Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last night called on Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice to cancel the State Department travel warning for Israel. Olmert said the travel warning severely affected travel by US tourists and businesspeople to Israel.
Olmert hosted Rice for a working dinner at Blair House, the presidential guest house across the street from the White House. During discussions on bilateral issues, Olmert told Rice that the time had come to review the warning against travel to Israel. He said it failed to reflect reality, in view of the sharp fall in the number of in terrorist attacks in Israel.
“I show Jerusalem and Israel in general to many visitors from the US. We go everywhere and all our guests feel very safe with us,” said Olmert.
Members of Rice’s entourage told Olmert that figures obtained by the US administration showed a 30% increase in tourism to Israel in 2005.
Olmert replied, “Tourism to Israel rose 30%, even with a travel warning? It would have risen twice as much without such a warning.”
Rice promised to consider Olmert’s request in a positive light.
After the dinner, Israel Ambassador to the US Daniel Ayalon told “Globes” that the subject would be raised by Israeli and US working teams.
The State Department travel warning is a constant source of friction between Israel and the US, but it is usually only raised at meetings at ministerial level and below. The subject was not raised during visits to Washington by previous prime ministers in recent years. Some commentators said that Olmert’s raising of the subject reflected his different priorities, particularly given his past experience as an economic minister.
Israeli sources expressed the hope that the fact that the Prime Minister expressed his unhappiness about the travel warning would cause the US to give the subject greater priority than it had following requests at the ministerial level.
The travel warning is especially burdensome to company managers. Managers wanting to visit Israel are told insurance companies refuse to insure trips to countries mentioned in State Department travel warnings. Many cases are known in which managers of Israeli companies had to travel to the US to meet top executives who refused to, or could not, come to Israel.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on May 23, 2006
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2006