Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg flew to Israel on El Al overnight and told CNN in a live interview that the US FAA erred when issuing a flight ban to and from Israel yesterday.
Above: Michael Bloomberg
Bloomberg Flies To Israel, Ridicules US Flight Ban
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg flew to Israel on El Al overnight and told CNN in a live interview that the US FAA erred when issuing a flight ban to and from Israel yesterday.
Bloomberg attacked the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for banning US flights in and out of Israel, said its safety claims are ridiculous.
Bloomberg asked the FAA to lift the ban and concentrate on making US airlines and US airports as safe as Israel’s are.
Bloomberg pointed out that people regularly get guns and other banned items onto planes in the US because of lax security, while this simply does not happen with El Al in Israel or wherever else it flies.
El Al uses very detailed and extensive security precautions US airlines do not use.
Blommberg and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat were interviewed live on air by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, who is reporting on the Gaza conflict from Jerusalem where he was once many years ago a reporter for the the Jerusalem Post.
Bloomberg and Barkat said the FAA’s ban amounted to giving in to Hamas terror, and Bloomberg asserted that if the standards the FAA has used to temporarily ban travel to and from Israel were used in the US, many airports like JFK would have to shut down because the airports and the US airlines that use them are nowhere near as safe as Israel’s El Al and Ben Gurion International Airport.
Earlier today, the FAA extended its 24-hour ban for another 24 hours.
Several European carriers have temporarily stopped flying into and out of Israel, as well. But British Airways has continued to fly to and from Israel.
A Hamas rocket landed about one mile from Ben Gurion International Airport two days ago, destroying a house in the tiny village of Yehud.
Hamas rockets are not guided missiles and cannot be aimed, other than pointing them in the general direction of a target.
Israel’s US-funded Iron Dome missile defense system has successfully shot down almost all Hamas rockets and unguided missiles fired at major Israeli population centers, but is not often used to block rockets headed for lightly populated or rural areas.
In weeks of daily Hamas attacks in which Hamas has fired thousands of rockets and unguided missiles into Israel, Israel has suffered only one civilian death caused by a direct hit or shrapnel.
US Secretery of State John Kerry also flew to Israel today and landed safely without incident at Ben Gurion International.