Changes

From the snowy Peak of Mt. Hermon in the northern Galilee, through the lush greenery around the blue waters of Sea of Galliee, the Kinneret, to the heights of God drenched Jerusalem, down the shores of the Dead Sea, through the Negev Desert, to the southern tip of the resort town of Eilat on the sparkling Gulf of Aqaba, Israel is a quilt work and a Mosaic of experiences for the Tourist to Israel.  

From the snowy Peak of Mt. Hermon in the northern Galilee, through the lush greenery around the blue waters of Sea of Galliee, the Kinneret, to the heights of God drenched Jerusalem, down the shores of the Dead Sea, through the Negev Desert, to the southern tip of the resort town of Eilat on the sparkling Gulf of Aqaba, Israel is a quilt work and a Mosaic of experiences for the Tourist to Israel.  

Its 7,850 sq. miles and size about that of New Jersey, has varieties of temperature and terrain as does the State of California. Its 6.7 million potpourri of peoples, from over 100 countries on 5 continents combined with their religions of Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and Druze, or of no religion whatever, provide for the tourist a heady delight to experience and much food for thought. And a musical confluence of Hebrew and Arabic, and Ethiopian and Russian, French, English, Spanish, Persian, Portuguese, a number of Indian dialects from the recently found and immigrated exiled Northern Tribe of Israel tribe of Northern India, the Bnei Menasha (the sons of Manessah), who look like Philippinos.

Its 7,850 sq. miles and size about that of New Jersey, has varieties of temperature and terrain as does the State of California. Its 6.7 million potpourri of peoples, from over 100 countries on 5 continents combined with their religions of Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and Druze, or of no religion whatever, provide for the tourist a heady delight to experience and much food for thought. And a musical confluence of Hebrew and Arabic, and Ethiopian and Russian, French, English, Spanish, Persian, Portuguese, a number of Indian dialects from the recently found and immigrated exiled Northern Tribe of Israel tribe of Northern India, the Bnei Menasha (the sons of Manessah).

==The Ways==

==Tourism History and Activity==

Tourism in Israel is as variegated as is the Land and its people.  

 

 

With the rise of the State of Israel, pilgrimage gradually gave place to a more general interest in Israel as a nation and as a people - "tourism" as we know it today. With the influx of Protestant visitors from all over the world conversant with the Bible, the Land as a whole and the places "where Jesus walked"  began to attract attention along with the traditional holy sites and churches . The rise of archaeology and the intensification of the discovery of the actual sites mentioned in the Bible, with, now, the support of the Israeli Department of Antiquities, broadened "pilgrimage" into "tourism". People now wanted to see the places that they had read about in the Bible, and now, thanks to the archaeological endeavor, had been made accessible."Support for Israel" played its part, too, as greater numbers of Evangelical Churches, along with the Jewish communites of the Diaspora, saw that being faithful to the God of Israel entailed faithfulness also to the new nation of Israel, itself a fulfillment of prophesy. And it is so today. In the times of the the most turmoil  and threat of war and terrorism, such as during the two Intifadas, and the most recent "Second Lebanon War", it has been the Evangelical Churches which have enabled the continuance of the Israel tourist industry.

 

Tourism today, cresting on an over 20% increase in 2007 athan in 2006, is a rapidly developing movement still holding its place, having displaced the diamond cutting industry, and now second to the "High Tech" industry in providing revenue for the State of Israel. Muslim nations still not having diplomatic relations with State of Israel, such as Malaysia and Indonesia, now have a steady stream of tourism and it is not infrequent that Israeli tour guides learn their languages. But there too, it is largely the small evangelical minorities of these nations, however great the numbers, that are providing the tourists. Some Nigerian states are now almost completely sponsering their Christians, Catholic and Protestant, making it possible for them to make pilgrimage to Israel, just as other Nigerian states are sponsering their people for the Haj to Mecca. The Jewish communities of the United States bring large numbers of their youth to Israel through the "BirthRight" program enabling them to "taste" Israel and in the process, to do as the other tourists do -- tour Israel. Russians are now a common sight in the tourist hotels. This time, they come as curious tourists, not as Orthodox (in the main) pilgrims, and are guided by Russian speaking new immigrants to Israel, driven in buses owned by other Russian new Israelis. Tours to Israel, nowadays, are organized and promoted not only by the traditional tourist agencies abroad, but large churches and well known Christian pastors and "media magnets" are the new tourism promoters and organizers. It is considered now as part of their ministry.

