Dear Friends,

I’m in a slightly different position now than I was before I went to Israel in April. Back then, I assured you the land was perfectly safe for tourism. I said that based on the evidence of many returning tourists, including our own from December (when things were more “violent”), and from reports on the ground in Israel which I receive daily by email. In addition, our own guides and drivers, who know every road in the country and almost every house, assured me that tourists were perfectly safe.

In fact, in a recent article about Israeli teenagers visiting an American social studies class, the first question the visitors asked was about the school shootings in the United States.

My different position now is that I have verified with my own eyes that Israel is perfectly peaceful, perfectly normal and operating as any democracy does, experiencing some unrest, but with generally quiet and peaceful streets and people. If you want to argue with me about Israel, please be someone who has been there and seen it, rather than someone who watches CNN. I have come to conclude that CNN and the other media are Israel’s worst enemies (the second being the UN, and the third the U.S. government).

The Palestinians, with all their chest-thumping indignation and occasional uproar, are hardly a bother compared with the enormous bad publicity generated by biased journalists. As the recent issue of CAMERA’s (Committee for Accuracy of Middle East Reporting in America) On Campus says on the cover, “Men with Guns… Kids with Stones… Journalists with Blinders.”

Simply to report mindlessly, day after day, about some sort of unrest, whether it be that an Israeli car damaged a Palestinian olive tree, or that an Israeli soldier sneezed in the presence of several Palestinians is getting to be plain boring. The casualty figures from Israel, regrettable as they are, show that the “unrest” is really a very small problem. Some three hundred or so Palestinians have been killed, unfortunately, but far more people have died in road accidents, or many other such causes in Israel in that time (seven months). The war in the Congo, which our journalists virtually never mention, has reached three million casualties, or ten thousand human beings killed for every Palestinian, and amazingly, that’s not news at all. I suspect that the lack of coverage is not so much because the people are black as for the fact that they have no oil.

Our country lives and dies as a servant of its Arab oil masters, and that’s all there is to that. The entire world will come down on Israel so that Americans and others can enjoy moderate oil prices from people who would rather see us dead, and who are working to that end daily. If you enjoy driving your car on cheaper gas prices than the Israeli, who pays five dollars per gallon, then you are indebted to Iran, Iraq, Libya and some of those other friendly oil providers who constantly urge our government to condemn Israel.

I’ve just finished our first tour of The Holy Land Experience in Orlando, Florida, the new theme park constructed there by Zion’s Hope Ministry. As a comparison, we had about seventy passengers in April for our tour of the real Israel and over one hundred for our tour of the Orlando site. But Orlando was simply wonderful! The rich fellowship that usually accompanies our Israel tour groups was evident in Orlando too. The sites were fascinating and offered first-century Israel, as opposed to modern Israel. We felt like we went back in time — even thirty-five centuries when we beheld the Tabernacle in the wilderness. We had plenty of time for discussions, questions and answers, and praise and worship services. “A good time was had by all.”

The “Liar of the Month” award must once again go to Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi, who virtually invented this coveted trophy when she stated on the McNeil-Lehrer Report, “Jesus Christ was a Palestinian prophet born in Bethlehem in my country.” Her latest statement is awe-inspiring: “There is no way in which any Palestinian population would prefer to live under Israeli occupation than freely in its own land.” The fact is, Palestinians are normal human beings, and would very much prefer to live in the Israeli democracy than in Arafat’s thuggish police state. USA Today reported on Feb. 3, 2000:

Many of the city’s 180,000 Palestinians say they would prefer to live under Israel’s democracy than under Arafat’s rule. They accuse his Palestinian Authority, a quasi-government entity, of being arbitrary and often corrupt.

And Fadal Tahabub, a Palestinian National Council member and an East Jerusalem resident, told the Jerusalem weekly Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) that he estimates that seventy percent of the almost 200,000 Jerusalem Arabs prefer Israeli sovereignty.

Christianity Today magazine, another of Israel’s enemies, calls Ashrawi a “Christian activist.”

Honestly folks, I don’t mean to harp on this subject, but who is defending Israel these days? Certainly not the churches, who consider the subject “too controversial.” And certainly not the seminaries, headed up by the sort of men described by the expression “empty suits,” who care more about enrollment figures and buildings than the King and His Kingdom. After reading CAMERA’s whole publication this month, I am really disappointed about the sheer numbers of people — including the media, the European Union and of course the billion Moslems in the world — who make it practically their daily work to disparage and damage Israel.

I’ll say it once and say it clearly: Israel is blameless in both the present situation and its handling of its affairs since 1948, which I have monitored all this time. While it has the normal problems of any normal democracy, it is far and away the most spiritual, most interesting, and most important nation in the world today, and its six million people are among the world’s most productive and helpful to human civilization.

Join us in the fall for a Greek luxury cruise, our Eilat/Petra extension and our Israel tour for an all-inclusive Holy Land experience. You can choose from four itineraries. The dates are August 30 through September 18 for the Ultra Grand Tour, September 3–18 for Israel and the Greek isles cruise, September 3–13 for the Israel-only itinerary, and August 30 through September 13 for Israel with the Eilat/Petra extension.

For our Hanukkah/Christmas Tour, we will be much closer to home this year. Come and experience Israel in Orlando during your Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. It will be a great opportunity for the whole family to celebrate our Savior’s birth at the very authentic Holy Land Experience. Not only can you have a time of spiritual renewal with teachings from the Bible, but also you can plan your fall or winter vacation to include the many attractions and warm, sunny climate of this famous “vacationland.”

Request your full-color Israel and Orlando brochures by calling 1-800-WONDERS (966-3377) anytime, or call Tony at (214) 696-9760 during office hours.

And please know, once again, that the “unrest” in Israel is certainly no more severe than it is in your own city or town, and that includes Orlando! You may want to visit www.goisrael.com and read the heartening testimonies of recent pilgrims.

We have finished the taping of our new series Thy Kingdom Come: The Future of the Believers. This is a twelve-program series that presents a thorough examination of what will happen to those who are saved after the Rapture, rather than the typical focus on what will happen to the world.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

Your messenger,

Zola

P.S. You can watch our TV program anytime by giving to www.levitt.com and clicking on “Zola on Internet TV.”

Zola Levitt Ministries is ECFA approved and has Charity Navigator’s top rating of 4 stars.

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