@AmericanAir recognizes Hamas leader for 'leadership'
Shavua tov and a good week to everyone.
While I did pick up the American Way magazine on my flight from New York to London two weeks ago, and I do recall seeing this article, I had no idea that one of the four employees to whom American Airlines gave a 'leadership award' in June is also a leader in a different organization: Hamas.
The September edition of American Airlines’ magazine – American Way –
revealed Mohamed El Sharkawy received the 2015 Earl G. Graves Award for
Leadership in Diversity and Inclusion “for (his) work in making a
lasting impression in the workplace.”
The award was given to Sharkawy at the end of June, but was published in American Airlines’ American Way in September.
Mohamed El Sharkawy was previously the Director for Hamas in Arizona,
doing business as the Council on American Islamic Relations or CAIR.
Evidence, some of which is listed below, reveals CAIR was created by
the US Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee (Hamas) in 1994 to be a
node for Hamas in America to provide the Hamas cause with “media, money,
men, and all that” meaning propaganda, fundraising, recruits, and all
else that comes with waging jihad.
Is this the kind of individual who should have access to sensitive areas of Phoenix Airport or American Airlines?
American Airlines Public Affairs Office refused to comment on El
Sharkawy’s employment, but encouraged UTT (Understanding the Threat) to
contact the FBI if threat information exists.
El Sharkawy is also serves as the Chairman of the Arizona Muslim Police Advisory Board.
As many of you know, I do a lot of flying on American and its partner airlines. I've traveled to the US on those airlines five times this year (2015) and eleven times in the last two years. Time to make a change?
'Sources' accuse @AmericanAir of selling out to anti-Israel crowd
'Industry sources' are accusing @AmericanAir of stopping service to Israel out of a desire to please its partners in the OneWorld alliance.
“Profitability wasn’t a problem,” said an industry source, who asked not to be identified. “The past year hasn’t been easy for the airline industry in general, but that’s far from saying that the route wasn’t profitable. No one would have operated a money-losing route for so many years.”
American made the decision due to the OneWorld global alliance, whose members include Arab carriers like Qatar Airways and Royal Jordanian and the carrier of the Muslim-majority Asian country Malaysia, asserted the source.
Oneworld is the third largest global alliance in terms of passengers flown by its member carriers, behind Star Alliance and SkyTeam. American was one the founding airlines of Oneworld, which helps smooth connections between member airlines and coordinate frequent-flier benefits.
American flew about 95,000 passengers on the route so far this year, an increase of 2.7% from the same time in 2014, according to Israel Airport Authority figures.
But a spokesman for the carrier, Casey Norton, told Bloomberg News that the airline lost $20 million last year on the route and that it had never been profitable. “It is strictly a financial decision,” Norton said.
American began flying to Israel almost two years ago after it took over the route in a merger with US Airways, which had been serving Israel since 2009. After the merger, American signaled its commitment to the Israel route by sending a team of executives to Israel. In meetings with the media, they vowed to expand the route and add U.S. destinations.
Now a team of American executives is due to arrive in Israel next week to oversee the practical steps of shutting down the route. The fate of the 19 staff the carrier now employs in Israel is unclear – sales will likely be taken over by an independent agent.
Sorry - I don't buy the 'financial reasons' for shutting down the route (at least not the claim that it was a money loser), but I don't buy this either. Here's a list of the other airlines in the OneWorld alliance that fly into Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport: Air Berlin, British Airways, FinnAir, Iberia and (ha! ha!) Royal Jordanian. No, they aren't stopping the flight here because of OneWorld.
I would bet that the real reason is those former TWA employees. $15 million is a lot of money for a route that probably makes a fraction of that every year.
Oh and remember when American ended their code sharing relationship with El Al? It was back again on European flights almost immediately. No, you can't earn American miles for an El Al flight anymore, but you can earn and redeem miles on El Al flights using American code share numbers.
Say it ain't so: @AmericanAir to stop flying to Tel Aviv
By 5:00 am on Friday, I had two emails asking me if it was really true that American Airlines is going to stop flying its Tel Aviv - Philadelphia route. As a Platinum frequent flier with 500,000 miles on American, I have a small stake in that decision. Unfortunately, the answer appears to be yes.
American Airlines announced Friday that it will close its Tel Aviv-Philadelphia route in 2016.
The decision was made based on financial considerations, the airline said.
The
last direct flight from Philadelphia to Tel Aviv will be on January 4,
2016. The final Tel Aviv to Philadelphia flight will take place the next
day.
Dormant complications between former Trans World Airlines employees
and American Airlines are rekindling after American merged with US
Airways, which currently operates flights from the United States to
Israel.
