The Planes Meant To Be Protecting Israel Are Now Trapping It Instead

Right, so this is Ben Gurion Airport, Israel's main civilian airport. Open, technically. Except the Americans have parked so many airborne gas stations on the tarmac that airport officials are now warning that 50,000 booked journeys could be disrupted. That 50,000 is not a confirmed body count of stranded souls, just the number of bookings at risk if the military keeps treating Ben Gurion like a drive-thru. Each of those bookings belongs to someone desperate to leave, but nobody knows how many will actually end up staring at the departure board. Those are the planes meant to protect Israel aren’t they? Now they're doing a fine job turning the airport into a high-security waiting room for the world's most patient hostages. And yes, there is an asterisk on that 50,000. The figure refers to bookings, and we do not have a confirmed headcount of separate passengers, though it could be for all we know. It is still a lot of people, but we will return to that point. Every one of those bookings still belongs to somebody trying to get out. The airport doors are technically open. Whether your plane can actually depart, however, is another act in this three-ring circus.That is a civilian airport trying to function around America's flying petrol stations. Netanyahu wanted the machinery of war close at hand. Very close. Close enough to keep Israeli and American aircraft in the sky over Iran. Well, he got it. It is now close enough to start chewing through the summer flight schedule.They would love this to sound like a dull row over airport capacity. A bit busy, isn't it? A few parking problems. Someone from operations will sort it out after lunch. Except airport officials have been warning for months that military use has swallowed a huge share of Ben Gurion's working space. At one stage, it was reportedly operating at around one-third of normal capacity. You can call the airport open all day long. That does not help the passenger whose airline cannot get a stand, whose flight gets cut, or whose booking suddenly becomes an entry on a cancellation board. It’s like taking bookings for a hotel, filling every room with military kit, then telling the guests their reservation still exists in principle. Yes, you can leave. In theory. You just need the United States military to move first.