Keeping It Israel

Israeli Tour Guide Isaac Karasenti, An Update on Tourism and COVID-19 Situation in Israel

August 26, 2020 Jeff Futers
Keeping It Israel
Israeli Tour Guide Isaac Karasenti, An Update on Tourism and COVID-19 Situation in Israel
Show Notes Transcript

Jeff interviews Isaac Karasenti, an Israeli tour guide who has appeared many times on 'First Century Foundations' the television program. Isaac talks about the current situation facing the tourism industry in Israel and some of the everyday challenges Israelis are facing.

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Chris Atkins, One Media :

Welcome to the Keeping it Israel podcast with Jeff Futers, where Jeff and his guests talk. Everything Israel as it relates to Christian faith and the church. If you are a Christian and you stand with Israel, you will be encouraged and challenged by this podcast. And if you're not so sure about the whole Israel thing, you need to learn how your faith connects with Israel, and why standing with Israel matters. Now, here's Jeff with today's guest.

Jeff Futers :

Hey, welcome to the podcast today. My name is Jeff and I'll be your host and have a very special guest today. Isaac Karasenti is a great friend, and a tour guide from Israel. Isaac and I have spent numerous hours together both with tour groups and also filming for our television show First Century Foundations. So I thought it'd be great if we could chat with Isaac. He's going to give us a little bit of an update as to what things are like in Israel right now and the state of the tourism industry and so this is going to be interesting for you. Let's listen in on my conversation with Isaac, Karasenti. Well, welcome to the podcast today the keeping it Israel podcast and my guest today is Isaac, Karasenti. And Isaac is a good friend. We have known each other now for, I don't know, three, four years, I guess. And at least Yeah. But Isaac, tell us a little bit about who you are.

Isaac Karasenti :

My very, very dear friend Jeff. So good to hear from you. Great to have you. Thank you. So my name is Isaac Karasenti. I'm an Israeli tour guide. A I'm in the tourist industry. We can call it like this for 30 years, exactly 30 years. Wow. And my family is originally from Spain. We came to Israel in 1492. 1492 in Spain, there was a very big Jewish community. And in those days the Queen was Isabella King was Ferdinand. And history tells us 1492, the Queen and the King came to the Jews, and they wanted all of them to convert to Christianity to become to be Catholics. Otherwise they told them you must leave Spain. If not, we are going to kill all of you, of course, that the Jews didn't want to convert to Christianity. So they had to leave. Most of the Jews that left Spain in 1492 fled to Central and Eastern Europe. However, there was a minority, a minority, I mean, 2000 families and from Spain, they decided to go back home to the land of Israel. My family was with this 2000 families that decided to return back home to to Israel without any stopping on the way. So from Spain they came directly to to Israel. Israel in those days was very small. Only four cities where Jews who leave Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias and Tz'fat in upper Galilee. So when my family arrived in here, they settled down in Tiberias and in Tz'fat. By the way until today, most of my family is still in Tiberias, but there is a generation nowadays we live in Haifa. It is a beautiful city northern part of the coastline of Israel and here we are.

Jeff Futers :

Wow. So your roots in Israel run extremely deep, deeper than most I would, I would say,

Isaac Karasenti :

More than 500 years.

Jeff Futers :

Wow. That's amazing. That is amazing.

Isaac Karasenti :

In my family we have a joke. We say when Columbus discovered America, we discovered Israel.

Jeff Futers :

Exactly

Isaac Karasenti :

In 1492, he went west, we went east.

Jeff Futers :

Perfect, perfect. Well, that's a that's amazing and 30 years as a tour guide, you've been in the industry. And that's kind of how we connected how we met through our mutual friend Miki, who is our travel agent here in the Toronto area. And so, yeah, we've known each other I would say at least four years, maybe maybe a bit longer. And you have not only toured a couple of groups for us, but you've also appeared on two different seasons of our television show First Century Foundations, with me and in a number of episodes, and you are becoming well known here in Canada. I just wanted you to know that.

Isaac Karasenti :

Thank you very much. Yeah, my pleasure. Yeah.

Jeff Futers :

I have to say that everybody who has traveled with us in a group, and you've been a part of that, have just raved about about you and the way that you that you lead one of one of our tour groups, so thank you very much.