The tension between the former workers and the airline began when
American acquired TWA’s assets in 2001 and discontinued service to
Israel. According to newspaper reports at the time, the move left over
75 people without jobs and pension benefits. The situation spurred a
nine-year legal battle between the former TWA employees and American,
which was settled four years ago in court.
TWA operated non-stop flights from the U.S. to Israel for over a half a century before it was forced into bankruptcy.
That article was from 2014, which means that the settlement was in 2010. One can only wonder why American settled (they rejected the TWA contracts in bankruptcy court, which is completely legal in the US). They could have ignored the former TWA employees... except that they wanted to operate in Israel, which would not regard the American bankruptcy court ruling as the last word. That must mean that the market here is lucrative. And it is. We have a huge tourism industry for a country this size, and British and Lufthansa - the two largest European carriers here - keep adding flights. United and Delta have never complained about having problems turning a profit here. If American can't make it flying here out of Philadelphia, they could surely make it out of Miami or Chicago or San Francisco, all of which have huge traffic to Israel (the latter being largely high tech types and not necessarily tourists) who don't have direct flights here. So what gives? Well, here's a hint:
American still owes Israeli ex-TWA employees over $15 million.
However American is saying that the reason for the cancellation is that the route has always been a money-loser.
That’s rather curious as USAirways’ president Scott Kirby has called
the route among the most lucrative in their system. Newark-Tel Aviv was
also publicly called the most profitable in Continental’s system in the
past.
Of course profit is a funny thing. United CEO Jeff Smisek lied about Cleveland’s hub not being profitable when the real reason for the cuts was a severe regional jet pilot shortage. But
that couldn’t be the stated public reason because that would make
United liable to pay millions of dollars to Cleveland and Ohio for
pulling out against their promise to keep the Cleveland hub alive as
long as it remained profitable. United is even adding flights back to
Cleveland , including several nonstops to Florida and more routes will
be returned as well according to sources.
Profit can easily be manipulated by
attributing various costs to the flight. And no doubt the cost of paying
back the ex-TWA workers is a factor here.
Or perhaps American doesn’t want to pay off TWAs debts to avoid
setting a precedent of paying off TWAs debts when they only purchased
TWAs assets in the first place?
At any rate, American is stating that they will not be serving Tel
Aviv from other hubs. Both their JFK and Miami routes are natural fits
for service to Tel Aviv, so if American’s issues are ever resolved I’d
expect routes from those hubs rather than Philadelphia.
American will be contacting customers booked to fly
the Philadelphia-Tel Aviv route next year with options for alternate
arrangements or a refund.
So it's the Israeli employees after all? I've seen that pension liability estimated at $15-20 million, which is a lot of money for 75 employees - about half a million dollars each. There's no Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation here like in the US. On the other hand, one has to wonder how a bunch of ticket agents (hint: There were no pilots based here) built pensions that size.
By the way, one of the upshots of that episode is that when you check in at the airport with any airline other than El Al, the person checking you in is almost always an airport employee and not an employee of the foreign airline. How do I know that? Because I've had enough conversations with British Airways and American (USAir) agents in the last two years. When they tell me they've never been to London or the US, it's pretty obvious they're not airline employees (the biggest perk of being an airline employee is free airfare).
In any event, at least one Philadelphia Congressman is furious about this.
Congressman Chaka Fattah (PA-02),
released a statement after the announcement by American Airlines today
that they will stop service on their nonstop route between Philadelphia and Tel Aviv effective January 4:
"I am strongly opposed to the decision announced today by American
Airlines to cancel this flight route. It is a critically important
route, both for the constituents in my district who travel between Philadelphia and Tel Aviv, and also for the growing business relationship between our city and Israel.
The effects of this decision will not only hurt tourism between our two
countries, it will have a negative impact on our economies. The ease
and accessibility offered by this flight had significant long-term
potential to stimulate growth and communication.
"I hope to work with American Airlines to see if there is an
alternative solution to cancelling the route and will seek a meeting
with the appropriate officials in the coming weeks to discuss options to
keep this flight operating."
Okay, so it's kind of funny to see Chaka Fattah making such a fuss about this. His last appearance on this blog was here.
I'm sure a few of you are going to wonder what I'm going to do with all that mileage. I'll probably just keep right on flying, but it's going to be harder to accumulate and use the mileage. Here's why:
1. There was no mileage for American frequent fliers on USAir until quite recently. Until March of this year, I had never flown the USAir flight. I've flown it once to Philadelphia and twice to Tel Aviv since March. Where were all my other trips? (I'm going for the 5th time this year later this month). Mostly British, at least until London, but in the last two years I have also flown out of Israel on Iberia, FinnAir and Air Berlin.
