Anyone know if the Israel Birthright visits are still going on?

[spindrifter]

[Scurrilous]

1. Most Diaspora teens stay on, but cancellations for later tours stream in

<snip>

"Some 15,000 teenagers and young adults are scheduled to visit Israel on organized tours by the end of this season - a marked increase from the early years of the intifada when most such tourism came to a standstill. But with security concerns on the rise and rockets raining into Israel's northern cities and towns, some organized tours are reporting a slow but steady stream of cancellations from worried Diaspora Jews.

For the most part, officials say, the young people who have already arrived have decided to ride out the storm - with a few exceptions, such as a tour of 216 teens sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, which cut its month-long program short this week when they returned early to the United States due to safety concerns. But the main problem at this point, the officials point out, lies with those who have yet to board the Israel-bound plane.

Of the approximately 800 birthright israel participants who are now touring Israel, not a single one has left the heavily subsidized, 10-day program early. But according to the program's marketing director, Gidi Mark, just 75 percent of the young adults who were scheduled to arrive after the fighting broke out last week have actually made it here.

"We had two groups from the U.S. and in one group, 19 out of 40 arrived and in the second, 30 out of 40 came. From Hungary, we had two groups, one with 20 out of 21 participants and another with five out of 21 participants. The numbers change in the different groups and we don't have an explanation for it," Mark said."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/741366.html