Outrageous: New partnership would require Delta to ban Jews on Saudi Arabia-bound flights
Earlier this year Delta Airlines announced it is adding Saudi Arabian Airlines to its SkyTeam Alliance, a partnership that requires Delta to ban Jews and travelers who have an Israeli passport from boarding flights to Saudi Arabia.
In an interview, Delta’s coordinator of Customer Care, Kathy M. Johnston, explained that Delta does not condone discrimination for any reason but said that the airline must abide by the laws of the countries they serve. In fact, Delta could be fined if they bring Jews into Saudi Arabia, since the government denies them from entering the country.
FIne … but most people are asking why an organization that claims not to condone discrimination would partner with a company that openly and unapologetically practices it:
Jeffrey Lovitky, a Washington attorney who has contacted Delta officials and board members to protest the agreement, told The Jewish Week Thursday that their decision to form an alliance with Saudi Arabian Airlines was “purely voluntary” and something they could control. A flight to Saudi Arabia “is essentially a Jew-free flight,” Lovitky said, adding that his assertion is “common knowledge” among professionals in the travel industry. “No individual can admit to being Jewish and still be permitted on that flight.” It’s inconceivable that Delta wasn’t aware of that discrimination, he said, and it’s even more astounding that the company’s officials “thought it prudent to enter an alliance with a carrier that practices such policies.”
In a Huffington Post op-ed, Rabbi Jason Miller says what many in the Jewish community must be thinking right now:
I know I’m not the only one who finds it troubling that Delta would go along with Saudi Arabia’s policy of not allowing Jews on their flights. While I’m not planning a vacation to Riyadh any time soon, I would have a hard time flying with Delta knowing they are collaborating with the discriminatory government of Saudi Arabia.
Regular Delta fliers, take note.
Comments (31) »Friday, June 24th, 2011 at 11:54 AM | David Kuner
Palestinians practice Psalm denial
Palestinian “researcher” Dr. Hayel Sanduqa recently stated on Palestinian Authority television that the source of the phrase “if I forget thee, O Jerusalem” was not the Bible (Psalm 137) but a Frankish crusader. 
According to Dr. Sanduqa, the phrase was then “borrowed by the Zionist movement, which falsified it in the name of Zionism.” Commentary’s Jonathan S. Tobin – and Bible-reading people everywhere – begs to differ.
Comments (56) »This is, of course, laughable. “If I Forget Thee, O Jerusalem” is from the 137th Psalm of the Hebrew Bible that immortalized the laments of Jewish exiles from the land of Israel in Babylonian captivity.
But unfortunately, when it comes to Palestinian attempts to deny the Jewish connection to Jerusalem and the entire country, this is not an isolated incident. The PA continues to assert the Temple Mount was not the site of the ancient Holy Temple in Jerusalem and to claim even the Western Wall is not a Jewish site. The Palestinians’ refusal to accept an independent Palestinian state alongside a Jewish state of Israel is the result of such attitudes. This is more than just the product of 100 years of conflict. Since Palestinian nationalism came into being as a reaction to the return of Jews to the country, Palestinian national identity is inextricably linked to a denial of historical links of Jews to the land.
Palestinian programs such as this one are part of a campaign of incitement that, despite contrary quotes given in English to the Western media by Palestinian Authority spokespersons, illustrate the implacable hatred which fuels the conflict. Peace will never come until Palestinian culture rejects such ideas.
Wednesday, June 15th, 2011 at 6:57 AM | David Kuner
Massacre of the innocents
A spot-on column today on Friday’s brutal murder in Israel of five members of the Fogel family, from the Boston Globe’s Jeff Jacoby:
There are those who believe passionately that all human beings are inherently good and rational creatures, essentially the same once you get beyond surface disagreements. Such people cannot accept the reality of a culture that extols death over life, that inculcates a vitriolic hatred of Jews, that induces children to idolize terrorists. Since they would never murder a family in its sleep without being driven to it by some overpowering horror, they imagine that nobody would. This is the mindset that sees a massacre of Jews and concludes that Jews must in some way have provoked it. It’s the mindset behind the narrative that continually blames Israel for the enmity of its neighbors and makes it Israel’s responsibility to end their violence.
The truth is simpler, and bleaker. Human goodness is not hard-wired. It takes sustained effort and healthy values to produce good people; in the absence of those values, cruelty and intolerance are far more likely to flourish.
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011 at 9:06 AM | David Kuner
Now we know: Suicide bombers are really just… green
Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden has jumped on the global warming band wagon, AP reports. The deep-in-hiding terrorist leader, who has taken to bashing Israel more lately in order to shore up Israel-hating support for the terrorists who follow him, released a new audiotape (apparently, video cameras don’t work in whatever cave he’s hiding in) called for the world to boycott American goods and the U.S. dollar — because the Great Satan’s latest sin (along with other industrialized countries) is global warming.
National Review’s gem-like Jonah Goldberg hits the mark:
Of course, any minute now we’re going to hear from someone — any predictions who? — that the real reason “they” hate “us” is climate change. It ain’t freedom, it ain’t American empire, or licentiousness, or Israel. All of these jihadi nutters are blowing themselves up to save the polar bear.
Of course, we lovers of Israel know that, sooner or later, someone’s going to blame the plight of the polar bear on–The Jews.
Comments (0) »Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 7:13 AM | Stand For Israel
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It’s obvious why Israelis have concerns about Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ push this September for the U.N. to recognize a Palestinian state. But maybe Palestinian leadership should be concerned as well.
As Khaled Abu Toameh writes in his thoughtful Hudson New York op-ed:
So the question remains — if he’s not going to get a state and could alienate his own people, what’s the point of this push?
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