 

===Tourism can be vertical===  

===Tourism can be vertical===  

And to the right, on the Eastern shore, there are sights to see, such as the only place where the herd of Swine could have rushed down the slope into the sea without having fallen off the otherwise-all-around sharp and tall precipice, the slope of Gadarene where Jesus drove out the demons that then entered the swine.  

And to the right, on the Eastern shore, there are sights to see, such as the only place where the herd of Swine could have rushed down the slope into the sea without having fallen off the otherwise-all-around sharp and tall precipice, the slope of Gadarene where Jesus drove out the demons that then entered the swine.  

===Tourism can be military===

===Tourism can be "military"===

As you ride past the teenage kids in uniform going back to their bases anywhere in Israel, after being at home on the weekend, Israel is so small. Or as the tourist bus passes to the left of a tank convoy up from the Negev on the way to the Lebanese border, only to be stopped by a herd of sheep and their beduin shepherd crossing the main highway. Or by the mass of screaming girl soldiers (and guys) let out on 2 week a year vacation rafting with you down the white waters (bubbly froth) of the Nahal Hatzboni with its over-hanging and leafy trees and intermittent beaces (sand stops) to eat along the way. The Hatzboni, along with two other tributeries will lead you to the upper Jordon River, which will lead to the Sea of Galilee, which will lead to the "Jordon River", which will lead to the Dead Sea, which will lead, in the form of evaporated water (the Dead Sea having no outlet) to Heaven.

As you ride past the teenage kids in uniform going back to their bases anywhere in Israel, after being at home on the weekend, Israel is so small. Or as the tourist bus passes to the left of a tank convoy up from the Negev on the way to the Lebanese border, only to be stopped by a herd of sheep and their beduin shepherd crossing the main highway. Or by the mass of screaming girl soldiers (and guys) let out on 2 week a year vacation rafting with you down the white waters (bubbly froth) of the Nahal Hatzboni with its over-hanging and leafy trees and intermittent beaces (sand stops) to eat along the way. The Hatzboni, along with two other tributeries will lead you to the upper Jordon River, which will lead to the Sea of Galilee, which will lead to the "Jordon River", which will lead to the Dead Sea, which will lead, in the form of evaporated water (the Dead Sea having no outlet) to Heaven.

===The Panorama of Tourism===

==The Panorama of Tourism==

 

Or Tourism can take you in a few short hours of whirlwind to the early centuries Naabatean strong hold of Avdat in the Negev desert.

to the early centuries Nabatean strong hold of Avdat in the Negev desert.

To the white cliffs (and cable car) of Rosh haNikra at the Northern tip of Israel where it meets the Lebanese border. White Cliffs lapped by the Mediterranean forging deep caverns at water's edge to enter.  

To the white cliffs (and cable car) of Rosh HaNikra at the Northern tip of Israel where it meets the Lebanese border. White Cliffs lapped by the Mediterranean forging deep caverns at water's edge to enter.  

To the magnificent civilization upon civilization Tel of Bet Shean, at the Jordan River entrance to the Jezrael Valley, upon which King Saul's body was hung by the Philistines, and which later became a built up Roman, with all their bathhouses, colony. Or Tel Dan, or Tel Hazor, or Tel Beer Sheva, Tel Arad, Tel Megiddo, or Tel Lachish.  

To the magnificent civilization upon civilization Tel of Bet Shean, at the Jordan River entrance to the Jezrael Valley, upon which King Saul's body was hung by the Philistines, and which later became a built up Roman Colony, with all its bathhouses. Or Tel Dan, or Tel Hazor, or Tel Beer Sheva, Tel Arad, Tel Megiddo, or Tel Lachish.  

To the Ulta Orthodox section (no driving on the Sabbath!) section of Jerusalem called One Hundred Gates (or Measures), Mea Shearim, where the lives and the looks and locks (of hair), the customs and the smells bring you back to the synagogues and streets of 18th century Eastern Europe.

To the Ultra-Orthodox section (no driving on the Sabbath!) of Jerusalem, called One Hundred Gates (or Measures), Mea Shearim, where the lives and the looks and locks (of hair), the customs and the smells bring you back to the synagogues and streets of 18th century Eastern Europe.