Isaac Karasenti :

Thank you very much for the compliments.

Jeff Futers :

Yeah. I want to I want to tell you, I probably have told you this before, but the listeners will enjoy this one of the, one of the first times I realized that, you know, I was in the presence of greatness. When when you were leading our tour group, my friend Doug, and I had had people on the tour, and we were in Banias, we were up at Caesarea Philippi. And I remember, I had on my iPad, all of the Scripture verses that I was going to read from the story of Jesus and you know, the disciples at Caesarea Philippi. And I was waiting You know, for you to finish your thing. And then I was going to come and do my thing. And so you began to tell the story of this place, and you know, as only you can do, and you set up all the background and all the historic, historical, you know, narrative and everything. And then you started to talk about the story of Jesus and the disciples. And I was looking at my iPad, and not only were you you know, recounting the story, you were quoting, word for word, from the scriptures that I had prepared to read. It was amazing. That's when I knew that's when I knew that you had a brain unlike many people in the world. And wow, your your memory is fantastic.

Isaac Karasenti :

Thank you. Yeah, I think that I have a photographic memory.

Jeff Futers :

Yeah, I think you do too.

Isaac Karasenti :

When I read something I photograph it. Yeah. In my mind. In my memory.

Jeff Futers :

Yeah. Yeah. It is amazing. It's absolutely amazing. Well, listen, that's that's great. Now the situation in Israel right now let's talk a little bit about that. You it as a country, it seems to us from here in North America that Israel did fantastically well, in the early stages of the Coronavirus of COVID-19. locked down quickly sort of got numbers under control. But then something happened over the summer. What's going on right now?

Isaac Karasenti :

It's a really good question. As you said Jeff, in the very beginning March, April, we did great. We were, I think the first country to close the borders. And we even cut all of the tours that are going on in Israel, sent all of the tourists back home back to their countries. And the situation was was very good and our government also decided about a closure for more than a month. You know, people are not allowed to leave their homes unless you know you're a policeman or a doctor or a nurse. They need you at work. And we did very, very good. The problem was that towards the summer, there was very heavy pressure on the government, you know to open the factories, to open the restaurants, pubs, bars, everything. So the government decided to open everything too fast. Instead of doing it in stages, they decided to open we opened everything within two three weeks. Imagine to yourself from zero to almost 100 in two and a half, three weeks, and then the problem was that people thought 'that's it', the Coronavirus is over. Now, let's go party and this is the biggest problem because the authorities warned the people because, listen, we're not done with this Coronavirus? When you go out you must wear a mask. This is the law. I think also in Canada, you have to look, the moment that you leave home you must wear a mask otherwise if not you get a ticket. Ticket here in Israel is 500 shekels. They don't talk to you, you know without the mask or if the mask covers only your mouth, not your nose, same thing 500 shekels immediately. And also they told the people, Okay, you can go out but you have to keep the distance of two meters between one person to the other. And this is the problem because a I'm an Israeli and it's very sad, you know to say not good things about my people. But Israelis are not disciplined and definitely not very well. behaved. People literally ignored everything. Ignored the law. ignored everything. You know, they show it on television. People went out, no masks nothing. And you started to see what was going on like in cities like Tel Aviv, big parties all night long. You're seeing hundreds of people in a nightclub, three 400 people together in a small building in a nightclub, of course that this Corona was like, you know, a fire in the middle of the summer. A lot of people you know, summer in Israel is very hot, people go to the beach, same thing. They didn't care, no mask, they didn't keep any any distance, nothing, nothing at all. So it started again. It's not like in Europe, or I think in Canada, you had the first wave. Then you had some quiet time and second wave. In Israel, we are still on the first wave. We had the first wave went down a little bit and then increased in a terrible situation. I think that nowadays we are you know, winners, we are first place in the world with a Corona virus per population. We are the first in the world. In the very beginning when you saw what was going on in Italy and Spain feel sorry for them. Today, almost the same. I mean people are not dying like in Italy in Spain, but you see every day in Israel, we have another seven 800 new people that go the infection this virus within the last 24 hours. Now in Israel we have thousands of people who have this Coronavirus. Also add to this a sad reality two other factors, the Ultra Orthodox and the Arabs. Ultra Orthodox in Israel, they live like in small ghettos, you know, they're extremely crowded, extremely, extremely crowded, even if there is someone sick in the family within 24 hours, all the rest of the family is sick because they are like 10, 12 people in one house. Or no the government gives you the option if you're Coronavirus on behalf of the government, they take you to a Corona hotel. All over Israel, the government paid for hotels that become to be able to call Corona hotel. So if you need the to go for two, three weeks, the government pays. People don't want to do that. So this is the Ultra Orthodox and also the Arabs. They had some big holidays, the Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, crazy and now we are paying the price.

