War Tourism? People Still Traveling to Israel

[Judi Lynn]

War Tourism? People Still Traveling to Israel
Americans Continue to Visit Despite U.S. State Department Warning Not to Travel to Israel or Lebanon

~snip~
The U.S. State Department is warning Americans not to travel to either Israel or Lebanon.

And yet, almost incredibly, some people are still going to Israel.

Stuart Katz, a managing director for Israir Airlines, which flies between New York and Tel Aviv, cancelled his trip to Hawaii next weekend because he's going to Israel instead.

"One of the motivating factors for us to go is to stand with the people of Israel in Israel," Katz said.

Israir has slashed fares to entice Americans to visit Israel.
(snip/...)

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Travel/story?id=2223854

[54anickel]

1. Front row seats for the Rapture? eom

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Mom's not that brave! nt

[Lance_Boyle]

3. Forecast is fair skies and cheap fares

with a 50% chance of fiery death. Fly on, morons.

[daleo]

4. There are no actual numbers given

There could be 2, there could be 20,000 for all you get from the article.

I read recently that about 40,000 Canadians visited Israel in 2004. Not all of these would be tourists - some might be people with dual citizenship or business travelers. American travel to Israel must be at least ten times that much, and Europe is probably the same. War certainly can't be good for business, regardless of the fact free happy stories we read.

[oneold1-4u]

5. Choice?

An american joining the Israel military might well be helping the US in the MI, but would be under a much safer, intelligent military leadership than in Iraq for the US.
Israel has proved itself worthy of being a free country far more times than any other nation!

[me b zola]

6. It's sick, but it's not new

At the beginning of the American civil war socialites and other spectators would gather to watch the battles. That practice, IIRC, was soon abandoned when they got to see the horrific reality of war and also realized that it was none too safe to be in the vacinity of stray canon rounds and bullets.



edited for clarity

[fujiyama]

7. Notice it says people are still going to Israel

and not to Lebanon...and also, while there have been Israelis killed, the deaths in Israel are concentrated in northern Israel around Haifa. I don't think Hezbollah has the range to target other Israeli cities just yet.

Now OTOH, if there was a steep increase in the number of terrorist attacks in other Israeli cities like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem (like the wave of attacks three years ago), I doubt we'd see as many going there. So, I don't see this article as especially informative.