After the Missile Strike Near Ben Gurion Airport: Not Everyone Can Afford a Ticket to Israel
When flights to Israel are expensive and scarce, it’s a disaster for our connection with Diaspora Jewry
By Rakefet Ginsberg
05:59, 13.05.2025

Jake—Yaakov—is about to celebrate his bar mitzvah, and he and his family will soon be arriving at Ben Gurion Airport. This isn’t a regular vacation. Instead of marking the occasion at their local synagogue in the United States, with neighbors and friends, Jake and his family have chosen to celebrate this formative milestone in Israel. Not just in Israel—but at the Kotel (Western Wall) in Jerusalem, the holiest site for the Jewish people.

It’s a special moment not only for Jake, but also for his younger sister Sarah, who has always dreamed of touching the giant stones she has only ever seen in pictures and videos. She already imagines herself placing a small note in the cracks of the wall, just like she’s been told people do. This family—like so many Jewish families around the world—has a simple dream: to feel connected. To mark and celebrate their Jewish identity in the State of Israel, which means so much to them, to deepen their connection with it, and to pass it on to their children.

Flight boards at airports around the world may now be turning red when the destination is Tel Aviv, but Jake, Sarah, and their parents will make it to Israel despite everything. They are determined—and affluent. Not everyone can afford a ticket to Israel right now, after the missile from Yemen struck near Ben Gurion Airport.

There’s an Israeli song about a child bewildered on seeing his empty kindergarten in the evening. But when the gates of the country are gradually closing, it’s not just unpleasant—it’s genuinely damaging. Not just to the economy or to the summer vacation plans of many Israelis, but to our connection with our Jewish brothers and sisters who live abroad—and to the connection that they seek with the State of Israel and with everyday Israelis, unfiltered by politicians and the media.

The past five years have been especially challenging for travel to Israel. From the COVID-19 pandemic to the ongoing war, many Jews abroad have had to give up their annual visits to Israel or cancel planned trips entirely. Worst of all, some have had to cancel bar or bat mitzvah ceremonies at the Kotel—joyful events that had been eagerly anticipated and prepared for years in advance.

Among our many troubles, this one deserves attention too. Most foreign airlines have temporarily ceased operations in Israel. Media coverage around the world continues to portray the Middle East—and Israel—in a negative light, affecting public opinion abroad. A generation of young Jews is growing up without having set foot in Israel, without having seen it with their own eyes or experienced it firsthand.

There’s no shortage of creative solutions: an aviation hub in Cyprus, maritime shuttles to Greece, government-backed insurance for foreign airlines. The shelves are full of options. But is there real action by the relevant authorities to address this dire situation? That’s nowhere to be seen.

If I were the Minister of Transportation from the nationalist camp that supports aliyah, I would put this issue at the top of the national agenda. Here is a worthy Zionist reason to finally solve Israel’s aviation crisis.