On Tuesday, the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily banned all U.S. airlines from flying to and from Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. The ban followed reports a Hamas rocket infiltrated Israeli airspace and landed near the airport.
As TheBlaze reported, the FAA’s notice “was issued in response to a rocket strike which landed approximately 1 mile from Ben Gurion International Airport” Tuesday morning, the agency said in a statement. The ban will remain in place “for a period of up to 24 hours.”
The moratorium has come under fire from many who believe the FAA’s action signifies a “win” for Hamas. Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg was one of the vocal detractors who went so far as to board a Tel Aviv-bound El Al flight Tuesday night to protest the FAA’s decision.
"This evening I will be flying on El Al to Tel Aviv to show solidarity with the Israeli people and to demonstrate that it is safe to fly in and out of Israel," Bloomberg said. "Ben Gurion is the best protected airport in the world and El Al flights have been regularly flying in and out of it safely. The flight restrictions are a mistake that hands Hamas an undeserved victory and should be lifted immediately. I strongly urge the FAA to reverse course and permit US airlines to fly to Israel."
On radio this morning, Glenn issued a harsh condemnation of the FAA and the Obama Administration for empowering Hamas via this decision. As he explained, the flight moratorium offers Hamas a rare victory in this two-week-old bloody conflict, while choking Israel. Glenn reiterated his personal support of Israel and its right to defend itself.
Below is an edited transcript of the monologue:
I want to talk about what the FAA and the Obama Administration did. They gave a win to Hamas. I want you to listen to this and understand. Without an investigation, there was a rocket landed a mile away from the airport in Tel Aviv. They didn't report that it landed on a house. How about we start with that one? You're always talking about how the rockets of Israel are landing on houses. How about the rocket from Hamas? It didn't land in an open field. It landed on a house. But it was a mile away from the airport. And, immediately, the federal government shuts down all American planes going to Tel Aviv and Israel and Ben Gurion airport.
I know this for a fact: If you stop the airlines from going to Tel Aviv, you're choking Israel to death. This was a 24-hour suspension without any kind of investigation at all. What they are doing is they are sending Israel a message. And let me just ask you: Do you believe that if American airliners feet it was unsafe to fly into Israel, they would make that call? Shouldn't the airlines be the one, without my pressure, to say, ‘I don't want to fly in there because I don't feel safe’? Wouldn't they do that? El Al is one of the safest airlines in the world and Ben Gurion Airport is one of the safest airports in the world. Israel is not like Boston.
That's not to say, God forbid, something couldn’t happen. But Israel knows, especially now, that if an airliner was about to be shot out of the sky, it would be horrible for their country as well as ours. You might say that's counterintuitive. ‘Glenn, that would make Hamas look bad.’ Really? Let's think this through.
Who would the media blame? Would the media blame Hamas or would the media blame Israel? I contend that already the media would have blamed Israel, but now that there's been an FAA moratorium, and the FAA is saying, ‘Hey, we're a little concerned about planes flying into Israel.’ What have they done? They have just set Israel up. So if, God forbid, something does happen, Israel would get the blame because the President and everybody else would say, ‘See, they should have known better.’ That's where it starts. Have you heard anyone talking about how Hamas should stop?
Instead, we're stopping people from flying, while we are lecturing the people who are trying to stop the people with the rockets. We are equating violence with violence. I heard the argument yesterday. I think it's great. As if somebody who is trying to stop a rapist, that their violence is equal to the violence of the rapist. No, no. That's not the way it works.
Could I ask you a question? Would JFK airport or Newark airport, if they were being bombed, would we have planes flying in there? ‘Yeah, Canadian Airlines, keep flying into Newark.’ Or would we say, ‘No, we know better?’ Would we have more compassion and say, ‘We don't want 300 dead people burning up like in Ukraine. Would we want that? Would we want our international flights from our biggest allies, especially knowing that even our biggest ally will put the blame on us and not the separatists? This is a direct attack on Israel by our country and by the FAA, and all in the name of safety.
America, answer a few questions: Do you think the FAA and the DHS know how to keep our airports safe? Do you think our airports are safer than they were on 9/11? I would be hard-pressed to find anyone to say yes. There are a lot of trappings. But do you really believe you are safer than you were on 9/11? Do you really believe this government – a government that didn't know that a country in revolution was being taken over by Muslim extremists in Libya would be unsafe for an ambassador to fly into and go to a lightly guarded non-embassy in the heart of terrorist town on the anniversary of 9/11? This government didn't see that one coming. You really believe they know what's happening in the air space halfway around the world of another country? Do you really believe that they're better to judge it than that other country?