2. Nearly all of El Al's European flights now have American code share numbers. I can accumulate mileage that way... but I can only do it on the way back to Israel if I can limit myself to one suitcase.... (Fat chance).
3. Other than American, the only airlines in the OneWorld group that come in here that give full mileage credit for any leg into or out of Israel are British and FinnAir. Iberia gives you 80% in coach on Madrid-Tel Aviv flights, and Air Berlin gives as little as 25% depending on how much you pay for your ticket. By the way, I flew FinnAir Tel Aviv - Helsinki - London either last winter or the winter before and they were a pleasure.
4. It would take me six months or more to reach the point where I can choose my own seats in advance on any other airline group. Six months of sitting with my knees against the seat in front of me (and I'm only 5'8")....
5. British and Iberia both charge huge fees for 'free' travel - $350 per leg the last time I checked. But as an elite flyer I may be exempt from that which will give me opportunities to use my mileage.
6. One thing I will NOT do is switch to El Al (yes, I have a number, but I rarely use it). I'm not flying an airline that takes away my mileage every 18 months whether or not I fly. I'd rather accumulate my miles and use them for big family trips and the like.
Anyone who has advice, please feel free to chime in....
Ahmad, who is also a regular Ramadan dinner guest of President Obama,
asked the United Airlines flight attendant if she could have an
unopened can of Diet Coke. She flies enough to know that airlines are
running concessions on the cheap, and if you get a soda for free, you’re
not getting the whole thing. But when the attendant told her she
couldn’t have an unopened can, she flipped her headscarf.
According to CNN,
who evidently is soaking up all the allegedly bigoted tidbits of this
story, the attendant informed Ahmad that they are “unauthorized to give
unopened cans to people because they may use it as a weapon on the
plane.” The passenger let the employee know that she felt she was being
discriminated against, because the passenger across the aisle was given a
full, unopened can of beer.
That’s when things started to get really interesting. Not taking into
consideration that the guy with a beer paid an astronomical amount for
that in-flight brew and her cola was on the house, Ahmad called on the
support of other flyers. She ask if they had seen what just happened,
insinuating she was being targeted as a terrorist.
According to her Facebook post, the guy with a beer got in her face and said, “You Muslim, you need to shut the f— up.”
This is if we’re to believe a word this woman has to say on the
matter with no witnesses or cell phone footage to support her claim of
the conversation. “I felt the hate in his voice and his raging eyes,”
Ahmad wrote on Facebook while the plane was still in flight. “I can’t
help but cry … because I thought people would defend me and say
something. Some people just shook their heads in dismay.”
Boo. Hoo. I guess I'm not the only one who thinks she's lying. It would be interesting if the guy who bought the beer would come forward.
And please don't tell me she's going to start flying American between Chicago and Washington. I flew that route a couple of weeks ago, and despite my next-to-top-tier elite status was number 11 of 24 for an upgrade....
As most of you probably know, I travel between Israel and the US pretty frequently. I was looking through American's website for tickets for the spring, and found the itinerary listed above. The first line - for those who don't recognize it - is an American flight number for a flight operated by El Al between Tel Aviv and London. In other words, it's a code share.
I have not seen any announcement from either airline that they are going back to code sharing.
I arrived in Boston today to the news that El Al will be starting direct flights from Israel to Boston in June. This is from two separate emails (Hat Tip: Lance K).
The Consulate General of Israel to New England is pleased to announce that an agreement was reached between El Al and Massport for direct flights to Tel Aviv. Consul General of Israel, Mr. Yehuda Yaakov, remarked on this achievement, "Direct flights pave the way for a further strengthening of Israel-US ties, both economically and culturally. We look forward to seeing many more of our New England friends exploring firsthand our diverse society and rich history." El Al will conduct direct flights from Boston's Logan Airport to Ben Gurion Airport beginning this summer.
Israeli airline El Al will begin nonstop flights between Boston and Israel in June 2015, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick announced Monday.
El Al will fly the route using Boeing 767-300ER aircraft with 218 seats, including 22 business class seats, thrice weekly.
Flight 015 will depart Tel Aviv at 12:30 a.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays and arrive in Boston at 5:45 a.m.
Flight 016 will depart Boston the same day at 9 p.m. and arrive in Tel Aviv the next day at 3:05 p.m.
So will I give up my puddle hopping and start flying El Al non-stop to Boston? I suspect that most of you know the answer to that question.