Jeff Futers :

Yeah, well, so in, in Haifa, where you are, like I know one thing about Israel it's fairly densely populated. You know, when you're out on the street, it's wall to wall people, you know, so so it really has to be challenging to be able to Move around and do what you have to do.

Isaac Karasenti :

Yes, yes. I tell you, Haifa, thank God, we are in a good place. I mean like the, the most terrible cities nowadays Jerusalem is number one. Then we have Tel Aviv which is number two. Then we have other Arab and Ultra Orthodox Jewish cities. In Haifa where I live, we don't have many people who have this Coronavirus. My wife is a nurse in the in the hospital in the Rambam Hospital, which is the biggest Hospital in all the northern part of Israel. They built a special department for Corona...right... Nowadays, they have there may be three or four people. That's all. They are about to close this department because the hospital says listen, for three or four people we're not going to keep the whole section of the building to put this stuff. So Haifa is is in good conditions. But me personally, when I go out like if I have to go shopping, then I go very early in the morning. Supermarkets here will open at seven o'clock. I arrive there even at quarter to seven, seven o'clock they open, I buy and that's it. I go home. Of course always, we do masks. Or if I want to, I...you're not going to believe this. I started to love sports. So every morning, I run eight kilometres eight kilometres...

Jeff Futers :

Sorry, Isaac, you're gonna have to say that again. I think there was something wrong with my earphone. You said...?

Isaac Karasenti :

I started to love sport? Yes. Every morning I run eight kilometres...

Jeff Futers :

You run?

Isaac Karasenti :

Run... eight kilometres.

Jeff Futers :

And nobody's chasing you?

Isaac Karasenti :

What I do. In order to make sure that I'm alone, and my wife thinks that I'm crazy. I get up every morning at 3:30AM... 3:30, I leave home at four o'clock. I drive my car to the beach. It's 15 minutes. I run from 4:15 to 5:30 in the morning, it's only me and the beach I don't say any more people and at 6 o'clock, I am back home.

Jeff Futers :

Wow...wow

Isaac Karasenti :

So when we have to go out we do it very early or very late when there are not a lot of people.

Jeff Futers :

Wow, that's great. I'm not even going to recognize you the next time I seeuou. You're gonna be like... you're gonna be so, so...

Isaac Karasenti :

I lost 35 kilos.

Jeff Futers :

Wow That's amazing. That's amazing. Well I'm running too. I am running too, I ah, but but only five kilometers or six kilometers, I think I do six now. But now you've, now you've motivated me I'm gonna have to I can't have you running more than me. I'm gonna have to somehow win this little race here...I don't run on the...

Isaac Karasenti :

May the best of us win.

Jeff Futers :

May... Yes, May the best man win. That's funny. Well, that's great. I'm glad to hear that you're doing well and and that Haifa is doing well, I guess maybe in the northern areas... Is Tiberius because it's fairly heavily Ultra Orthodox. Are they having issues with numbers there?

Isaac Karasenti :

Yes. Yes. They are having very issues. And they you know, the hotels in Tiberias were closed from mid March and they opened again in May. In May we had the holiday Shavuot, Pentecost so the hotels started to open and in the summer, and they started to have good business not to be tourists. We don't have tourists coming to Israel, but with Israelis, because for Israelis until last week, it was strictly forbidden, impossible to go overseas. So Israelis, when they wanted to go on vacation to went to places like Eilat or Tiberias. So the hotels in Tiberias were full. But the Corona, hit Tiberias very, very bad. So the authorities wanted to block certain neighborhoods in Tiberias, but total closure. Again, the Ultra Orthodox put heavy pressure against the government not to do that. But there are some neighborhoods in Tiberias in very bad conditions right now. Wow. Yes.

