I had the wonderful experience of going to Israel in 1973 with my parents~it was a "joint
celebration trip their 25 Wedding Anniversary/
Israel's 25th Birthday & my 19th Birthday"
I loved it~we were lucky enough to spend 22
wonderful days exploring the country,seeing the
sights and having "spiritual experiences".
I had a "spiritual experience" one afternoon
while taking a tour of *the Old City* my father
and I were doing the Stations of the Cross
backwards~that means that we started inside
The Chruch of the Holy Selpchure. Inside there
is a 6'yellow slab of Alabaster that is *supposedly where Jesus's body was laid after
the Cruifxication~I placed my fingertips upon
it's surface,which was cool/smooth from years
of pilgrim's hands!When all of a sudden I felt
a *spark of elecrticity go from my fingertips
thru my heart and into my toes* I told no one~
not even my father. I kept this to myself.
The first time we visited *the Wailing Wall I
didn't cry~but on the second visit I broke down,
I cried buckets!The reason was that Jesus had
opened my closed heart~I cried for my son who
I had aborted earlier in March!
My trip to Israel changed my life!
I would love to return there someday~but with
they way things are in that reigon of the World
I very much doubt it! That is so very sad!

Don't be affraid to return to Israel. It's as wounderufl today as it was in 73. I have been 5 times in the last 4 years and will go back in June of 2008.

I agree, do not be afraid. My cousins in Israel tell me it is safer there than driving a car in the USA.
I remember a sermon from my Rabbi in which he talked about a woman who finally traveled to Israel despite her fears. It was in 2001 during 9/11, and if not on vacation she would have been working in the World Trade Center in New York City.

I have been to Israel 8 times, the last in 1999. Jerusalem is one of the most beautiful cities in the world! Always traveling with a group, I was never afraid. The sights and smells of the Old City, the beauty of the land and especially the people, drew me back again and again. I would that I could go again in May 2008 for the 60th birthday celebration!

When I am sitting stateside I have the same safety concerns, but then I remember riding a bus by myself in Jerusalem, and being surrounded by young soldiers returning from their RR with little uzzies slug over their soldiers, as I wore my purse. I actually felt safer there than in pre Gulliani NYC.