Israelis Flee by Land as Ben Gurion Airport Chokes; Netanyahu Takes the Hit

Israel’s secure-state image takes the hit when Ben Gurion chokes and Israelis start leaving by land through Egypt instead. Right, so Ben Gurion airport is down to one departing flight an hour with just fifty per flight now because Iran has basically all but decimated Israel’s domestic flight capability. Israelis have been going out by land through Egypt and Jordan instead, something of a reverse Exodus if you will, except the Red Sea won’t open for them this time, so doesn’t that make them not so much God’s chosen people in which case? But it is a rotten look for Benjamin Netanyahu when he has spent years selling himself as the man who keeps Israel secure and in control and the only way out is via the privilege of crossing borders that they deny the right to for others. This is not a country calmly riding out pressure as they would like the world to think then. That is the state’s main international airport choking while people start treating the neighbouring borders as the more practical way out. Netanyahu can call it temporary, he can call it operational, he can call it whatever he damn well likes, but the picture is already there in front of everyone: the airport is banjaxed, the roads out are doing all the work – good job Iran doesn’t believe in blowing them like Israel itself has a habit of doing; just look at Lebanon and its bridges, or iran and their still under construction bridges - and his strongman image looks a lot less convincing when people are heading for the exits as fast as they possibly can. I wonder they’re all going? Home perhaps. Ben Gurion says more than any speech here because airports are where states either look normal or they do not. The restriction was not some tiny adjustment buried in a notice. One flight an hour, fifty passengers on the outbound leg only and calls from Israeli aviation officials for immediate closure of the airspace ahead of Passover. That is not normality under strain. That is the main airport being reduced to a controlled choke point.