Back in early March, when a three-member delegation from Taipei visited Israel for a seminar, they were appalled by the emptiness of these once-crowded tourist sites as a result of the escalating violence between Israel and Palestine.
"When we visited the Wailing Wall, I looked around only to discover the three of us," recalled Lee Deng-ker (李登科), Dean of the College of International Affairs at National Chengchi University. "But when I visited the site two years ago, the wall was crowded with a sea of people."
The manager at the beach resort near the Dead Sea also complained about his poor business to the only three tourists in sight. "He first condemned [Yasser] Arafat, and then he blamed [Ariel] Sharon," Lee recalled.
But plummeting tourism is only one of the side effects triggered by the recent escalation of the Israel-Palestine conflict, analysts said.
Some said the rising tension could affect Taiwan in other ways, ranging from escalating oil prices, thwarted humanitarian aid by a local non-profit group in the Gaza Strip, and even future classified cooperation between Taiwan and Israel.
An involved foreign ministry official, who declined to be named, offered his observation.
"Taiwan has many interests in the Middle East. For instance, 63 percent of the country's oil supply was imported from the region. Any turmoil in the region could trigger the rise in oil price and consequently affect our oil supply," he said.
Lee offered a similar view, saying, "The rising oil price is disadvantageous to Taiwan."
Even related humanitarian aid carried out in the Gaza Strip since 1996 by the World Vision Taiwan (
"The degree of difficulty in implementing various aid projects has increased to a large extent," said Carol Song (
The organization has decided to focus on relief work instead of other sponsorship or development programs to meet the emerging needs of Palestinian refugees in the wake of the growing violence that began around 18 months ago, Song said.
According to Lee's estimation, more than 1,100 Palestinians and around 400 Israelis have lost their lives in the past 18 months of conflict.
Another informed scholar, who spoke under condition of anonymity, highlighted what he saw as the most drastic impact on Taiwan's interests as the result of tensions in the Middle East.
"As far as classified cooperation is concerned, relations between Taiwan and Israel have gradually warmed up. But the current Israeli approach [to dealing with the Palestinians] may reduce the justification for our cooperation with Tel Aviv," the scholar argued.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has vowed an "uncompromising war" against terrorism, over the past few days has sent an increasing number of tanks and troops to the West Bank in response to a wave of suicide bombings by Palestinians.
But Sharon's continuing siege of the Palestinian leader Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah and his disregard of a resolution passed on Saturday by the UN Security Council that called for Israel's withdraw from Palestinian towns including Ramallah has provoked criticism and fury across the Arab world and in Europe.
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