To boost the growth of the growing tourism industry, the Knesset will discuss the Tourism Services Bill on October 16, 2018. With the new law, the restriction of having to hire qualified tour guides will be relaxed. The “spiritual shepherds” of pilgrim groups, such as priests and pastors, will be allowed to legally act as a guide. This will especially benefit groups from countries which the usage of language is less common, for example, Chinese. And this bill will inevitably reduce the double cost of hiring a professional tour guide and a translator. With this change, the market price for Israel pilgrims will be lowered, and hence promote Israel as a new destination in the global tourism market.

After the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “Second Intifada” in 2000, tourism in Israel shrunk due to safety concerns. Hotel industry struggled with finances as tourists stopped coming to Israel. And if this bill passes, this will be a positive influence on hotels, restaurants, transportation, attractions, and consumer products markets.

Israeli tour guides opposed to the passage of this bill as this move will also break the balance of the current market. In Israel, a guide is a profession that requires thousands of dollars invested to take courses in archaeology, history, religion, plants, geography, architecture, art, first-aid, management, etc. After two years of hard work and passing a rigorous national exam, then you can have a license. And this license will be renewed by taking an exam every year. Under the current law, when a tour group from China, Egypt or Turkey, they must have a contract of hiring a local guide to apply for Israeli group tourist visa. And a qualified tour guide can charge up to $240 a day.

At present, there are more than 13,000 licensed tour guides, and about 5,000 of them are still active. However, because the country lacks a supervision system, these licensed tour guides find themselves competing with guides without a license, and the number is about 1 5.

The licensed guides don’t want the “Tourism Service Bill” to pass. It’s understandable that they have invested so much time and money in the past, and now the government should protect this profession and this system. And they feel that though pastors and priests know the Bible, they don’t know the land. So they don’t think these ‘spiritual shepherds’ can guide or cope with other situations on the ground.

And the licensed guides believe that they are presenting the positive image of Israel, so tourists may receive correct information on Israel. So their job is like an ambassador. For example, an illegal tour guide told a group that the map of Madaba in the old city of Jerusalem was stolen from Jordan. Or that the Western Wall was the only wall remained from the Second Temple era. Or that the two-handled jug is for receiving holy water at Kotel. And the worse is a guide told the group that what Hitler did to the Jewish people is what Israel is doing to the Palestinians now.

With my perspective and experience as a Chinese tourist in Israel, I think a tour guide is a profession. But we are in a strange era, a diploma cannot guarantee employment, and a monopoly market will not let a tour guide have more business. No one can control how people talk about Israel on the Internet. So tour guides on the ground, while their profession is not to be questioned, it is time to turn less academic and more entertaining. Their role is like actors or street performers. It requires more than professional knowledge, eloquence, personality, expression, as well as language skills and understanding of the audience. And most importantly, guides need good reputation and connections.

When it comes to Chinese speaking guides, let me just say learning a language is not easy. I met a Chinese-speaking Israeli tour guide, his Chinese pronunciation was understandable but I would say his Chinese speaking skill was similar to a high schooler. The speed of speech is too slow and the choice of vocabulary is poor for native speakers.

Sometimes, Chinese people understand English better than English-speaking people understand Chinese. Just like it’s hard for native English to listen to broken English, it is hard for native Chinese speakers to listen to broken Chinese. And honestly, this is my opinion, if someone’s Chinese is that fluent, he or she probably seeks another job with more perks than being just a guide, charging only up to $240 a day.

And it might be too naive to think an English-speaking Chinese student in Israel can qualify to be a good translator when a Chinese pastor is assumed “not good enough to be a guide”.

But the thing is, how will a guide convince the group that a local guide is more knowledgeable than the group’s own pastor? The tour guide I met was telling a story from the Bible, but he could not quote exactly the verses. It loses his credibility if he doesn’t know the Bible by heart.

Reality is harsh. It is not easy for a guide to cross culture and language barrier and know the audience in such as short time.

Dealing with Chinese groups isn’t easy. Why? Because in our culture, “guides” are not a high-paying job and they live based on commission. And intellectual property is considered free. Just like artists, musicians, chefs, these are professions for those who cannot become engineers, lawyers or doctors. He or she may be respected as an Israeli or as a Jew (because we think all Jews are smart), but not so much as a guide.

Rather than listening to slow commentary on history or politics, or repeating story rather than giving thoughtful insights, Chinese tourists prefer having more time taking pictures. Everyone’s schedule is fixed. And if we are talking about non-pilgrims, they probably aren’t spending their vacations for “lectures” which is believed can be found online.

