ISRAEL: A PERSONAL TRAVEL GUIDE By Douglas E. Duckett Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
[email protected] ©2004-2016 Douglas E. Duckett All rights reserved. INTRODUCTION. The Israel travel guide you are reading is a greatly expanded version of one I first prepared for an American friend some two decades ago. In it, I have tried to share my experiences and knowledge of Israel based on a lifetime of study and fifteen visits to the country, most recently in May 2016. I enjoy independent travel, and this guide was written primarily with such travelers in mind, though I hope the information will be helpful to those on group tours as well. As an American, I have produced a guide that, no doubt, reflects that identify and experience. I hope my readers from other countries will forgive that, and still find useful information to help plan their trips. I am not in the travel industry. Rather, I am a labor lawyer who loves Israel passionately and wants to encourage others to travel there and experience this wonderful land. My first visit was in November 1988, and I caught the bug; thus I started visiting every other year or so thereafter, except for 2000-2004, the truly terrible years of the second Palestinian uprising and the terror bombings in Israel cities. Now, with partial retirement, I am going every year (God willing!). Even with the mostly peaceful conditions prevailing since then, some friends still asked, “are you sure you want to go back to Israel?” Of course, recent tensions in Jerusalem, with a wave of stabbing attacks on Israelis, have further increased those anxieties, even for me to some degree.