Jeff Futers :

Well, I know that this has impacted the tourism industry in a very, very detrimental way. Talk about what that looks like, what's the future look like? How are we going to be able to get people back to to visit Israel?

Isaac Karasenti :

I tell you so far, situation in tourism in Israel is not good at all. Because of our government and I will explain why. Sadly, our government doesn't think that tourism is that important to the economy. So, March the 15th, we closed everything, everything. The hotels, restaurants, tour companies, busses, tour guides. We sit at home doing absolutely nothing, nothing, nothing. Okay. The problem is that ah hotels they closed and in the very beginning they sent their staff for a vacation of three months. And of course the government paid but according to the law in Israel after three months, a vacation, all that you must bring the workers back to work. Now as the employer you pay them, or that you have to fire them. Again in June everything was closed. The airport, everything closed. Most of the hotels in Israel fired their staff. Imagine yourself like Prima Royale Hotel in Jerusalem. You know, you stay there quite a few times. Yes. All of the staff you remember the staff, all of them are fired. And I talk to them almost every week. And by the way manager of the hotel if you remember is Moti... he passed away, broken heart. Yes, he died in the evening of Shavuot. A broken heart. He just took it too hard, that the hotel is is closed. It was heart attack. He was sitting they told me it was it was everyday he came to the hotel, was sitting in the lobby and crying. Eventually his heart failed him. But they fired, all of the staff. The staff you know they start to look for different jobs, not only in in tourism, and this is not only the Prima Royale. Many other hotels are in the same condition like many of the hotels in Jerusalem are closed. Like Grand Court, Olive Tree all of them are closed down. Haifa most of the hotels are closed. So imagine yourself these hotels are close and there is no maintenance, no maintenance. And let's say that next year the government will decide to open the Ben Gurion Airport and others, and tourists will start to come to Israel. Imagine to yourself how much money it will cost, the chains of the hotels, just to bring the hotels to normal condition. Because this is already half a year with no maintenance in all all of the homes. Think about the furniture, think about the air conditioning system, the kitchens everything. Very bad conditions, plus, they will have to hire a new staff and to start to train them from zero. It's a disaster. Also many bus companies, companies that work only with tourists, only with tourists. You see the buses, you know, this is it breaks your heart when you see Jerusalem and also in Galilee, it's like cemetery for for brand new buses, buses, which are not even one year old. You know, 2018 2019 were very good years. So many bus companies, they bought brand new buses and they're all under the sun with dust also many bus drivers. That's it, they let the business they look for another job. Many restaurants that you know are closed, many shops are closed. Many tour guides are leaving guiding because for how long you can wait. And the problem is that there is no deadline like if the government would come and say, you know what? In October, okay, we are going to open everything. Okay, we start with tourism in October, November in December. Give us something But no one knows when this will happen. Hmm. It's so annoying, because there are some Israeli military companies that developed an instrument that all you have to do is like, you know, when they the police catches you and they think that you're drunk, they ask you to phoo (blow) into a tube and they say if you're drunk or not, so Israeli military companies in May, they developed something like that... you phoo (blow) into it. Within 40 seconds. You have the result positive or negative for Corona. And they said we can put it in Ben Gurion Airport before passport control. So let's say you're from Canada, you want to come to Israel. Okay, before I go to the airport in Canada, you have to bring an affadavit from your doctor that you're clean. You come to Israel right before passport control. You check this within 40 seconds you have the result, yes or not. If you are clean passport control, welcome to Israel. If not, you go back to the same airplane and go back home who was against this idea? The government and our ministry of health, because they said if you do something like this and then go in the airport, it has to be private laboratories. So they will make a lot of money. And all the workers that work for this government organization, Minister of Health, will quit and they will go and work with private companies. So we will have no more workers. So because of this, they decided not to do that. Guess who is doing this today? India, in many countries in Asia, they bought the machines that we developed and opened their borders. So usually I'm very, very optimistic. But this time I have no news because we don't know when, when they think even to open the borders. They don't talk about it. Not Minister of Tourism, no one. If this will be after the holidays, September, October, I don't know. November, winter. No one knows. Right. So with that in mind I cannot give you a very encouraging answer...