American Airlines ending frequent flier relationship with El Al
This is bad news for people like me who, while accumulating miles on American and other OneWorld partners, often end up doing their award travel on El Al. American and El Al are ending the relationship.
Effective November 1, 2014, flights taken on El Al will not accrue AAdvantage miles due to the discontinuation of American's frequent flyer relationship with EL AL.
All award travel on EL AL must be booked and ticketed by October 31, 2014. Travel is valid one year after ticket date, and must be completed by October 31, 2015. No changes to the EL AL segments are allowed during that period.
Note that the cut off is relatively sudden (that notice wasn't there a few days ago). I wonder if it's because Qatari Airways, Malaysian and Royal Jordanian are part of American's program (the first two are relatively recent additions) or because El Al was so stingy about letting you accrue miles on American. Also, I wonder how this affects their code share relationships (which are extensive), and whether El Al will manage to put together a relationship with another group. Hmmm.
Aired on September 3, 2006 on The Discovery Channel 2007. Inside The
Twin Towers. This film re-creates a minute-by-minute account of what
happened inside the twin towers of the World Trade Center on September
11th, 2001. Narrated by Terrence Stamp.
If you don't take the time to watch the entire video, please watch at least the last three minutes.
Let's go to the videotape.
This post is timed 13 years to the minute from when the terrorists crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon.
I've talked about Daniel Lewin HY"D (May God Avenge his blood) before on this blog. Danny was certified to be 9/11's first victim. He was stabbed to death while trying to prevent the terrorists from hijacking American Airlines flight 11, while he was on his way from Boston to Los Angeles for a business meeting.
Somehow, I had not seen this video of Danny's brothers talking about him before. I'd like to share it with you.....
Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Leah P).
For those who did not notice, the time on this post is exactly 13 years to the minute from the United Airlines Flight 175 hitting the south tower of the World Trade Center (the previous post coincided with the time that American Flight 11 hit).
And for those of you who did not click on the first link in this post, Danny's mom has been my children's pediatrician since 1991. I saw at least one old picture of her in the video.
I thought I had talked about him before, and I'm sure I have - but on my old Matzav list from 2000-04, and not on this blog. So we're going to rectify that.
Daniel Lewin HY"D (may God avenge his blood) was seated in the first class section of American Airlines Flight 11, just behind Mohamed Atta. At some point Daniel, who had served in the IDF's elite Sayeret Matkal unit (the same unit in which Binyamin Netanyahu, his brother Yoni HY"D, and Ehud Barak all served), realized what was going on. A big, strong man, Daniel got up and tried to stop Atta. The passenger seated behind him slashed his throat with a box cutter, killing him instantly. Daniel Lewin was the first person to die on 9/11.
Lewin was sitting one row behind Mohammed Atta and apparently tried to stop the terrorists as they were taking control. Flight attendants who phoned airline officials from the plane reported that Lewin’s throat was slashed, probably by another terrorist one row behind him.
“I’m sure at some point it became clear to him what was going on,” said Todd Dagres, an investor in Akamai Technologies, the company Lewin co-founded. “And I’m sure he acted. And I’m sure that someone on that plane — maybe more than one — paid. But he couldn’t get them all.”
Lewin was always out in front. He was a math wunderkind whose algorithms made the Internet faster. He was a billionaire in his 20s. He was also a former commando.
Lewin’s family moved to Israel from Colorado when he was a teenager, where the Israel Defense Forces eventually drafted him.
“And there was no question whether he would serve,” remembered friend Marco Greenberg. “And there was no question he would serve in a combat unit. And there was no question in his mind that he would serve in the country’s most elite unit. And that’s what he ended up doing.”
Lewin ended up doing everything with that same drive. He studied applied mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“Oh yeah, Danny stood out,” recalled Tom Leighton, Lewin’s advisor. “At MIT he stood out!”
Together, Leighton and Lewin developed algorithms and systems to make Internet traffic flow faster and more efficiently.
“In fact, we wanted to get other people to take the technology and use it!” Leighton remembered. “We had to decide, are we gonna let it go, or would we do it ourselves?”
Lewin and Leighton did it themselves. They co-founded Akamai Technologies. One of the executives brought in to help was Paul Sagan, who remembers Danny as an incredibly intense leader.
“He was very demanding, and he was relentless,” Sagan said.
Danny would often burst into a room where people were working and tell them: “You’re behind!”
“He had this infectious nature of making you want to take on big challenges and not back down and never quit,” Sagan remembered. “Danny was so competitive, and never a quitter. And if you were around that at all, you picked that up.”
