one thing is selling beauty, the other thing is selling beautiful women... not happy with the rising prostitution levels of the country, we now sell our daughters and sisters to foreigners. Brazil did the same for years... although it earns a lot, it also suffers a lot. Stop a brazilian girl in Israel, Europe and US and ask how many times she was taken as an "easy woman" and disrespected... We don't need this.

This is not good! When will hooters open? Please close Israels boarder for even more immoral import from the USA!!

moses was the first one choosed the most beutiful women to follow him .. then jesuse choosed from the remaining the most beutifull ,,, lastly muhammad after he had a look to the remaining women he said [all of you put your covering and follow me ///

why do you have to show nakedness of your country. do you need to attract men who are addicted to pornography from hollywood to israel??? who the hell needs such tourism??? our women are not prostitutes and are not to be married to anyone but jews. is this how stupid consul in NY solves israeli demographic problems?.

Now we've resorted to pimping away our women. Why must we self destruct? It's so ridiculous it must be divine.

Women want some eye candy too!

the clown suit brigade.

We are who we are, and trying to pretend that we're something else- like Brazil, is wrong. And will ultimatelybackfire.

its better than Middle East Gods I worship to them I just look good mind, good health and love in them. love Atilla Karagözoğlu

young Jewish women walk around like shiksas

We will show these Muslims that we can parade our beautiful Jewish genitalia discreetly.

Shame on him. Israel is a beautiful country and it doesn't need trashy promotions to attract tourist. If the Foreign Ministry gave approval then the Minister must go. I'm so disguested..........

WELCOME TO THE HOLY LAND BIKINI PHOTO ISRAELI BEAUTY QUEEN= A "MODERN, LIVELY, YOUNG, AND DYNAMIC COUNTRY" That's how you like to portray the women of your country? Degrading a womans value in order to rack in money. What ever happened to modesty? VALUE A WOMAN for who she is as a person, not what's on the cover! This is another sign of the complete deterioration of global society. :( If your studies show that the average , "American knew three things about their tiny country: war hotspot, stubborn people, and beautiful women." Then why not try to educate them?

This article is disturbing on so many levels. The fact that this campaign to increase tourism is supported by the Israeli Consulate, Israel 21C, and the American Israel Friendship League is very unsettling. We have ceased to be A Light Unto the Nations, we are now merely a mirror that reflects what is wrong with society today. All that matters is FORM, not CONTENT. Sound Bites and Focus Groups and Spin Doctors RULE. Have we become so corrupt, so without morals, so without any ability to decern right from WRONG, sold our Souls to the highest bidder. Studies show Israel is not relevant to men 18 to 34. So, WHO CARES? So, this will make Our Country RELEVANT to them? This is PATHETIC. This is demeaning to BOTH men and women. I suppose we can next look forward to a photo shoot of the HOOTERS "girls" next to The Kotel.

Is this the only thing that this secular leadership has to offer the world? Or are they too busy trying to buy their way out of jail? The more I read about the leadership, the more Im forcd to admit that the Chareidim, in their campaign against the state, is right. No question about it.

It is merely a promotion. No one is going to make prostitutes out of your women - Israel is not Tijuana. Think if more Spring Breakers decided to go to Israel how good it would be for the economy. It is good for Israel and tourism. Have some common sense.

...are the married, highly religious, and the ugly, whom are jeolous. Have you ever seen a Maxim? Who appears in Maxim? Plus, the American Maxim is more conservative than foreign versions, so you have nothing to worry about. You should thank the council and the girls for making Israel look like anything other than occupiers, because that is all that is shown on TV around here.

you talkbackers are acting like this country isnt full of slutty girls already... please, give me a break, and quit pretending israel is the holy land... those days are long gone. I am against female exploitation, but the poeple claiming that jewish girls dont walk around like whores like 'shiksas; (a racist term btw) are just full of crap, and here, the sluttiness starts at a much younger age, believe me

What would the Rabbis say about this indecent exposure? We are not behaving correctly, but we wonder why our image is so poor around the world. Wakeup people!

why can't we learn anything from the druzim. they would not let their daughter of their community walk in a bathing suit. Shame on us! we are now promoting jewish girls half naked for all to see? don't we have any decency?

As a strong supporter of Israel, I can attest to both the beauty of Jewish & Israeli women and to the pervasive sexism (machismo) of much of Israeli culture. That this machismo laughed away and the influence of sexism dismissed by some Israelis (mostly, but not all of whom are men) is frustrating and alienating enough. That the Consul's office thinks it ingenious (or did they mean "ingenuous"?!) to use women's bodies to promote their country and culture (ie sell their product) to Americans is, at best, an embarrassment to Israel, and an insulting slap in the face to the many, many American women (and fair-minded men) who devote substantial amounts of their time, labor, money, and reputation supporting Israel in the face of increasingly common and increasingly harsh anti-Israelism. It is also disrespectful of our Israeli sisters, gorgeous as they are, who have much more to offer than their hot bods -- as does Israel as a whole. Or are we to take the alleged attitudes of Israel's President Katzav and the many reports of sexual harrassment and even rape of women in the military and government offices to be indicative of Israeli ingenuity?? Come on, guys, you can do a lot, lot better than that! One would hope for more creativity, or at least a better sense of timing and to the metamessages (given the whole Katzav mess and so on).

Note to Conuslate: When the Foreign Ministry (headed by a woman, remember) says "Americans," as in "encourage American tourists," it probably means men AND women. Insulting of Consulate to suggest, via its choice of target audience, that the only Americans worth encouraging to visit Israel are male. One reason people of this age group don't relate to Israel is that they associate it with injustice, bias, and discrimination (much of the media and some of their classrooms give them this impression). Relying on the cliche, and truly un-ingenious tactic of promoting something on the proverbial backs (or literal boobs) of women does nothing to help change this image. A more creative approach might be a campaign that points out the possible lower risk of contracting HIV in Israel, since circumcision is correlated with lowered transmission of HIV, and, presumably, most Israeli men have had their __ trimmed. Ah, but it seems some of them are still thinking with it.

I'm with you, Daisy. After all, it's usually women who travel abroad hoping to meet members of the opposite sex. However, from my experience, a lot of the European men, for instance, are highly overrated. But those hot Israeli guys...especially the soldiers...well, now you're talking.