The Palestinians clearly don't realise that God has sorted all this out well in advance, and that any suffering they undergo is either:

a) for their own good
b) punishment for their sins
c) part of God's mysterious but undeniably wonderful Plan.

Who are we to interfere with the ways in which God makes some people poor and miserable? If He had wanted it otherwise then THEY would be the bishops.

(Sorry, runner -- did I steal your thunder?)

Alan, instead of complaining about what someone else should do get a move on and do it yourself! You are either part of the problem or part of the solution. Choose.

Having been in a decision making role on an issue affecting very large numbers of people I learned:

1. Amongst those affected there were diverse views and clear divisions, everyone assumed I would see sense, agree with their opinion and follow their recommendations.

2. Opinions were diametrically opposed with no one being willing to accommodate to achieve progress.

3. There were real issues to resolve that had severe consequences for those impacted and potential impacts for the unaffected but potential sufferers who wished to avoid them at all costs.

4. Wisdom rarely resides with the loud and aggressive, by nature they have little willingness to accommodate – without accommodations based on wisdom war erupts.

5. The simplest response often is pick something that may placate the situation and pick on ones own judgement due to unwillingness of players to constructively deal with others’ views – “I will be dammed no matter what I do I may as well do what I think will help”.

6. The personal ethic of those making decisions is pivotal – the SKI (Spend Kids’ Inheritance) generation view decides one way, the emerging STABO (yes is Subject To A Better Offer, loyalty is unknown) another, satiating avarice group (executive bonuses etc) another, those following ‘servant leadership’ a fourth – I chose the latter and got what became an accepted position.

My argument is get out there and find a way to provide a better alternative.

Amazing that Alan wants to tell people what to do with their own money. Fancy Christians having a curiostiy in the places where their Lord walked, died, was buried and raised from the dead.If he likes he can start a tour elsewhere. Next we will be having the Greens tell people not to visit the Sunshine Coast because Dubbo needs your business.

I agree with the JonJ, it's the will of god .. why do people of the religious zealot bent, not understand and accept that - surely if it were not, then it would not be so ..

Why is it that in 2011 we still manage to call this blood-soaked piece of real estate the "holy" land? How many countless hundreds of thousands of living-breathing-feeling human beings have been slaughtered there via the never-ending religiously motivated wars?

Especially as it is now essentially a vast lunatic aslyum with all of the key players (Islamic, Christian and Jewish) seeming to be intent on playing out their historical dramas to their inevitable bloody end - "armageddon" anyone.

In Truth & Reality this place is no more "holy" than the broken down outhouse at the far-end of my country block of land - lots of spiders including red-backs too.

Cronus writes "Alan, instead of complaining about what someone else should do get a move on and do it yourself! You are either part of the problem or part of the solution. Choose."

You obviously missed the whole point. Alan is doing something. He is drawing peoples attention to the fact that these religious tours are heavily censored and fail to expose the tourists to the horrible oppression suffered by the Palestinians. He is not against visits to the "Holy Land". He merely feels that they should be honest visits where the participants come away having seen the reality of Palestinian Christian life, rather than simply the propaganda dished out by the Israeli tour guides.

I think the author may be confused about what a "holiday" is.

>>There's no such thing as a 'neutral' Holy Land holiday. You're either a part of the machinery of oppression and struggle, or an agent of solidarity and hope.<<

If I travel to Cyprus, must I choose between the Greeks and the Turks? Or can I just go there for a holiday, and appreciate the sheer history of the place.

If I were to visit Moscow, would Mr Matheson require me to protest the plight of Chechnya? Or would it be "deceptive and dishonest" to just visit the Tretyakov Gallery.

Since the tour organizers are clearly not actively misrepresenting the experience available to participants, this is a nonsense angle from which to approach a serious issue.

Wow! The lack of empathy for the Palestinians is palpable.

I reckon its a blessing for the Palestinians that groups of well-off, religiously deranged people are kept away from them.

At least, while these tourist are in a luxury hotel or ritzy shop they aren't spruiking about or imposing their gigantic fraud on gullible people.

http://dangerouscreation.com

"You're either a part of the machinery of oppression and struggle, or an agent of solidarity and hope."

or you're just visiting for your own personal reasons and are neutral to everything else.

These "you either do it my way or you're bad" rants are becoming very popular aren't they?

"The St.James Institute group, after visiting the Knesset, the Israeli Museum and Yad Vashem, will gently nod off to sleep, undisturbed by the cries and anguish of another Palestinian family whose house has been demolished down the street" remarks the pious,progressive Alan.

A highly offensive and surprising remark, denoting a complete lack of compassion ,as Yad Vashem of course is the memorial and museum relating to the millions of Jews butchered during WW2,but of course as soon as any reference is made to the Holocaust,the progressives come out of the woodwork in attack mode.

Why not just opt out of that tour if its all too boring and repetitive,nobody is forcing him.

As Alan is obviously prejudiced against Israel and by proxy,the Jews,then why bother to visit Israel at all?

The world will be none the worse off if Alan keeps his silly musings to himself.

How gullible are we... I mean really?

Julia can tax us into hessian sacks over carbon - we deserve it as defenders of creatures like Andrew Bolt.

But this business of our first, female, free-thinking, fornicating, foresaken-of-soul flabberboots wallowing in Christian flatulence is beyond the pale.

Bigoteer Jim Wallet's is just a pathetic little man. Do the right thing by women - not the Politically Correct thing.