A leaked Federal Aviation Administration memo written on the evening of Sept. 11 contains disturbing revelations about American Airlines Flight 11, the first to hit the World Trade Center. The "Executive Summary," based on information relayed by a flight attendant to the American Airlines Operation Center, stated "that a passenger located in seat 10B shot and killed a passenger in seat 9B at 9:20 a.m. The passenger killed was Daniel Lewin, shot by passenger Satam Al Suqami." The FAA has claimed that the document is a "first draft," declining to release the final draft, as it is "protected information," noting the inaccuracies in reported times, etc. The final draft omits all mention of gunfire. Lewin, a 31 year-old dual American-Israeli citizen was a graduate of MIT and Israel's Technion. Lewin had emigrated to Israel with his parents at age 14 and had worked at IBM's research lab in Haifa, Israel. Lewin was a co-founder and chief technology officer of Akamai Technologies, and lived in Boston with his family. A report in Ha'aretz on Sept. 17 identified Lewin as a former member of the Israel Defense Force Sayeret Matkal, a top-secret counter-terrorist unit, whose Unit 269 specializes in counter-terrorism activities outside of Israel.
The FAA later changed its conclusion from shooting to stabbing.
Danny's mother has been my children's pediatrician for more than twenty years. His father, who is also a doctor, once picked up one of my kids, put him in the car and ordered my wife to take him straight to the hospital. He promised my wife that they would call me to come straight to the hospital from work, which they did.
Today, Danny's mother is also the pediatrician of those of my grandchildren who live in Jerusalem. She's an amazing woman and a fabulous doctor. The apple did not fall far from the tree.
You can't go to Saudi Arabia but you can fly Delta
Delta Airlines is denying that Saudia Arabian Airlines joining its Sky Miles program will result in discrimination against its Jewish passengers (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).
First and foremost, I think one of the most important things to mention here is that Delta does not discriminate nor do we condone discrimination against anyone in regards to age, race, nationality, religion, or gender.
That said, some have raised questions about whether Saudi Arabian Airlines' membership in SkyTeam means Delta is adopting any type of policies that could present barriers to travel for some passengers, including Jewish customers. For this particular concern, it's important to realize that visa requirements to enter any country are dictated by that nation's government, not the airlines, and they apply to anyone entering the country regardless of whether it's by plane, bus or train.
We, like all international airlines, are required to comply with all applicable laws governing entry into every country we serve. You as passengers are responsible for obtaining the necessary travel documents, such as visas and certification of required vaccinations, and we're responsible for making sure that you have the proper documentation before you board.
In other words, Delta will still be happy to take your money and let you fly, but 'our friends the Saudis' may not let you in once you get there, and for sure they will not let in your Bible, Crucifix, Tefillin or Star of David. For that matter, they might not let you on the plane either. (if you don't have a visa to enter a country, and need one, the airlines will not fly you, because if you are not admitted to the country, they must return you on the next flight at their expense).
Delta's Sky Miles program is not the only one that includes one or more airlines from the Arab world that have a problem with non-Muslim religious objects. For example, One World, in which American Airlines and British Airways are the lead partners, includes Royal Jordanian Airways, and we know that there have been problems in Jordan in the past with Tefillin and yarmulkas (skullcaps).
But I have a bigger problem with Delta and that's how they list the countries of the 'Middle East' region:
Middle East
>Bahrain; Egypt; Iran, Islamic Republic of; Iraq; Israel; Jordan; Kuwait; Lebanon; Occupied Palestinian Territory; Oman; Qatar; Saudi Arabia; Syrian Arab Republic; United Arab Emirates (composed of Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras El Khaimah, Sharjah, Umm Al Qaiwain); Yemen, Republic of; Kazakhstan; Kyrgyzstan; Uzbekistan
Anyone know where that country I highlighted is?
And then there's this at the end of the first article I quoted, which is spot-on:
As the rumor of no-Jews traveled the Internet all day, Detroit rabbi and blogger Jason Miller points out:
The issue here is one of principle. Delta isn't being forced to include Saudi Arabian Airlines into its Sky Team Alliance. In fact, Delta could stand on principle and refuse to include Saudi Arabian Airlines based on its discriminatory policy.
If all goes well, around the time you are reading this, I should be taking off for a certain European capital on my way back to Israel. The layover this time is only an hour and a half (it was seven hours on the way in), and I expect to be back in Israel - God willing - in time for my Talmud class on Wednesday morning.
Of course, I have some catching up to do on the plane.
And yes, according to my airline, my flight is going on Tuesday morning.
Let's go to the videotape.
I always loved that song (yes, I am addicted to travel).
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
