Posted on 07/23/2014 1:12:00 PM PDT by PoloSec
FULL TITLE: Ted Cruz: The facts suggest President Obama has just used the FAA to launch an ECONOMIC BOYCOTT on Israel…////
Sen. Ted Cruz ripped the president today for using a federal agency, the FAA, to launch an economic boycott on Israel in order to force them to comply with his demands. He pointed out that this economic boycott aids Hamas while simultaneously hurting Israel.
What Cruz is calling for is the Obama administration to answer the following questions:
Was this decision a political decision driven by the White House? If the FAA’s decision was based on airline safety, why was Israel singled out, when flights are still permitted into Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen? What was the FAA’s ‘safety’ analysis that led to prohibiting flights to Israel, while still permitting flights to Ukraine—where a commercial airline flight was just shot down with a BUK missile? What specific communications occurred between the FAA and the White House? And the State Department? Why were any such communications necessary, if this was purely about airline safety? Was this a safety issue, or was it using a federal regulatory agency to punish Israel to try to force them to comply with Secretary Kerry’s demand that Israel stop their military effort to take out Hamas’s rocket capacity?
His full statement is below:
“Today, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that it was extending its ban on flights by U.S. carriers into Israel. The rationale was that because one Hamas-launch rocket had landed in a field one mile from Ben Gurion International Airport, the ‘potentially hazardous security situation created by the armed conflict between Israel and Gaza’ necessitated this extreme action that has so far cancelled some 160 flights and left tens of thousands stranded.
“Obviously, no one wants to place civilian travelers in harm’s way, and the recent downing of Malaysian Airways flight 17 by pro-Russian militants in Ukraine is a stark reminder of the dangers posed by regional unrest. But security concerns in Israel are hardly breaking news, and given the exceptional challenge Israel faces, Ben Gurion has rightly earned the reputation as one of the safest airports in the world due to the aggressive security measures implemented by the Israeli government.
“Given that some 2,000 rockets have been fired into Israel over the last six weeks, many of them at Tel Aviv, it seems curious to choose yesterday at noon to announce a flight ban, especially as the Obama Administration had to be aware of the punitive nature of this action.
“Tourism is an $11 billion industry for Israel, which is in the middle of a summer high season already seriously diminished by the conflict initiated by Hamas. Group tours have been cancelling at a 30% rate. This FAA flight ban may well represent a crippling blow to a key economic sector through both security concerns and worries that additional bans will down more flights and strand more passengers. It hardly matters if or when the ban is lifted. At this point, the damage may already be done.
“Even given the remarkable resilience and prosperity of its economy, Israel has always been vulnerable to economic blackmail. In the 1970s, we saw the Arab League boycott, which tried to punish any financial institution that did business with Israel.
“Today we have similar noxious efforts by the Boycott, Divest, Sanction or ‘BDS’ movement, which seeks to punish Israel for the fact that the militant terrorist elements embraced by the Palestinian Authority make any peace deal an intolerable security risk to Israel at this time. But the Obama Administration has refused to robustly denounce this effort to undermine our ally.
“Instead, Secretary of State John Kerry issued a veiled threat last February when he encouraged boycotts of Israel and said that absent serious Israeli concessions at the negotiating table, Israel’s economic prosperity was ‘not sustainable’ and ‘illusory.’ Secretary Kerry unfortunately reprised this theme just this April, when he threatened that Israel risked becoming an ‘apartheid state’ if Israel did not submit to his chosen solution to the Israel-Palestinian crisis.
“Taken in the context of Secretary Kerry’s comments, yesterday’s action by the FAA raises some serious questions:
Was this decision a political decision driven by the White House? If the FAA’s decision was based on airline safety, why was Israel singled out, when flights are still permitted into Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen? What was the FAA’s ‘safety’ analysis that led to prohibiting flights to Israel, while still permitting flights to Ukraine—where a commercial airline flight was just shot down with a BUK missile? What specific communications occurred between the FAA and the White House? And the State Department? Why were any such communications necessary, if this was purely about airline safety? Was this a safety issue, or was it using a federal regulatory agency to punish Israel to try to force them to comply with Secretary Kerry’s demand that Israel stop their military effort to take out Hamas’s rocket capacity?
“When Secretary Kerry arrived in Cairo this week his first act was to announce $47 million in additional aid to Gaza, which is in effect $47 million for Hamas. In short order, this travel ban was announced by the FAA. Aiding Hamas while simultaneously isolating Israel does two things. One, it helps our enemy. Two, it hurts our ally.
“Until these serious questions are answered, the facts suggest that President Obama has just used a federal regulatory agency to launch an economic boycott on Israel, in order to try to force our ally to comply with his foreign-policy demands.
“If so, Congress should demand answers.”
Again, everyone read his bio:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Cruz
If he’s not near the top of your list for 2016, he should be.
He’s obviously right about this one.
Every pundit from our Col Ralph Peters to Dana Perino to John Stewart says Odingding is in over his head.
Yet he is very busy signing things and taking actions, from poolside of the golfcart, mind you, which thwart the good people of this nation, her allies and practicing JudeoChristian contributing members of society.
At least Ted Cruz knows it.
Any anti Cruz detractor here, any of the many, can keep that in mind!!
I think I see the strategy.
Cause so much calamity, that multiples criticisms become over whelming.
No critical message is heard, because of the cacophony.
Even if NBC-New York Times flip, none of it will be heard.
Sarah Palin is right, again.
You mean like using the obscure trademark office to make a political point against a US Football team, even though not a single public complaint was rec’d by said Trademark Office?
The best answer of all is that he has divided loyalties. The results mirror the intentions. Always. For anyone and everyone.
An Islamic foreign born twice unconstitutionally elected President who supports Islamic terror and the destruction of the United states. Once people understand those facts about Obama, everything he does makes absolute perfect sense.
Ted’s right on the mark again. This guy is developing a track record.
In all fairness to the airlines, I think there are valid concerns with flying into Tel Aviv, particularly since Hamas has boasted that one of its goals is to take down a passenger liner entering or leaving that airport. I believe El Al flights have anti-missile technology, whereas ours do not, generally.
I notice that a congressman has just introduced a bill to get US airlines to add some kind of anti-missile systems. I don’t know if that means your jolly Delta pilot is going to have to get into shooting them down...but a lot of them are exmilitary, so they could probably handle that!
The Republican-controlled House could do something about the excessive overreaches of our various gov’t agencies.. THEY COULD DEFUND THEM!!!
Why not fly somewhere else and take a connecting flight?
While you're at it, might want to consider changing residency until Obamanation and his hopeless change to Communism is gone.
probably, sounds like tyrant Obama’s M.O.
Politicize a non-political government agency, then use its power to punsh those he dislikes.
This is BIG—and true.
I really want Cruz to run for president but there are times when I wonder where his head is at.
Despite your attempted segue,
Obama-the-undocumented Moslem Tyrant pRes_ _ent
CONTROLS the IRS, NSA, DO”J”, FAA, and State Dept.
All support terrorists.
Sarah and most of us knew that fact back in 2008.
What took the talking heads so long to grasp that reality? They're just not as intelligent as they think they are...
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