Netanyahu Tries Hand at Tourism

By COLlive reporter

Why was Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wearing a wool Talis Katan while writing Hebrew letters with a quill dipped in blank ink on a parchment?

For a TV show, apparently.

For the past year, the media savvy and publicity-conscious Netanyahu has been playing tour guide for an episode of “The Royal Tour,” the televised tourism program aired on PBS and the Travel Channel.

Directed by journalist and producer Peter Greenberg, the hour-long programs explore various countries’ history and culture and provide genuine, authentic travel experiences with the ultimate tour guide: the head of state.

Greenberg, Travel Editor at CBS News, has already filmed episodes with the king of Jordan, the presidents of Mexico and Peru, and the prime minister of New Zealand. Netanyahu began filming a year ago.

For Netanyahu, it was a chance “to boost tourism to Israel and change the country’s image,” he said before the filming in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, “all to show the true Israel, the Israel most don’t get to see.”

This week they were touring Masada and the Dead Sea, including the ancient synagogue said to have been built in the times of Herod the Great during the Second Temple. It was discovered in the 1960s in archaeological excavations.

Rabbi Shimon Elharar, Director of Chabad of the Dead Sea area, suggested to Netanyahu to participate in the writing of the sefer Torah that is presently being written on the isolated rock plateau.

The Prime Minister agreed and put on a kippa and tzitzis. The verse from Exodus that was given to him to write read “And let every wise-hearted man among you come, and make all that the Lord has commanded.”

Israel Hayom newspaper noted that government officials view the program as an important public relations and economic effort, as previous installments of the program resulted in up to a 10 percent increase in tourism for the host nation.