im not sure if i would count as a tourist but im supposed to be heading to a kibbutz ulpan in february and the thought of canceling hasnt crossed my mind. but the long term situation does matter a bit since ill be staying on the kibbutz for 5 months and have uncertain plans afterwards.

Israel is very expensive to visit - especially the hotels. If I could afford another trip to Israel (my first and so far only was in 2007) the only thing that would stop me was if I would not be allowed to visit the places I want to see. It's a long ways to travel (15 hours from u.s. west coast) and so expensive to get to and stay in Israel that I would hesitate on going if I thought the war would force the IDF to close off the places I would want to visit. It's too much money to spend and then find out that half the places you want to see is a war zone and you can't go there. I did go to Ashkelon on my trip (and Sderot) although because of the time constraints I could not spend as much time in either place as I would have liked (there was a missile that hit a field in Sderot right before I was there- still smoldering in the field) The two weeks I was in Israel I drove 5,000 KM (~3,000 miles) in the car I rented - all the way from the northern Golan, to Eilat, Tel Aviv, Ashkelon, Jerusalem, Haifa, Nazareth, etc. and I could not do everything I wanted to do. I think many tourists from the united states - especially the west coast - may hesitate going to Israel because they do not want to be barred from seeing what they went all that way to see.

Tourists. Dont worry! If you are here for the right reason..... Then Please G-D, it will be fine!!!

Great place. I was there before the missiles and during. Sad to see it getting bombarded like it is, Spent a few nights in our bombshelter inside our apartment, Had a wife and two kids with me. Had a few close calls, but never really worried about it.

If I weren't to buy a house this year I would visit Israel.

I´m going to Israel in a couple of weeks!