I have never been to Israel nor the middle east in general, so I do have a fear about going there. We are experiencing a war in the world at this moment. In the past few months, there were terrorist activities in a couple places in Israel including Tel Aviv and Beersheba. There is another incident in the suburbs of Tel Aviv on the Israel Independence Day (May 5th).

According to the travel advisory by the Japanese government, Gaza is rated “Do Not Travel”, and the West Bank is rated “Reconsider Travel.” Other part of Israel is rated “Exercise Increased Caution”.

“Exercise Increased Caution” means “you need to exercise the specific caution to avoid the related risks while staying in the area”. How do you exercise such caution? That is something I need to figure out.

For a reference, I checked the travel advisory on Israel by the US and Canadian governments, and also the ones for other destinations like Japan, UK and France.

All of these governments rate Israel (other than Gaza and the West Bank) with Increased Caution. What is interesting is that Japan is a reconsider-travel destination by the US (probably due to the Covid situation), while it is ok to travel by Canada. The US assesses Japan to be of a higher risk than Israel??

I don't know how to read all these. Praying is the best.

主よ、私は自分の安全だけでなく娘の安全にも責任があります。残していく家族や友人にも無駄な心配をかけない責任があります。行くべきでないのなら、どうかあなたがみ手をのばし、この旅を完全にブロックしてください。

もしも、行くのがみこころであれば、どうか必要以上の恐れに縛られないように、平安を与えてください。主のみこころのままにしてください。