THE LEXUS
DECEMBER
Holiday. Depression
TO
REMEMBER
SALES EVENT
Now Through January 6th.
LARRY DERFNER
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
When Michael and Joan Wein-
berg of Tucson, Ariz., asked for
the bill at a popular Jerusalem
restaurant, the owner begged
them to stay and have coffee on
the house. The couple were the
only customers.
"He told us, Tle-ase stay, so it
won't look like we're empty,' "
said Mrs. Weinberg.
"It seems like there aren't
many tourists here," said her
husband. "Everything seems
dead."
He's not far off. The number
of foreign tourists in Israel for
the Christmas season is down
by an estimated 20 percent com-
'3 pared to the same period last
year, a Tourism Ministry official
said. "When people go on vaca-
tion, they want to go to a quiet
place to have fun," the official
noted.
For most of 1996, Israel has
seemed like anything but a qui-
et, fun place. And it is paying the
price.
In the Christian Quarter of
Jerusalem's Old City, vendors
sat in front of their stalls with
nothing to do. "Here it is, a few
days before Christmas, and the
street is empty. It's been like this
for two weeks," said All Kuweis,
who runs a souvenir shop.
"Business is not very bad —
it's very, very, very bad," said a
:Th Christian Quarter trinket sell-
er. At Rami's Pizza in the Jew-
) ish Quarter, Yossi, the owner,
estimated his business was
down by 50 percent compared to
last Christmas. Like everyone
else, Yossi blamed it on "the sit-
uation."
"The situation" is the threat
of violence, terror, war and the
frequently expressed perception
that Israel and her neighbors are
on the verge of an explosion.
This notion didn't originate
with the Israeli-Palestinian
shoot-out that followed the open-
ing of the Hasmonean Tunnel in
late September, the ministry of-
ficial explained. "It began with
the bus bombings in February
and March, which was followed
soon after by 'Grapes of Wrath'
in Lebanon — which made us
‘) seem like we were at war — and
then, finally, there was the tun-
nel," the official said.
"In the past there were ter-
rorist attacks and wars which
hurt tourism, but there was al-
ways 'the day after,' and tourism
would pick up again right away,"
the official continued. "This year,
there has been a steady stream
of troubles."
Yet terror, war and the threat
to safety is not all that's keeping
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