The war against the 'settlements' comes to TripAdvisor
Sorry for not posting for a couple of days - I've been swamped with work.
The war against the 'settlements' has come to AirBnB and to TripAdvisor. The Washington Post's William Booth reports that the 'Palestinians' are protesting the offering of rooms in 'settlements' on the popular Bed and Breakfast site, and that the result has been a rush by 'settlers' to list more homes (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).
The Airbnb host said that once his guests see the view, “nobody wants
to talk politics.” Igal Canaan, a Jewish settler, threw open the doors
of his designer apartment to reveal a jaw-dropping panorama of blue sky
and Judean wilderness.
“In the morning, you can see shepherds
with their flocks,” said Canaan, pointing out a distant village often
associated with the birth of the prophet Jeremiah. “The view is totally
biblical.”
All this, plus swimming pool, kitchenette, fast WiFi and maybe a “welcome” bottle of wine, just 20 minutes from Jerusalem, for about $80 per night.
The guest reviews call it awesome — but according to the Palestinians, it is also very wrong.
That's about what Mrs. Carl and I pay for the zimmer we occasionally rent in the Galilee (which includes a jacuzzi but not a swimming pool) and it's a heck of a lot closer to our Jerusalem home. Hmmm.
A few weeks ago, Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine
Liberation Organization, sent a terse letter to Airbnb chief executive
Brian Chesky in San Francisco, warning that his company was “effectively
promoting the illegal Israeli colonization of occupied land.”
Airbnb said in a statement to the Associated Press that it “follows law and regulations where it can do business.”
Indeed they do. And the government of Israel certainly has no problem with 'settlers'revenants renting out their homes. And perhaps Saeb - the 'Palestinians' perennial chief negotiatorbottle washer should have kept his mouth shut.
So what did some Jewish settlers with an extra bedroom do?
“Ever since the Palestinians started complaining, our people took this
as a challenge and have been rushing to Airbnb to list their
properties,” said Miri Maoz-Ovadia, a spokeswoman for the Binyamin
Regional Council.
The greatest one minute ad to visit Israel ever made
This was sent to me under the title "the greatest one minute ad to visit Israel ever made," but really it ought to be called "the greatest one minute ad to visit the Binyamin (Samaria) region" ever made.
As expected, Israel's local airlines are on strike on Sunday morning against the prospect of the government's approval of an open skies agreement with the European Union, which is expected to happen at Sunday's cabinet meeting.
If passed,
the agreement would introduce greater competition, which could theoretically
bring down prices and force airlines to make difficult business
decisions.
El Al announced Saturday evening that cancellations and
changes would apply to flights departing from 5 a.m. on Sunday.
The
airline advised passengers to turn to the El Al website for updated information
about their specific flight.
For many of the flights, including one that
had been scheduled to take off for New York at 10:40 a.m., the airline pushed
ahead departure times to significantly earlier hours.
For example, the
10:40 a.m. flight was moved to 1:10 a.m., while all others scheduled for between
6 and 9 a.m. were changed to between 4:10 and 4:40 a.m., according to the El Al
website.
Israir also warned customers that due to the strike, most
flights after 5 a.m. on Sunday would be either canceled or changed. Two Israir
flights to Europe were moved to earlier departure times, while two Israir
charter flights were still scheduled to take off as scheduled.
As for
flights to and from Eilat, Israir said customers would be eligible for refunds
and could buy tickets for buses departing from the Sde Dov, Ben-Gurion, Haifa
and Eilat airports.
Arkia meanwhile asked passengers to remain updated
about their flights by checking online statuses, and ensured that the airline
would do all in its power to allow for smooth travel.
...
The Histadrut labor federation announced the strike on Thursday
afternoon, calling it “an existential strike for the future of Israeli
airlines.”
“The meaning of the agreement in its current form is the
elimination of Israeli airlines and the direct and indirect firing of tens of
thousands of workers,” it said, arguing that the government should take full
responsibility for airline security in order to remove the onerous burden on
Israeli airlines and level the playing field.
