It is time for Israelis to rethink their travel plans.
Here is the problem. Since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023, Jew-hatred has increased exponentially. Places are simply less receptive to Jews, and especially Israelis. My suggestion is that Israelis travel less, or even better, they become more selective regarding where they travel. Not out of fear, but out of prudence.
This is recognition of the hostility they face, and it is a maximization of pleasure and a reduction of tension.
Zionism was a response to antisemitism.
Early Zionists realized that there was no way to eliminate Jew-hatred. That sage insight into a fear of those who are different – the Jews – has, over the decades, proven to be true. They reasoned that the best way to avoid a harmful, senseless, and destructive bias was to create an independent society that could defend itself.
![An Israeli flag [Ilustrative]](https://images.jpost.com/image/upload/f_auto,fl_lossy/c_fill,g_faces:center,h_537,w_822/438338)
The Jewish state was created on that foundation.
The model of assimilation and accommodation in host societies adopted by Jews, living in host countries for generations, developed as a survival model. They tried to keep their heads down, keep a low profile, keep to themselves, and be quiet, law-abiding citizens.
The attempt to prove themselves loyal, however, failed. Loyalty alone was not enough. They remained outsiders. They remained unwelcome guests in country after country, decade after decade.
Jewish safety, Jewish life, could not depend on the tolerance of others. Creating a Jewish state was the solution.
Today, as those age-old tensions once again rear their ugly heads, Jews in general, and Israelis in particular, have become moving targets while abroad. Jews – even assimilated Jews, even non-religious Jews, are identifiable. And that means that, for Jews, international travel is not risk-free.
Israelis travel abroad in high numbers
A Pew Research Center study, supported by a Mako survey, reports that 92% of Israelis have traveled abroad at least once in their lives. Some 75% have traveled abroad in the past two years. While those numbers are astonishing in many ways, they are also extremely disturbing.
It is rewarding to know that Israelis, in such large numbers, have the economic capability to travel. It is admirable to know that Israelis have a zest for learning about other cultures, other cuisines, and other climates. With that, of course, comes the realization that Israelis sometimes, oftentimes, just need to get away. From the tensions. From the wars, from the internal conflicts. From October 7 and its after-effects.
Since October 7, Jew-hatred has increased exponentially. It has increased for Jews still living in host countries and it has increased for Israelis living in and passing through those countries. It has been stimulated, in some countries, by the actions and rhetoric of world leaders. It has been carried out by individuals and groups who have been swayed by the vile, vicious, blood libel untruths that a genocide is being perpetrated by the Jewish state.
Not by choice, but out of necessity, Israelis and Jews must change their ways and learn to travel selectively and intelligently. It is time to explore, enjoy, and do business in places where the hosts have proven themselves as countries willing to protect their Jewish guests. It is time to go where Jews are welcome. Passports, hotel reservations, and a cosmopolitan environment do not guarantee a cordial reception.
Modern Zionism’s founding thinkers, such as Leo Pinsker and Theodor Herzl, firmly believed that Jewish safety depended on transforming Jews from guests and minorities who petitioned for their safety, into a power that would and could defend itself in its own home.
It is a colossal mistake to think that Israel and Zionism solved the issue of antisemitism. Rather, it removed Jews from the immediate reach of antisemites and antisemitism. Jew-hatred still exists. Today, an Israeli passport does not magically shield Jews from that hatred. If anything, in certain environments it magnifies the target.
In 2025, the Anti-Defamation League recorded 6,274 attacks against Jews and Jewish institutions in the United States, the country Jews long held to be the “golden country.” While that number was down 33% from 2024, it is still way too high to be considered either acceptable or a statistical anomaly.
The Foreign Ministry recorded 45 Israelis who experienced anti-Jewish incidents between July 2025 and July 2026 while in the United States. That number included fights, spitting, verbal attacks, expulsions from cafés, refusal of service, as well as instances in which Israelis felt threatened. These are by no means all the incidents that occurred; merely those reported or needing diplomatic involvement.
Mathematically, it is highly unlikely that Israeli travelers will be attacked. Until it happens. Until it happens to you. Until you are that Israeli or that Israeli family.
The unfortunate, undeserved message that large swaths of the world have been sending out has been received. A July 2025 survey undertaken by the Israel Democracy Institute reported that 38% of respondents answered that they had changed their travel destinations to accommodate this new state of affairs.
I call that risk-based self-restraint. It is a proactive response; it is not giving the Jew-haters a victory and a reward.
Zionism never promised to eliminate Jew-hatred; it promised that Jews would no longer be defenseless.
Israel exists so that Jews have a place where the state – not a foreign government, and certainly not a hotel manager – is ultimately responsible for the security of Jews.
The writer is a columnist and a social and political commentator. Watch his TV show Thinking Out Loud on the Jewish Broadcasting Syndicate.