A Let-Them-Into-The-EU update from the Jerusalem Post, with thanks to Sr. Soph:
The National Security Council's counterterrorism unit issued a travel warning Monday urging Israelis to refrain from visiting the popular southern coast of Turkey, between Alanya and Kemer, due to a "concrete terrorist threat." The strip includes the city of Antalya, a favorite destination for Israeli tourists. Israeli officials estimated there are presently thousands of Israelis in the area.The travel advisory comes just three days after Transportation Minister Meir Sheetrit ordered four cruise ships with some 3,500 vacationers heading to Alanya to change course and dock in Cyprus because of terror warnings. He diverted another cruise ship on Monday.
Ambassador to Turkey Pinhas Avivi told The Jerusalem Post he would recommend that Israelis in the area covered by the warning spend their vacation in other parts of of the country, such as the Aegean Coast, the Black Sea or Central Turkey.
He said the warning, which he added was drawn up with the full knowledge and cooperation of the Turkish authorities, was very specific and would likely only last for a short period.
"The nature of this warning is that you know what you are looking for, and if you know what you are looking for, you have a good chance of finding it," he said.
Really, why would any Israeli's, or Westerners for that matter, continue to go to Turkey?
"Really, why would any Israeli's, or Westerners for that matter, continue to go to Turkey?"
-- from a posting above
To see the ruins of classical antiquity. To see what remains of Byzantium, and of what was the first city of Western civlization for a thousand years. Not only the Hagia Sophia, but the more intact frescoes at the Kariya Djami. The Roman cistern. The Museum of Near Eastern Antiquity, which shares with Berlin the lions of the Ishtar Gate, and has a smaller version, in stone, of the Code of Hammurabi, or the Museum of Classical Archeology, both in the Topkapi complex. It has been subject to the usual destruction and ruin that Islam brings everywhere, in its hostility or at best indifference to non-Muslim structures (except insofar as, in the last few decades, they have been valued as tourist attractions). Even to see, in the best (not good, but best) circumstances, a hint of the exotic world of Islam.
But you are right -- one should not risk one's life in any Muslim country. At some point, if the Turkish media does not change, is not forced to change, the atmosphere will reflect the nonsense, lies, and hatred that can be found everywhere in that press. Keeping tourists safetly to a few spots -- a palace converted into a hotel, the bookstores, music stores, and restaurants of Istiglal Caddesi and Taksim Square, the odd shopping mall -- will not work anymore. A few more attacks, and Turkish tourism will suffer. It should suffer. And of course, anyone thinking of visitng any other Muslim country -- Pakistan, say, or Egypt, would be crazy. Possibly, after the current regime is overturned, if there is a sufficient throwing off of Islam (Zoroastrianism, anyone?) in Iran, that will be safe, or at least safer, than any Arab country could possibly be for Western Infidels.
Why take a risk? It is Turkey that in the end, by not hewing to Kemalism, holding onto it for dear life, has helped to destroy its own chances to be part of Europe. Now it has to hold on, if it can, to the American connection, and to refrain from the hideous temptation of turning to the primitives of the Arab world, who brought to the Seljuk and Ottoman Turks, as they did to Sassanian Persia, the "gift" of Islam. Some gift.
jawa;
you beat me to it. my version was;
"what the hell are isrealis doing taking vacations in Turkey?"
maybe i just don't understand the size of isreali cajones, but it seems to me that if someone is looking to kick your ass, you don't hang out in his living room, watching TV.
what the hell are isrealis doing taking vacations in Turkey?"
what the hell are isrealis doing taking vacations in Turkey?"
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Israelis have been living with terrorist threats for over 40 years.....Today is just SSDD!
They travel, shop, and go on vacation - Coastal Turkish resorts, along with Egyptian and Jordanian, have been and still are one of the most popular holiday choices.
We, in the West, may see the present political landscape as pre-apocalyptic but the Isrealis just keep on truckin'.
If the Israelis avoided all places that want to 'kick their ass', they wouldnt leave their bedrooms!