If a priest or pastor is allowed to legally guide in Israel, I think this bill will be in the best interest for Chinese groups. It won’t be bad for overall economic growth either. I believe tour guides can’t be replaced, there’s so much they can do, for example, opening up an in-depth discussion on a single topic, sharing a personal story, or run a workshop or offer something with special experiences. There’s got to be a market not focusing on pilgrims. And I believe that in the free market, good products will always have a business.

If the law is passed, if the proceeds of the tour guide are indeed damaged during this transition period, I think the Israeli government can consider giving some subsidies and allowances to the licensed guides. Or through the power of the government, open up more academic or cultural exchange between countries. In this way, what the guides are capable of doing will not be stuck to 9-day tours.

Sources： Riled tour guides warn new bill could skew tourists’ Israel experience

How Did I Find Out Ari Fuld’s Israel Defense Page?

After 4 years of not using Facebook, I decided that social media is needed for my blog on Israel in Chinese. So I came back to Facebook, right before the epic move of the US Embassy to Jerusalem. So accidentally, I found Ari’s page who was doing a lot of LIVE videos. The first video I saw was how he was pushing hard questions on BDS activists. And I was pretty amazed by him.

Later on through his videos, I went to a factory in Samaria, saw the opening ceremony of a park or intersection named by Druze soldiers, watched his talk shows which he kept interrupting his opponent, went to western wall several times, and watched  rockets firing in open sky near Gaza, and saw how the Supreme Court was demolishing a nicely built house claimed by some Arab etc.

I even shared about his dream about the Third Temple in my Chinese blog. The event was followed by Tisha B’av and the falling of 100kg stone from the western wall, and then the blood moon. The message in his dream was powerful!

And I sincerely hoped that his voice and desire for the Jewish people’s unity is heard. So when the PM Netanyahu released a statement of condolence on Ari, and I was genuinely glad that Ari was honored by the PM, he deserves it.

‏In the name of every citizen of Israel, I send my condolences to the family of Ari Fuld, who was murdered today in a terrorist attack in Gush Etzion. With his last strength, Ari fought heroically against the terrorist and prevented a greater tragedy. Ari was a wonderful father to four children. He was an advocate for Israel who fought to spread the truth about Israel. May his memory be a blessing.

What happened to Ari Fuld?

Ari’s facebook page constantly got deleted so his friend Azi Abelow was added to admin, which we only found out after Ari’s death. And I was following Azi’s page too prior to this, so it did surprise me to know that he and Ari were childhood friends and that they used to meet everyday to strategize.

So Azi took us back to what happened. Ari was killed on Sunday, the first working day of the week in Israel.

This was just outside a mall, Ari was standing by a parking lot.  While Ari was on his phone, he was stabbed from behind. 

Azi said Ari was probably replying to WhatsApp. The last message he received from Ari from the WhatsApp group was just 8 minutes before he got murdered.

According to medical science, Ari should have fallen right when he was attacked. Instead he was chasing the terrorist, and he shot him before he was going for the next victim (a lady who made him falafel…)  Ari was sent to a hospital but it was too late.

Was Ari targeted? According to Azi, it is a scary thought to think so, but it is highly probable. From my point of view, I think Israeli activists on social media who are defending for Israel are all targets. Ari was a fighter, and I think he would have done the same, knowing this would cost him his life at the age of 46.

How Ari Fuld Changed Me?

If Ari Fuld taught me one thing, that’s Chutzpah. Ari was remarkable in talking, analyzing, and responding. He was never shy in confronting fake accusations on Israel. Yes Ari was crazy for the Jewish state and Jewish people! I truly appreciate his ‘narrative’, which he made every effort to share with us online.

Because of him, I wrote about BDS movement on my travel blog in Chinese a few months ago. Even in Chinese world where antisemitism is rare, I received criticisms. But I tried to express myself more and became more open in topics that I wanted to avoid. I realized that I cannot pick and choose my love for Israel. Either I stand with Israel, or I don’t. There’s nothing in between.

Of course I’m not Ari, I’m still myself and I talk in my own voice, but it is because of Ari I started to believe the importance of having one more voice from me for Israel.

When Ari was taken away from us, it was heartbreaking because it felt like I lost someone that I quietly consulted…

Ari’s friend Azi said we should look at two bright sides, one is at least Jewish people have a homeland to defend now. If this happened 70 years ago, then the Jewish people would be expelled, killed or children being kidnapped.  And secondly, Jewish people celebrate LIFE. When the enemy is wants to destroy, the Jewish people knows that they have been living on this land since 3000 years ago. They had their enemies back then, but they are the ones who are still living!!

That is actually true, for me, as a Christian from Taiwan, when I see Jewish people in the promised land, I see the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob keeping his promise. It makes the words of Bible real. Israel is God’s witness.