To the beduin tents surrounded with camels and children and black veiled women, where you can enter (has to be arranged) and sit on carpets and drink, sip, drops of coffee in a thimble container and no longer wonder, as you catch a T.V. from the corner of your eye, why there are antennas sticking out from the tops of the tents.  

To the Bedouin tents surrounded with camels and children and black veiled women, where you can enter (has to be arranged) and sit on carpets and drink, sip, drops of coffee in a thimble container and no longer wonder, as you catch a T.V. from the corner of your eye, why there are antennas sticking out from the tops of the tents.  

To the Orhodox monastery at the steep side of Wadi Kelt in the Desert, the Wadi that goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho and the Dead Sea

To the Orhodox monastery at the steep side of Wadi Kelt in the Desert, the Wadi that goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho and the Dead Sea

To Jericho, to the walls of Jericho (What's left of them), and to the Dead Sea, where you can relax on your back reading a newspaper in the saltiest and most buoyant waters in the world, where there is more relaxing and sedating bromide in the oxygen of the air than anywhere else in the world, there 1,378 feet below sea level the lowest point on earth.

To Jericho, to the walls of Jericho (What's left of them), and to the Dead Sea, where you can relax on your back reading a newspaper in the saltiest and most buoyant waters in the world, where there is more relaxing and sedating bromide in the oxygen of the air than anywhere else in the world, 1,378 feet below sea level, the lowest point on earth.

To Mazada, on cable car, the high hill fortress by the Dead Sea, built up by King Herod from Hasmonean ruins to become his fortress against the Nabateans, Cleopatra of Egypt, and against his own subjects, where the Jews held out against the Romans after Jerusalem fell in 70 A.D, and committed suicide rather than surrender, and where in Modern Israel civilians were inducted into the Israeli Army - "Mazada to fall never again!"

To Matzada, on cable car, the high hill fortress by the Dead Sea, built up by King Herod from Hasmonean ruins to become his fortress against the Nabateans, Cleopatra of Egypt, and against his own subjects, where the Jews held out against the Romans after Jerusalem fell in 70 A.D, and committed suicide rather than surrender, and where in Modern Israel civilians were inducted into the Israeli Army - "Matzada to fall never again!"

To Herodion, the cone shaped fortress built by King Herod just north of Bethlehem, from which he sent his garrison down the short distance to kill the Child King destined to destroy his own Kingdom and his power.  

To Herodion, the cone shaped fortress built by King Herod just north of Bethlehem, from which he sent its garrison down the short distance to kill the Child King destined to destroy his own Kingdom and his power.  

To Bethlehem itself with its Church of the Holy Nativity and the Shepherd's field so familiar to the imagination and memory form Scripture and Carol and so "provocative" to the what is in the soul of light and awe for those who treasure Christ.  

To Bethlehem itself with its Church of the Holy Nativity and the Shepherd's field so familiar to the imagination and memory form Scripture and Carol and so "provocative" to

what is in the soul of light and awe for those who treasure Christ.  

To Golgotha in Jerusalem, just outside of the gates of First Century Jerusalem, where Jesus was crucified for the sins of the world and where He rose from the dead. To either one of the Golgothas, take your choice, the traditional Church of the Holy Sepulchre Golgotha, or "Gordons Calvary" Golgotha. They each have something to say for them. For the skeptics among us. The First Church in the World, the Jewish-Christian Synagogue on Mount Zion, the Church of the Holy Apostles of History, instead of facing, according to established custom, toward the Temple Mount in plain view, at least in the First century, faces to the north, to Golgotha, facing exactly between the two Golgothas. So you can take your choice.

To Golgotha in Jerusalem, just outside of the gates of First Century Jerusalem, where Jesus was crucified for the sins of the world and where He rose from the dead. To either one of the Golgothas, take your choice, the traditional Church of the Holy Sepulchre Golgotha, or "Gordons Calvary" Golgotha. They each have something to say for them. For the skeptics among us. The First Church in the World, the Jewish-Christian Synagogue on Mount Zion, the Church of the Holy Apostles of History, instead of facing, according to established custom, toward the Temple Mount in plain view, at least in the First century, faces to the north, to Golgotha. but it facing exactly between the two Golgothas. So you can take your choice.

[[category:Israel]]

[[category:Israel]]