Open Letter Regarding Travel in the Middle East with EO and JCBS

Rarely in our 38 year history has EO seen the situation in the Middle East peaceful.  Since the early 1990’s, we have seen 2 Gulf Wars, a wave of terrorism, 9/11, 2^nd Intifada, 2^nd Lebanon War, the Gaza War, Arab Spring and Egyptian Revolution.  Few of these came with warning, but throughout all of these events the safety of our guests was our priority, and no pilgrim has been harmed in Israel during any of these events.

While a strike on Iran nuclear capabilities has dominated international policy, we have seen a strong reaction by the Israeli military to increasing rocket fire into its southern regions similar to what preceded the Gaza War in 2008/2009.  I anticipate that these actions will last at least another week (the Gaza War in 2008/2009 lasted approximately 3 weeks).  With Israeli general elections coming up in 2 months, I do not see this action lasting longer than that.  Historically, Israeli governments taking these kinds of actions close to elections have been defeated in the general elections so a successful conclusion to the action will be highly pursued by the current Israeli administration.

The current actions near and in Gaza do not have a bearing on our normal sightseeing as no sightseeing occurs in the south near Gaza.  Currently we have 500 guests and myself in Israel including 200 guests visiting Israel on the Norwegian Jade.  The majority have been in Jerusalem today including myself.  It has been a beautiful day with temperatures in the low 70s.  Without news coverage, one would not know there was a problem in the country.  Our guests have enjoyed all of their sightseeing as scheduled.  It remains a very busy time for tourism in Israel.

We are closely monitoring the situation with our staff on the ground in Israel.  Also, we will carefully monitor the US State Departments warnings or advisories for the countries we operate in.  Currently, there is no State Department travel warning to Egypt or Jordan and the travel warning for Israel has been in place for more than 15 years, remains little changed since 2007, and relates to many aspects of travel that do not apply to an organized tour group and the locations that we visit.    If it is not deemed safe to travel to Israel, Egypt, or Jordan, then we will cease travel.  If certain areas are to be avoided, we will avoid those areas. 

Since we have a similar parallel with the current action and the Gaza War in 2008, we do know that airline and tourism services were not affected in the Gaza War, and air schedules and tours continued normally.  Based on what I know today, I do not anticipate the airline policies for this situation being any different than at that time.

Finally, communication is critical in these situations.  We have 6 paid staff in Israel to assist our guests, and 3 staff from Lakeland in Israel beginning next week. Our Lakeland office is manned virtually around the clock in crisis situation, maintaining close contact not only with guests and staff on location but also with concerned family in the USA.