The Knesset Research and Information Center put out a guide on Monday of hot
spots for Israeli tourists in Persia – otherwise known as Iran.
The list
is partially a Purim joke, but it is also the center’s response to a report by
the Majlis Research Center, its Iranian counterpart, on the ideal places in
Israel for the Islamic Republic to attack.
Dr. Shirley Avrahami, the
manager of the Knesset Research and Information Center, said that she compiled
the list out of a hope for peace, while the Majlis’s researcher Ahmad Tavakoli
made his list out of a hope for war.
The first site on the Israeli list
is the grave of the Purim story’s heroes Esther and Mordechai in Hamadan, 360
km. southwest of Tehran.
According to Iranian Jewish tradition, when the
Messiah comes, a cave will open up, connecting the Hamadan mausoleum to
Jerusalem. The Jews remaining in Iran visit and pray at the site.
Other
tourist spots in Iran include the capital city Tehran, and Persepolis, the
historical capital of the Persian Empire.
Avrahami recommends staying at
the Darwish Grand hotel, designed as a model of ancient Persepolis, on Kish
Island in the Persian Gulf, which was rated one of the top 10 most beautiful
islands in the world by The New York Times in 2010.
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