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Call for additional Trips and Cruises GIFT CERTIFICATES AVAILABLE * WEHAVECONSIIMERWIRMINSUPANCE * BERKLEY TOURS AND TRAVEL, INC 559.8620 or 1.800-875-TOUR (8687) . here won't be many tourists at the inns of Bethlehem this Christmas; the intifada has seen to that. But elsewhere in the Holy Land, tourists are once more in evidence, and ac- commodations for them, at least in certain popular spots, is apt to be in short supply. After a slow but steady recovery since the Gulf War, the tourism industry is now pleased to be welcoming back visitors from its traditional markets in Western Europe and North America and is looking forward to the pro- spect of new markets, par- ticularly in the Far East. Up to this point, the ubi- quitous Japanese tourist, a common sight in Disneyland, the Louvre and the Tower of London, has been almost com- pletely absent from Masada and the Western Wall (except for members of the fervently pro-Zionist Mikoya sect). In- deed, no more than a few thousand of the 10 million Japanese who go abroad each year have shown up in Israel. There are soon likely to be a lot more of them, however, thanks to the Toyota Motor Corporation's recent decision to promote tourism to this country and the Tokyo government approval of an El Al charter service to Japan, starting in the summer of 1992. El Al and other airlines are also active elsewhere, either boosting the number of their flights to Israel (as in the case with Lufthansa and Olym- pic), or dispatching larger planes to Ben-Gurion Airport (like TWA). Tourists who fly in are like- ly to head for Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Eilat, but increasing efforts are being made to at- tract them to the Dead Sea and the Galilee: the former being billed as a natural health farm (particularly for people with arthritis and skin diseases), and the latter as a mecca for people seeking an active vacation. As I can testify from what I have seen, there is, indeed, plenty to keep one active in the Galilee. It offers lots of horseback riding and swimm- ing, as well as an opportuni- ty to go floating down the Jor- dan in an inner tube during the summer, or skiing down the slopes of Mount Hermon during the winter. Available all year round is ice skating, thanks to the rink opened recently at the luxurious Canada Sports Center in Metulla, a town hitherto best known as the target of ter- rorist attacks from Lebanon. Fortunately, it now attracts bus-borne tourists rather than airborne rockets. Should the latter return, however, the former would un- doubtedly disappear, as was evident earlier this year when Iraqi Scuds killed the local tourist industry. Now, says Avi Etgar, director-general of the Tour Operators Association, tourism is bouncing back, with the number of visitors in 1991 likely to be 10 percent higher than in 1989, the last reasonably normal year. So rather than laying people off, as members of his group were doing not so long ago, they are busy looking for new personnel. Should the Middle East re- main quiet, he adds, they will be hiring even more in 1992. D NEWS Arab Arms From Germany Bonn (JTA) — Several Arab countries have been the recipients of arms from the stocks of the defunct former East German army, diplomatic sources here disclosed. Egypt was the only Arab country named, but several others have also benefited from the shipments made since German unification in October 1990. Shipments to Israel were widely publicized last month when containers of military equipment were found aboard an Israeli freighter in Hamburg mislabeled agricultural equipment. Criticism arose because the military authorities were making the shipments without informing the polit- ical echelons. It was disclosed at the same time that former West Germany received Soviet- made weapons Israel cap- tured from Arab armies in the 1967 Six-Day War. Germany has also shipped East German weapons to the United States, France, Britain, Spain and Turkey since the East German army was absorbed into the Bundeswehr, Germany's army.