Jeff Futers :

Yeah, well, we... I was on a call, I don't know a week or so ago and the the Israeli Ministry, Minister of Tourism from Jerusalem was on the was on the call. And I it was it was for sort of advertising purposes, of course. And he actually said on the call that they were working towards opening the skies to green countries as of September sometime, but it didn't sound very...didn't ring very true to me. Let's put it that way.

Isaac Karasenti :

I tell you... Yes, yeah, Israel is open, for green countries, but this is one way. What is one way? Our government allows Israelis, only Israelis to go to green countries. But we don't allow non Israelis, tourists, from green countries to come to Israel. Let's say that for example, Switzerland is a green country. Okay. So our government nowadays is allowing any Israeli that wishes to go to Switzerland, but we don't allow Swiss people to come to Israel. Now what is the problem? because Israel nowadays is considered as 'red' country, all of the green countries they don't want any Israelis in their countries. Many European countries, they are green like a Switzerland and Austria and Germany and many others. They don't want any Israelis. The only countries in Europe that are doing us a favor...Greece agreed to accept only 600 Israelis every week not more than that, okay only 600 per week and of course you have to bring the results from the doctor, from the lab that you're clean. Also for Israelis who are going to Greece, you cannot go everywhere in Greece and only four cities do they allow Israelis. This is number one. Bulgaria also agreed to welcome Israelis and Georgia. These are the only three countries. We can go there but still we do not allow any tourists non Israeli citizen to come to Israel. I don't know what the guy from Ministry of Tourism told you but... this is this situation in Israel right now.

Jeff Futers :

Yeah well we're we're kind of watching with interest because my I mean I've had it'll be it'll be two two tours now cancelled because of because of COVID This year, we had a group of students, theological students that were supposed to be coming. Actually, we should have left yesterday to come for 10 days or so. And and then, of course, the the the other trip in the fall, but it's interesting and we're trying to think about what do we what do we do? Can we plan for 2021? Is that Is that real? Is that a reality?

Isaac Karasenti :

I think that for 2021. Yes, you can plan. Because, I don't think that this situation can last for more than one year. I mean, started in March 2020. I don't think it can be until after March 2021. Otherwise, the Israeli economy will totally collapse totally collapse. Nowadays, Israeli economy is in very bad conditions. Everything this way or another is connected to to tourism. I'm not talking only about bus companies and hotels and restaurants and staff and tour guides, no... even farmers that grow vegetables. They used to sell a lot of the vegetables to the hotels and to restaurants. Hotels, restaurants are closed so they sell less. You know, even in factories that make a tablecloth, okay, napkins, tissues, things like that. Their biggest clients, were, hotels and restaurants, they lost more than 60% of their business. So okay, well, very strong with high tech and everything. Okay, but without tourism. We cannot continue. And ah... I, I believe that the government understands at this point, more than a year if this will continue after March 2021. I don't think that Israeli economy will continue even to exist. So I'm 100% sure by March 2021, definitely they will find a way, you know, to open the borders and to bring tourists here in a safe way. So concerning your question, yes to plan for 2021, I would say after March... sound logic to me, like from April 2021 onwards, I think this makes sense.

Jeff Futers :

Yeah, well, we're looking at that to see how that might work. Most of what I've been reading, you know, tells me... I find it amazing that you said, you know, the government doesn't consider tourism important enough to, to make the investment in because it seems to me that about 40% of your GDP, you know, the gross domestic product of Israel is connected to tourism. Yeah, that's a huge number.

Isaac Karasenti :

You know, I read the statistics in 2020. So no, 2019...2019 we got 8 billion US dollars income only from tourism. Show me another branch of the economy that brings so much money to the economy. Not 8 million... $8 billion wow came to Israel only from tourism. Yeah, High tech? No, high tech doesn't bring so much money. What medicine? Medicine doesn't bring so much money. What agriculture? Of course not. Diamonds? Definitely not. What minerals from the Dead Sea? Definitely not. But this is so unbelievable that the government doesn't think that this is that important. Now we must do something in order to open the borders and find a way to bring tourists here like the rest of the world is doing. You know what even our neighbors ah Lebanon okay, before the explosion over there but even Lebanon opened their borders for tourists. Jordan, Egypt, Sinai, all of them are open for tourists. And we say, you know, we are the only democracy in the Middle East and high tech and medicine and everything. We are on the bottom of the list.

