And here I go…..

I’ve booked my next trip, a pilgrimage, so to say, to Israel, as the next step of my ‘spiritual reckoning’. Since the time I booked it, it now looks like I may be flying straight into a region wide conflict with Israel and the United States vs Iran and their regional proxies.

The airfare I booked was non refundable, so my intent is to go no matter what happens over the next two weeks. It may be that the airline cancels the flight, in which case the non refundable ticket becomes refundable and I will resort to backup travel plans. However, I am hoping this does not happen, as I am looking forward to this trip.

Once I get there, what will it look like? Already there are signs that the threats around the region are suppressing the tourism numbers, will I be the only tourist there if the drones and missiles start flying? Should I continue with my planned tour of Bethlehem and the West Bank?

Why Israel

Unlike most of my recent travels, I will be doing this trip alone. My wife will not be coming along, as she has no desire to travel to Israel, where as I was looking to do an international trip in the spring of 2026, since otherwise our next international trip won’t be until Fall 2026, likely to France. At that point it would be nearly a year and a half between our last international trip to Greece and that trip, which, for me is way too long.

At the same time, there is a long list of places that we want to travel to, and I want to experience those places together. The best solution then was to go to a place where I did want to go, but she did not, hence Israel.

So why is Israel for me at this point? Lately I have been having some health issues of and I have come around to realizing my own mortality as I move into my 50’s. I can’t run as fast without my feet hurting, my eyes are getting janky and I am now having medical issues that may cause me to bleed out for no reason and are going to require treatment after this trip.

This has, in turn caused me to reconnect with the faith of my youth. The faith that sent me through Christian elementary and high school. The faith I somewhat fell away from in college and earlier in adulthood. Now, that I’m getting older, I’m increasingly seeing what faith brings, that faith is the bond that holds us together as a society. Even if those faiths differ, having an underlying faith keeps us from falling apart. And that is a subject I’m doing a separate post on, if I ever get that completed.

High Risk Travel

The State Department since October 7th has categorized travel to Israel as level 3 ‘Reconsider Travel’. Back when I went to Italy in 2022, that was also a level 3 due to the pandemic still going on at the time. Yet, the reasoning for that rating now seems very different. There are areas that are level 4, ‘Do Not Go’, but I have every intent to avoid those areas.

I was discussing Travel Advisories with one of my co-workers who is going to Puerto Vallarta at the same time as my trip, and how that part of Mexico is also under a level 3 advisory. He was reconsidering his plans due to the risk and was somewhat surprised that I was not. Point being, we all have our own level of risk that we are comfortable with travel.

We can still adapt to that degree of risk. In the case of my co-worker, he likely will stick to the beachfront resort complex, and not venture out after dark. I will likely take similar precautions and stick to the hotel and touristy areas of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, or use professionally guided tours when venturing out. I have also enrolled in the State Department’s STEP alerts for Israel so I know if I need to hunker down for the day or avoid certain areas.

Travel always involves a certain degree of risk. If we wanted to be completely risk adverse, we would never leave our homes, although even remaining locked in the house has a certain degree of risk. The Middle East has been in some sort of conflict pretty much nonstop for my entire 51 year life. Perhaps the risk is amped up a bit with the events of the recent weeks, but the risk has always been there.

This is the first time going into a trip where I need to recognize from the beginning that I may not be able to stick to a set agenda. If the shit does hit the fan while over there, is there a point where I give up and flee on the next available flight costs be damned. The fact that I can think about this does bring up a certain amount of privilege as an American tourist that I have that most people in the area would not. Perhaps it also makes me a target, but it does also give me an exit if needed.

Political Situations

I view myself as somewhat apolitical. Sure, I follow the subject, I was a Political Science major through college, but I don’t think there is a politician out there who is acting in anyone’s best interest than themselves, and most of what they do nowadays is in terms of how to rally their base and enhance their own power.

I’ve told myself that I’m not letting the leaders dictate my travel plans. They are what they are, the benefit of non refundable airfare is that there is no second guessing. Maybe I will come around to regret that, but even if conflict does break out and the missiles start flying, the odds of be being directly impacted remain low. There are millions of people between Iran and Israel who are there because they live there, and they’re going to be living through whatever happens there whether I am there or not.

As much as I like to think that we have agency in this situation, the reality is we don’t. The leaders are going to do what they are going to do, and what is best to their benefit, even if it conflicts with what is best for those under them that are being impacted by their decisions.

Backup Travel Plans

If it all falls through and the logistics no longer work for getting to Israel, I will likely revisit Chicago instead. I had intended to go there some time in May or June to visit family, but since the time is already taken off, I would alter plans to go there in March instead.

In The End

In the end, this is the only life we get, which I am realizing as I get older, and that I will likely not always be able to do this, so I need to get out while I can. Hence, travel to Israel, risks be dammed. Should be an interesting trip, and I will need to do more posts as the trip progresses.