Washington – President Barack Obama says the Federal Aviation Administration took “prudent action” in temporarily banning U.S. flights in and out of Israel.
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Obama says decisions on airline safety are not made on the basis of politics or alliances. He noted that the FAA ban came on the heels of last week’s downing of a passenger jet by a missile in eastern Ukraine.
The FAA issued the ban Tuesday and lifted the restrictions Wednesday night. Obama says that before lifting the ban, the FAA worked with Israel on a “checklist of concerns and mitigation measures” to ensure the safety of U.S. airlines.
The FAA said the ban was imposed out of concern for the risk of planes being hit by Hamas rockets.
Obama made his comments in an interview with CNBC.
So how come in Ukraine Afghanistan all these other countries don’t have any bands when something goes down
American commercial aircraft regularly fly into Pakistan, whose main airport terminal was recently attacked twice by the Taliban, causing great loss of life and damage to the terminal. The FAA did not ban flights at that time. In addition flights go routinely to Yemen, Afghanistan, and even into Ukraine. Somehow, the FAA’s explanation, and the State Department’s explanation, that the ban “was for the safety and security of American passengers”, still does not pass the smell test. Obama knew that even a brief ban of 24-48 hours would hurt Israel, and hit it hard in the pocketbook, vis-à-vis a loss of the tourist dollar. He knew that the European airlines would follow suit; in fact, behind the scenes, he probably pressured them to also ban flights into Ben-Gurion. Anything that Obama states cannot be trusted. I’ll be glad when he finally leaves office in 2.5 years. The next President cannot be any worse!
damage control?
why does he bother?
the evil emperor has no clothes, no need to try foll anyone anymore.
What a bald faced liar he orchestrated everything together with the Europeans
As much as I Dislike Obama, why should he get blamed for this? This is exactly like GW Bridge.. Someone in the administration wanted to cause trouble.
it was a POLITICAL MOVE to try and force Israel to “surrender”
In aviation, much better safe than sorry.
Who is the dude obstructing the view of Barack? He looks like he could be a bar bouncer in Denmark.
you can’t have it both ways.
either the threat from Gaza is serious enough to justify indiscriminate bombing of schools, hospitals and civilian homes. Therefore in the face of such a threat, this is no time to go romping about the tourist attractions in Israel and the US has to protect its citizens and interests
or
the threat from Gaza is not real and Bibi only wants an excuse to commit a genocide against the Palestinians.
In that case the US is being unfair preventing its people from visiting Israel.
Which is it???