Behold, Adonai has proclaimed
    to the end of the earth:
Say to the Daughter of Zion,
“Behold, your salvation comes!
See, His reward is with Him,
    and His recompense before Him.” (Isaiah 62:11)

Redemption is near. And so we continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

There are many comments like “How can Israel oppress Palestinian?” or “Can’t you see how Palestinians live?”  But which side do I take on Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a believer in the Bible? No doubt, I am on God’s side. God’s political standpoint is mine. He said to Abram

My desire is to bless those who bless you, but whoever curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

If we as Christian believe in the words of God, the logic is plain simple here! Blessing Israel is the way to go! There’s nothing else for us to judge. Only God gets to judge Israel, not us. I’m not upset that God chose Israel to be His chosen people. God has His logic, and choosing one people doesn’t mean He is neglecting the rest of us. The Bible says,

Do not let a son of a foreigner who has joined himself to Adonai say,
‘Adonai will surely exclude me from His people.”
Nor let the eunuch say,
    ‘Behold, I am a dry tree.’” (Isaiah 56:3)

Each of us has a unique role to play. We as gentiles can witness how God keeps His covenant with His people. We can be audience applauding for His awesomeness. Who am I to judge God and call Him unfair?  He has provided salvation to all of us, and wraps us in His perfect love.

I admit that we are not perfect. Humans make mistakes. I know that not all collateral damages are all necessary. Hence I pray to the living God that no more lives will be lost on this land. And I will keep praying for people on this land, and remind this promise keeping God to remember the promise that He knew He would keep.

“You who remind Adonai,
    take no rest for yourselves,
And give Him no rest until He establishes
    and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

Terrorists cannot take down the Jewish nation. Israel has God on their back, not because Israel is good, but because God is keeping His promise sworn to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

The impact that Ari brought me was to find something that you can die for. He fought a good fight, he gave his 100% when he could, and he is still making positive impacts after he is gone.  That’s remarkable.

So thank you Ari, though I am really sad.

How do you know you are right?

Search engine is wonderful. Sometimes you don’t even need to open a webpage and you already find answer from several excerpts. But how often do we really spend time on researching for one topic? How much effort are we willing to make to get the bottom of truth?  Or are we spending time online just to ‘share’ and ‘like’, and then wait for more ‘likes’ from friends?

Getting many likes doesn’t mean what you believe is right. What effort have we made before we form our opinion? Most opinions online talk against Israel in the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict. But is it really so?

In college, I had a close friend. As an Asian she was an advocate for Palestine, as the president of a student society she founded. She was a sister to me, so I asked her why she was on ‘their side’. She didn’t need to hide anything from me, so she didn’t tell me all those things about human rights or any anti-zionist reports. She gave me the truth in her heart,

Because I want to make my mom mad!

Her mom was a devoted Christian who loves Israel. She knew that, so that was her intention. She chose this topic also because this is the HOTTEST topic. Middle East, you know!

But Israeli–Palestinian Conflict Is Not Just a Topic…

My friend chose not to be mainstream not only to make her mom mad, it was also to add a different label on her portfolio. She is an American Born Chinese, so her competition is tough, as you know in every Chinese home there is 1 tiger mom. She graduated with a J.D. from the best university in the East Coast. I remember in her interview, she said she wanted to be a human rights lawyer.

However, if you really want justice, why don’t you tackle the real injustice in this world? African girls need to be circumcized (and in front of male relatives..), African Christians are killed or raped, the Hindus in Southern India purposely rape Christian girls, the Kurds were attacked by ISIS and they don’t have a country till now, and the refugees who went to Western Africa were dumped into Sahara Desert in trucks. So these people need help! But the problem is, these are not the HOT topics. They don’t make your personal essay shine.

I wasn’t surprised when she became a corporate lawyer. Now she’s busy with work and life. Now we don’t talk about politics.  Israeli-Palestinian conflict no longer appears on the ‘wall’. No one cares anymore. It seemed like it was only a great debate topic. So does it matter now who won the debate back then?

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict may be over for you, but it’s not over to the Israeli or the Arabs.

When I see young students who think they can do everything, I want to ask them,

Will you still fight for what you believe now, after 10 years?

There was a group of UCLA students (and outsiders) who harassed a meeting held by/for Israel, Armenia and Kurdistan. You can see how the Israeli flag was torn down at @41:00

When the Knesset passed the Nation-State law, a Stanford student said he would physically fight anyone who says Israel is a democratic country.

According to a survey, over 2/3 of young American don’t know what Auschwitz stand for. Even if they know the name, they know it as history but not the ‘hurt’. They don’t have time to think about that and they think everyone should be over Holocaust by now. There is a classic example of how Taiwanese high schoolers dressed up as Nazi in a school’s anniversary.

