Tour companies operating in Israel often have a very specific political agenda and a deep impact on the perspectives of their participants. A critical approach is necessary to resist the propaganda that so often accompanies such tours. By Gary Spedding Quite often we hear Israel advocacy groups make the nefarious claim that if people would just visit Israel, they would see the truth about the situation. This is often chopped and paraphrased with appeals along the lines of, “Come see the real Israel - it’s actually a normal country.” This framing plays on the well-known idea that to take a…

For my column in the Jerusalem Report this week analyzing public opinion, I asked a sample of Israeli Jews a survey question: How often do they visit their beloved city, their holiest of holies, the eternal, undivided capital? After all, the majority of Israeli Jews reject the division of Jerusalem and proclaim everlasting love. But our findings that nearly half almost never visit the city, and the analysis, show that for many it's neither beloved, nor undivided. Jerusalem remains holy - but that's not necessarily a good thing. Here's my column, re-posted courtesy of the Jerusalem Report Magazine.   Avoiding…