Safety Information
Although there are no guarantees, travel to Israel remains quite safe. Especially when it comes to Israel, what we see on TV is not indicative of the entire country. What makes the nightly news is typically the bad news. In fact, terrorism has been reduced to nearly zero due to the Israeli-built wall isolating the Palestinian controlled areas from the rest of the country. Since Israel controls the access in and out of those areas, and because their security forces are the best trained in the world, they have been able to make Israel very secure.
We have operated many tours to Israel, have never encountered any problems due to terrorism, and have never felt unsafe anywhere in the country. The Israelis are known worldwide for their security expertise, and even share that expertise with many countries, including the U.S. And due to Israel’s stringent security policies, airplanes flying in and out of Tel Aviv are among the most secure in the world.
We are always aware of the potential for problems, however, and never take safety issues lightly. Yet, just as there are places in the U.S. we might feel unsafe, there are places in Israel we do not take our tour groups. Most of the violence in Israel over the last number of years has taken place in Gaza—an area far away from where we tour.
Because tourism in Israel continues to be slower than normal—primarily due to only bad news being shown on TV—this is actually a wonderful time to travel there! Since there are fewer tourists at each site, we are often able to add additional sites beyond what we advertise for our tours.
The statistics actually show that you have a greater risk of injury or death driving the interstate highways of America than you do riding in a tour bus in Israel over any given 10-day period. One passenger who recently returned from Israel stated, “Tell your people that fear of safety should not keep them from missing such a great blessing! We had a wonderful time!”
We believe a Bible teaching-tour of Israel is a life-changing experience, deepening a person’s knowledge and understanding of God’s Word. Our prayer is that each person will return with a deep passion to know Christ better
and will be a stronger witness of His truth.
As I said earlier, there are no guarantees regarding safety (either in Israel—or in the U.S. for that matter), but it would be a shame for undue fear to keep God’s people from missing a wonderful spiritual blessing!
“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7, KJV).
We hope to see you soon in Israel.
Rev. Jim Reimann