Young people seem to know everything because of Google. But do we really know? Before we have an answer, there were many wars between Jews and Arabs. With or without our discussion, the war continues! A Jew can be stabbed to death in his own home, only because he is a Jew! Israel is always on the edge to be destroyed, because the Arab nations have not given up attacking Israel!  With or without your permission, Israel is fighting for her existence.

And here we are, in a cozy couch. We have not even seen a war or be in an army, so who are we to decide that the world has no more sympathy to the Jews because of what they are doing to Palestinians?

Do your own research. Pay a price. 

We need people who care about politics. But don’t rush to make your opinion based on search results. You need to think about what you read. And you need to go to Israel to gather first hand experience. Israel paid and is paying a big price to have a state. You need to pay a price to know what it costs.

The Jewish history in Israel doesn’t start from 1947. The hurt in this people didn’t start from Holocaust. You need to go way back to 70AD when the Second Temple was destroyed. You need to see how they were tossed around, blood libel, the Inquisition, Ghetto and many anti-semitic attacks. You need to see how Jews were not allowed to settle during Ottoman Empire era. And the Arab-Israeli conflicts in British Mandate.

And you need to check if you are willing to see Israel’s good side? From a different perspective, you will see Israel has provided aid, technology, rescue work in Africa, Syria, South America, Greece though organizations such as Israid and IDF’s Good Neighbor Operation. The media doesn’t talk about this, but Israel has been doing all these things, before having your approval! If you are always angry at Israel, even at the good things Israel does, then there is a problem!

In college days, I had been careful in being ‘politically correct’. When people were talking about how Israel occupied land, I said nothing. When people condemned Israeli army’s violent acts, I said nothing. I thought everyone could say whatever he wants, so why waste my time on debating? Why should I let others know my opinion? Plus I was confused too. I have been avoiding labels, but after all these years that have gone by, and several trips to Israel and Holocaust sites, I have found my answer.

I cannot stay silent. Because it is an important war, I need to support Israel. I have to.

As for my close friend, I only want to know if you are happy to be anti-Israel? After all these years, are you still fighting for Palestine? Is it even important to you now?

A cause is for lifetime. I hope I am not too late.

The next day, it was Tisha B’av. And the day after that, a stone from the Western Wall fell, like a drop of a tear. The stone fell from 7 meters high, a 79-year old woman was praying at that spot, but of course God knew she was there.

This is the footage of how it happened. The stone fell from the area close to Wilson’s Arch. This is a common area shared by women and men, not the typical Western Wall you see on pictures. That is why there was only 1 woman there.

Why did the Stone Fall?

There are 4 explanations. The water had penetrated the structure. The cape plants had weaken the structure. The 30 cms deep line cut during Byzantines era caused some damages. Or the construction done on Temple Mount caused damages.

But the question is, none of it is reason, is it? It could have happened on any other day, so why the day after Tisha B’av?

Is the Western Wall Still Open?

Only this egalitarian prayer space at the western wall is temporarily closed. But tourists don’t normally come here. And only some experts think there is immediate danger. So the normal area is still open. You can watch webcam live here.

What do Jews think about this?

Deputy mayor of Jerusalem Dov Kalmanovich and the chief Rabbi at Kotel (Western Wall) Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch suggested people to examine their hearts. They don’t want people to take it as a direct revelation from God, but it’s worth thinking about the ‘timing’ and ‘location’. Their focus is on ‘why the egalitarian area’?

My Opinion

It’s significant to note that a new era began after Israel celebrated its 70th birthday. The American embassy was moved to Jerusalem this year, and the Knesset (parliament of Israel) just passed the Nation-State Law. And there was another blood moon on 27th July. Something is happening.

What I feel in the spirit is that

“It’s just a wall.”

It’s just a wall, so God doesn’t want to be honored only in this area close to the Western Wall. The entire land of Israel should be Holy to God, because all of it, ALL OF IT belongs to God.  Whether it is Tel Aviv or Eilat, God wants all Israel to give Him attention and bring honor to Him. He will break the rules and boundaries. Status-quo never satisfies God.

It’s just a wall. No wall can replace God Himself or His presence. If God was willing to let the Temple to be destroyed for two times, what’s this wall?

God knows a lady was praying down there means His eyes has never stopped watching. He is looking at Zion. But how many, how many people still think God is relevant today? How many still want a living God to act for the sake of His glory?

What is your opinion?

References and Picture Sources

https://www.timesofisrael.com/western-wall-stone-that-fell-near-worshiper-removed-with-crane/

https://www.timesofisrael.com/ancient-boulder-dislodges-from-western-wall-crashes-onto-egalitarian-plaza/