“We are not against
competition, but we are in favor of equal and fair competition,” said Avi Edry,
head of the El Al workers union. “Israeli airlines, and most of all El Al, are
the only companies that fly in times of crisis and provide the first response to
the State of Israel.”
My guess is that the government will end up eating the security costs and passing them back to consumers in the form of a ticket surcharge that will mean that we save little or nothing on airfares, and that the expected influx of tourism that would benefit everyone else in the country won't happen.
Out of just over 500 respondents, 83 percent said they have no intention
of vacationing in Turkey over the summer, with nearly half citing the
uncertainty of the future of Israel-Turkey relations as their reason.
Two-thirds said they simply weren’t interested in Turkey as a
destination, regardless of strained relations following the 2010 Mavi
Marmara incident.
The Meida Shivuki C.I. survey’s
findings ran contrary to projections by Israeli and Turkish travel
companies who, following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s apology to
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month, expected
Israelis to flood back to Turkish resorts.
“After the
apology, I think we’ll reach 500,000 [Israeli] tourists this year,” AFP
quoted Timur Bayindir, president of the Association of Hotel Owners in
Turkey, saying last month after the rapprochement was announced.
In 2008, just before relations between Ankara
and Jerusalem began to sour, approximately 560,000 Israelis flocked to
Turkey, particularly the beachside resorts of Antalya and Bodrum,
according to Israeli tourism statistics.
Out of the people surveyed, only one had booked a ticket to Turkey this summer. Heh.
This is the first time I can remember this happening: US Air's in-flight magazine for August features Tel Aviv on the cover. (It's all a picture and you'll have to click through to read it).
If you so desire, you can send compliments on the article to:
Lance Elko US Airways Magazine Pace Communications, Inc. 1301 Carolina St. Greensboro, NC 2740
What do you plan to do with your summer vacation this year? If you're coming to Israel, you might want to consider this.
Like a frozen turkey plunged into boiling oil, a group of American tourists descend from an air-conditioned van into the scorching heat of the West Bank. Flashing smiles all around, they march into Caliber 3, a local shooting range.
"Move it!" the Israeli guide suddenly yells. "Destroy that terrorist," he orders them, and they charge, guns loaded, at cardboard targets.
Gush Etzion has become a hot destination in recent months for tourists seeking an Israeli experience like no other: The opportunity to pretend-shoot a terror operative. Residents of the nearby settlements, who run the site, offer day-trippers a chance to hear stories from the battleground, watch a simulated assassination of terrorists by guards, and fire weapons at the range.
The fact that the tourist attraction is located beyond the Green Line only intensifies the thrill for the visitors, who often appear disappointed when told by their guides that they are not in any danger.
...
Michel Brown, 40, a Miami banker, chose to take his wife and three children to the range with the purpose of "teaching them values."
Upon entering the range, his five-year-old daughter, Tamara, bursts into tears. A half hour later, she is holding a gun and shooting clay bullets like a pro.
"This is part of their education," Michel says as he proudly watches his daughter. "They should know where they come from and also feel some action."
Sharon Gat, the range's manager, says all the instructors at the site have served in elite IDF units.
"This is a special program created due to popular demand," he says. "Travelers from all over the world come here to meet former combat troops and hear stories about elite units. It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience."
Here's a new way to tour Jerusalem. It's called a Segway.
Let's go to the videotape.
This is kind of neat, but I don't understand why they cost $9,000 apiece. Actually, I do understand because I live here. But that doesn't make it right.
Once upon a time, religious Israelis mocked secular Israelis for having their holidays in Turkey rather than in Israel. No more. After a glitzy bus advertising campaign this past summer yielded nothing (that's what this article omits), Turkey has decided to recall its tourism attachefrom Tel Aviv (Hat Tip: Joshua I).
Turkey recalled its tourism attache, Inanc Ozcakmak, from Tel Aviv on Thursday, with the intention of closing the office in the near future.
The move was viewed as yet another installment of Turkey's diplomatic offensive against Israel, which began in May 2010 after Israel refused to apologize for their raid on the Gaza-bound Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, during which nine Turkish nationals died.