Jeff Futers :

Well, there certainly is a big, big challenge for them to to make tourists coming in from other countries feel safe. I think that's going to be the b ig thing.

Isaac Karasenti :

Yes. Not ony to open the border but, you know, to make tourists to feel safe to come to Israel... Of course that's the most important thing.

Jeff Futers :

And I think...

Isaac Karasenti :

What's the point to open the borders but Israel is not safe. You will not feel safe to come here. You will not come here.

Jeff Futers :

Mm hmm. And that's gonna be our challenge, I think is saying to people look, we're doing a tour. And and the first question we're going to get is, you know, will I be will I be okay, am I going to get Corona? Am I you know, I know people and, and even myself, you know, we're reticent to even go anywhere where we have to go through the airport with, you know, with people coming in from other places because it's Yeah, it's so it's so highly contagious. And we're still all trying, I think to sort of figure this out, gratefully, you know, I'm grateful that here in Canada, our numbers are, are down. You know, the the province of Ontario where I live, we are 14 and a half million people. So about 5 million more than live in Israel live in my province. And we're down under 100 new cases a day. We we've been under we've been we've been as low as I think 33 cases one day. And so it's it's under control at this point. But again, everybody's waiting, sort of for the, for the for the penny to drop, because we don't know we don't know about this whole second wave, you know, talk and all that That kind of stuff. So, uh, vaccination at some point would be, you know, welcome, I think. But I think too, that a lot of people are not going to be rushing to get this vaccination. If they feel like it hasn't been properly, you know, tested like it's been rushed through the process. So, yeah, my wife is in is in the medical industry as well. And, you know, she tells me, because she works with clinical trials, that's the work that she does. She says, you know, good science takes a minimum of 18 months, and usually two to three years, you know, so it's, it's going to be interesting to see what happens with all of this for sure.

Isaac Karasenti :

Yes, yeah. But Putin say that they found ah...the medicine.

Jeff Futers :

Yeah.

Isaac Karasenti :

We will have to wait and see.

Jeff Futers :

We shall wait and see. Yes, I think a lot of people are taking that wait and see approach for sure.

Isaac Karasenti :

And that's for sure.

Jeff Futers :

Yeah, yeah. So Isaac, what do you what are you doing to fill your time these days?

Isaac Karasenti :

And I invest a lot, a lot of doing some researches and studies I go very, very deep to the roots of a of everything. I improve a lot my knowledge, I take some courses in universities, Hebrew University and other colleges. They open this special courses, for tour guides, and also Zoom. So I study a lot a lot, and then improve my knowledge, and ah waiting for tourists.

Jeff Futers :

Waiting for tourists to come to Israel. Now now how is how was your wife Dina doing with you being around so much?

Isaac Karasenti :

Yes. Well, not the you know, this is so weird. It doesn't work for me. I'm not used to this. I'm not used to this. Normally, okay, between one tour to another, I'd have two, three, four days off. In the low season, maybe a week off. Okay. So I enjoy home. Now I'm half a year at home. And the thing is that my wife is the one that every morning she goes out to work, come back in the evening. I'm the one who stays home. I think that I'm a good husband, I have now time to cook. I cook a lot.

Jeff Futers :

Good for you.

Isaac Karasenti :

Yes, I cook a lot when she comes back from work she has dinner, ready waiting for her. And I take care of the house. You know many things that I wanted to do for many, many years and I had no time. Now is the time and now is the place to do this. And I tell you I run a lot. I run 8 kilometres every morning. And in the evening, I'm not going to the gym, but I do some exercises at home. So she has her space and freedom. I have my space and freedom. I try not to annoy her too much.

Jeff Futers :

You are, You are a good husband then if you try to do that... that's good. Yes. I'm glad to hear that.

Isaac Karasenti :

This room, this is where I sit and study because this is the quietest room, so I close the door I sit, I study, so I don't disturb the life going on in the rest of my house.