If I hadn't seen the anti-Israel actions, the fruit of this government's labor in the last six years, I would say to you, ‘They've got to know something that we don't know, but I don't.’ But, especially seeing that this President continually says, and I quote, ‘I get the news only TV, just like you did,’ I can't give him credit he knows something that I don't know. Even if he does, his very intelligence organizations were the ones that said that whole attack on 9/11, by Muslim extremists, was a video. That had nothing to do with extremism. Why would we listen to those advisors?
So a message to Israel. Israel, hear me clearly: As an American citizen, I don't represent all Americans. I don't even come close to representing all Americans. I represent me. I'm sorry. I am really sorry. I am sorry to the Ukrainians as well. We have violated our oath to you to be your friends. We're not going to come over and fight your wars, but, Israel, you don't need anybody to fight your wars. You seem to do a mighty good job on your own.
Here's what I can offer: My prayers and my support. And I wish my country would support you, but don't think that our country is our government. It's not. Our country is set up unlike any other country in the world, even yours. Our country is ‘we, the people.’ And there's a good number of ‘we, the people,’ a lot of people that – Republican, Democrat, independent, left, right – support you. We support our right to exist. We support your right as a Jew to live unmolested. We support your right to live in a state.
Everybody is saying we need to have the UN try to come up with a solution. Everybody says we have to have the UN. What does the UN say? Well, why are all these people asking what the UN says? Because we have to have a global governance. We have to have a global community come together and agree on a solution. Well, the UN came up with a solution. You should be the most legitimate state ever created. Your borders should be the most legitimate of all time because all those people who say we have to go to UN should be reminded that it was the UN that created your borders in the first place. It was the UN and this beloved global body that put you in that space.
You're just trying to live by the rules the world and that global body set up. You have a right to defend yourself. And dare I say it, none of us would have put up with this as long as you have. If Canada had in its charter that their goal was to destroy the United States of America and kill every American, as Hamas has in her charter, that they want to wipe Israel and all the Jews off the face of the earth, this is a no-brainer. You can't sit at a negotiating table when your ‘whys’ are different. Why does Israel want peace? Because we just want to live as neighbors side-by-side and just get along so we can raise our children. Why does Hamas want peace? Well, because it furthers my goal to wipe them off the face of the earth and kill all the Jews. There is no peace there.
I know that Jon Stewart and everyone else can make a joke of that. That's what they do. We are here to talk about adults. If this were happening to us or any other country, we would have bombed that country into the Stone Age. Be it right or wrong, that's what most of us would have done. Maybe you have an Israeli exceptionalism, because your Israeli exceptionalism would come from the same source, the God of Abraham Isaac, and Jacob that teaches us to be good the one another. Our best way to serve God is to serve our fellow man. And maybe that's why our rage would have bombed Canada into the Stone Age, but I've never seen Israel act out in rage. Boy, you have had reason. But you don't. You understood, when you took the Temple Mount, that God does not want bloodshed. You understood the sacred nature of that land, and so when you could have taken the Temple Mount, you didn't because you know that bloodshed is not always the answer.
Hear me, Israel. Sometimes, unfortunately, bloodshed is the only option left to a peace-loving people. I feel for the Palestinian people. I have met Palestinian people. We have working for us Palestinians. There's a difference between those who have been rapped up in hatred. That's not Palestinian. I feel for the Palestinian people and their children. I believe you do too, but you know and the rest of the world refuses to face that they are being lied to by their clerics and politicians. Unfortunately, in many ways, we are too. It isn't hard to figure out who the bad guys are in this, when people are handing out sweets and candy and celebrating in the streets when there's a kidnapping of a soldier, a kidnapping of anybody. I would say the same thing about you. That's despicable. They did the same thing to us, but too many Americans have forgotten. They did exactly the same thing when our World Trade Center came down and all humans on the planet were sorrowful. All humans on the planet mourned with us and stood with us. They, the Palestinians, were handing out sweets and candy in the streets, exactly the way they are doing it to you now.
The Palestinians have to stop the insanity themselves. Until they do, you have to protect yourselves. We pray for a peace and we pray for the end of bloodshed as quickly as possible, but don't let us pull the rug from underneath you. Remain standing – even when your closest allies won't stand with you – unflinched in your hour of need. But know this: Many Americans and many all over the world still stand with you. And we will stand with you to the end.
While charity helped you build hospitals that take in friends and foe, our charity, Mercury One, has done the same. We have helped you build those hospitals, and, today, we are launching another initiative. We are going to help your military as well. We are sending supplies for your military – for you sons and daughters – who have been called into action and need flashlights, need blankets, need tents. Mercury One will deliver them. Quite honestly, I am thinking about delivering them myself this weekend.
While your sons and daughters are fighting, we refuse to stand by and let them be in need. While they are protecting the only land the Jews has ever owned and the only land ever to be created not only by the United Nations but by the only global authority I recognize – the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Israel, you are not alone. God speed. God bless. And forgive us, for we know not what we do.