...
Turkish officials claimed that the decision to recall the attache was in response to what they say is an Israeli ban on Israeli tourists to Turkey. To date, Israel has warned its citizens that traveling to Turkey could pose dangers, but have not issued any sort of official restriction.
According to the Turkish officials, the Turkish government felt there was no need to keep a tourism attache in Tel Aviv, with an annual budget of $1.5 million, if Israeli tourists would not visit Turkey.
Until two years ago, Israeli tourism in Turkey flourished, with more than half a million tourists visiting Turkey each year. Turkey's tourism office in Tel Aviv handled all the bureaucratic work associated with the tourist programs.
This sounds more like Turkey realizes that its money could be better spent elsewhere than part of a diplomatic offensive by Erdogan. Kudos to my fellow Israelis for not going there.
By the way, how many Turks have ever visited Israel?
I haven't been inside since early June but it seems that Ben Gurion Airport - you know, the one with the security that they can't have in the US because their airports are busier - has become quite a busy airport this summer.
Some 1.365 million passengers passed through Israel's international airport in July, including arrivals and departures, tourists and Israelis – a 15% rise compared to the same month last year.
According to the IAA figures, the summer of 2011 is expected to be the busiest summer of all times at Ben-Gurion Airport, with 2.83 million passengers.
The busiest day so far was Thursday, July 28, with 61,091 passengers on 373 flights.
According to Israel Airports Authority figures, the leading destinations this summer for both Israeli and foreign passengers are Greece, the United States, Germany, France, Italy and Russia.
Note who's not on the list: England (somewhat surprising) and Turkey (not surprising at all).
But let's put those statistics in some perspective. At Boston Logan (an airport I usually fly into and out of a couple of times a year), there were 894,893 passengers in January 2011 (last month available) and 1,283,848 in July 2010. Maybe that's why they're finally experimenting with Israeli-style security.
Israeli tourism to Turkey off 59% in first five months of 2011
I'm amazed that any Israelis are still going to Turkey. Israeli tourism to Turkey is down 59% year over year during the first five months of 2011 (the first flotilla incident took place on May 31, 2010) (Hat Tip: Joshua I).
The number of Israeli tourists visiting Turkey between January and May this year decreased by about 59 percent compared to the same period last year, according to data published by the Tourism Ministry.
The figure stands in stark contrast to last year, when figures showed a 133 percent increase over the same time period in 2009.
About 30,000 tourists from Israel visited Turkey in the first five months of the year, compared to the 72,500 Israeli tourists who came to Turkey during the same period in 2010. The decrease was even sharper for May, when only 6,417 tourists from Israel came to Turkey, compared to 18,295 in the same month last year.
In 2009, fewer Israelis visited Turkey in response to Prime Minister Erdogan's temper tantrum directed at Israeli President Shimon Peres in Davos in January of that year.
The year 2010 set a record in tourism to Israel, according to the Ministry of Tourism, with 3.45 million arrivals registered.
Statistics released Monday showed 26 percent more visitors than Israel had seen a year earlier, and 14 percent more than in 2008, Israel's previous record-setting year.
According to the ministry figures, 2.8 million visitors were tourists who stayed more than one night – 21 percent more than in 2009, and 10 percent more than in 2008, another record.
Of the 3.45 million incoming tourists, 2.3 million arrived by air (68 percent), an increase of 18 percent over the previous year and 10 percent over 2008, representing a boon to the airline industry.
Luxury cruise ships did not suffer, however: some 160,000 came on cruise ships by sea – double the number that arrived in 2009 and three times those who came in 2008.
Some 490,000 entered through the land crossings (14 percent) – 38 percent more than in 2009, and 8 percent more than in 2008. Another 470,000 were day visitors who arrived by land and air – 34 percent more than in 2009 and 11 percent more than in 2008. These were arrivals mainly from Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Ukraine, all located within close geographic flying range.
And you Americans were only 19%.
Come to Israel. Come stay with friends. And please bring me coffee for my coffeemaker. I can't carry back enough myself.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
