepare as if there were no God. And then when we are done – we leave a little to God. Because that’s also part of our heritage. And because deep down in our heart of hearts we know that our lives and destinies are ultimately in God’s hands and not in our own.