Jeff Futers :

Very good. Well, listen, I want to I want to thank you for taking the time today to talk with us. You've given us a real a real window into what's happening especially with the tourism industry and you know, we bring groups of Christians over to Israel or at least historically, we have done that over the years. And, you know, I want you to know, and I know you do know that, that Christians do pray for Israel support Israel. And we will we will ask our, you know, our Christian viewers and listeners to pray for, for you and for the tourism industry in particular. I, I there are other guides that I know as well. You're my favorite of course, but but there are others. And we, we pray for them and and we're just we're believing that the situation will change. You know, we, we all believe, we all together believe in the God of Israel. So, you know, we we want God to help us in this situation and circumstance and, and we also want to be wise as well. So one of the things that that I'll mention, and I'm going to say it on the podcast, so it means that I actually have to do it. You and I discussed before we came on live here, maybe four or five webinar type type deals where we do some virtual touring of Israel. And you'll be our guide. And we'll show some, some maybe some footage and some photos and, and talk about some of the different sites. I think that would be a lot of fun to do. And so,

Isaac Karasenti :

My pleasure to do this... pleasure and privilege to do this.

Jeff Futers :

Well, listen, let's, let's set it up. I'll get to work on pulling some of that together. And hopefully, hopefully, later in September, maybe early October, we can we can pull something off. That'd be fun.

Isaac Karasenti :

I will love to do this.

Jeff Futers :

Great. Great.

Isaac Karasenti :

Jeff, your wish is my command.

Jeff Futers :

Ha, very good. Very good. Well, listen, I want I do want listeners to know if you want to hear Isaac talk about, you know some of the sights in Israel. All of our television shows are available on our YouTube channel. And firstcenturyfoundations.com if you search on on YouTube, you'll find our channel and you can see Isaac there. And he is good looking on TV. I'm going to tell you, man he and he's so smart. And so you'll enjoy watching some of those episodes. We, I want you to know Isaac, we've had a couple of our episodes the one we did at Banias, at Caesarea Philippi I think now is approaching 10,000 views on on YouTube. It's it's really been popular and I don't know why except it has maybe the word 'hell' in the title I you know, the gates of hell maybe that's what what makes it so popular, but it's way more popular than any of the other episodes. So anyway, if you're if you're listening and you want to go check that out. Isaac does a great job explaining what happens there at at Caesarea Philippi. And he does a great job everywhere we go. Samaria is the other one that that people like, you know, up on the mountain there. Yeah, but ah it's...

Isaac Karasenti :

Mount Gerezim.

Jeff Futers :

Yeah. Well, Isaac, listen, thanks for being on here. Talking to you has made me even lonelier now for Israel and and wanting to get back, we were hoping we might be able to come in November to do some of our charitable work that we that we do there. Not a tour, but I'm starting to lose hope that that's going to happen if I have to, you know, self isolate for two weeks when I first get there, it's really not feasible, you know, it's just way too expensive. Yeah, so we're, we're watching with interest to see what happens.

Isaac Karasenti :

Yes, I think that by next year, we will sit together and laugh about this time.

Jeff Futers :

Let's Let's, let's do that. Let's sit together and laugh about this time a year from now, that would be amazing to do. Anyway. God bless you, my friend. Thanks for being on the podcast today.

Isaac Karasenti :

All the very best.

Jeff Futers :

All right.

Isaac Karasenti :

Thank you, Shalom.

Jeff Futers :

Thank you for joining us for the podcast today. And I hope you enjoyed my chat with Isaac Karasenti. Isaac is just a phenomenal guy, an amazing tour guide, an encyclopedia of information about Israel and biblical history. And we just love and appreciate him so much. As I mentioned in the podcast right at the current moment, that is August 2020. We really don't know what tours look like in the future but depending on when you are listening to this podcast, please continue to check our website firstcenturyfoundations.com that's 'firstcenturyfoundations' with an s.com and then click on tours in the menu bar above and you'll find out any information on upcoming tours. We would love to have you travel to the Holy Land with us. We also do tours to other biblical sites from time to time. Please note that we are a ministry. We are a charitable organization that is raising funds to help other Christian and Messianic ministries in the land of Israel, over 70 different groups that we are working with there. And so we encourage you to connect with us, to engage with your prayers and your participation in giving. If you are able please donate at firstcenturyfoundations.com/donate and we would be so appreciative of your support. Thanks for tuning into the podcast this week. And remember, as Christians we stand with Israel.