In Christmas message, Netanyahu promises Christian tourists to ‘be your guide’

In a video message posted online for Christmas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offers to “be your guide” to Christians who visit Israel next year on Christmas, on a walking tour of Israel’s Christian holy sites.

“It’s a pleasure for me on Christmas Eve to be here, standing, in Jerusalem, right behind me, the holy city,” Netanyahu says in the video.

“I’m very proud to be the prime minister of Israel, a country that says ‘Merry Christmas’ first to its Christian citizens and to our Christian friends around the world. I’m proud that Israel is the country in which Christians not only survive, but they thrive. Because we believe in this friendship among people and we protect the rights of everyone to worship at the holy sites behind me.”

Then he makes his offer: “So now I have a proposition for all our Christian friends. I’m going to take next year on Christmas, for those of you who come to Israel, a guided tour. In fact, I’ll be your guide on this guided tour. And think of all the places you can walk. You can go to the Jesus boat on the Sea of Galilee, you can get to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre here right behind me, any place that you’ll want to visit in the footsteps of Jesus and the origins of our Judaeo-Christian heritage.

“So please come to Israel, next year in Jerusalem, and merry Christmas to all of you.”

Merry Christmas from Jerusalem, the capital of Israel! pic.twitter.com/ChhsuqudW8

— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) December 24, 2017