On Tuesday, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg defied FAA regulations and flew to Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. In the column below, first published at Bloomberg View, he explains his reasons why:
Just hours after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration prohibited domestic airlines from flying to Israel this week, I boarded an El Al flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City to Ben-Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv to express solidarity with the Israeli people and show the world that Israel’s airports remain open and safe.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived at Ben-Gurion just before I did, and I hope he will join me in telling the FAA that the airport is secure and that the agency should immediately lift its ban on U.S. flights into and out of the airport. (The FAA lifted the ban after this article was published.)
The FAA’s decision was prompted by a Hamas rocket that struck Israel about a mile away from Ben-Gurion, which lies about 40 miles from the border of the Gaza Strip. As a pilot, I’ve always had enormous respect for the outstanding job that the FAA’s dedicated professionals do each day. But on this issue, the agency failed to consider the full implications of its action. It was a well-intentioned but poorly thought-out decision.
Ben-Gurion is the best protected airport in the world, and the recent rocket attacks by Hamas have prompted the Israeli government to take additional security precautions at the airport. Israel would not keep Ben-Gurion open if it were not secure.
Hamas would like nothing more than to close down Ben-Gurion, isolating Israel from the international community and seriously damaging its economy. By prohibiting U.S. carriers from flying into Ben-Gurion, the FAA handed Hamas a significant victory — one that the group will undoubtedly attempt to repeat. The FAA has, regretfully, succeeded only in emboldening Hamas.
In times of crisis, acting out of an abundance of caution can be prudent. But closing down access to major infrastructure networks in the face of terrorist threats can be self-defeating.
This was something I learned as mayor of New York City. After terrorists tried to detonate a car bomb in Times Square, I went to a restaurant there the following evening for dinner — and invited the world to join me. When terrorist plots to attack the city’s subway emerged, as they would from time to time, I made sure to be seen riding it to work, as usual — and encouraged New Yorkers to keep doing so as well. And we responded to the devastating aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks by opening the streets of Lower Manhattan as quickly as we possibly could.
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