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.”
“So Obama got Lufthansa, Air France, KLM, Alitalia, LOT, and Scandinavian Airlines to join in his economic boycott? Silver tongued devil...”
So...you’re in on the Cruz detractor list, Doodle D?
Point out where Cruz says anything about these airlines, or any airline from another country.
Cloward-Piven communist takeover strategy.
Overload the system and create multiple crisis until the entire system collapses.
He’s not in over his head at all. He has a job to do. Rush said he hoped he’d fail. People enable Ob to carry out his intentions when they pretend he’s in there to be pres of the us
They could - - and should - - but will Disgusting Dingy ever bring such a bill up for a vote?
In world airline circles, the FAA's opinion carries weight -- with the carriers and with the traveling public.
If the FAA says "no fly", many passengers will assume they have good reason...and will cancel any travel plans to the area. Their airline is left with a route to a market where nobody wants to go -- and responds accordingly.
Cruz' description of the action as an effective boycott is appropriate.
Ohhhhh, barry wouldn’t do anything like that. It’s not like he’s vindictive. /S
He’s so right.
Traveler, please read and digest Cruz’s statement in the last paragraph, on the subject of more financial aid for Hamas. These are not the times for long lasting naivete about the obvious connections of the American Left in power here, with the MB and Hamas and Al Quaida spin offs.
Funding, flattery, moral support and arms are all over the place out of this regime in the White for these drugged up animals, from the cartels south of the border (Fast & Furious) to Benghazi, around the globe.
Yep! Obamatollah said he was going to “fundamentally change” America.
You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand what he meant.
And your advice for Cruz is to......???
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Cruz
If he’s not near the top of your list for 2016, he should be.
LOL.....not gonna happen. The Natural Born Citizen brigade on FR won't allow it.
Is Ted Cruz a natural-born citizen eligible to serve as president? [Yes! And I support him! JimRob]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3084490/posts
Somebody could turn that around pretty easily, though: in opposing a boycott is Ted Cruz angling to drag the US into the war that would result if a missile hits one of our airliners?
You won’t convince Star Traveler. He is a leftist here with an agenda. First it was to convince us to keep our mouths shut (or as he put it so elegantly, to “SHUT UP!”. Then it was to convince us that if Israel went beyond 3 kilometers into Gaza to destroy tunnels it risked being guilty of war crimes. Then it was to convince us that Hamas does not receive any of the tens of millions of dollars that the US gives to the PA for use in Gaza, despite US law prohibiting that action. Then it was to convince us that the FAA was just following protocol and would lift the economic boycott of Israel after 24 hours if no more missiles reached near the airport.
Take him for what he is.
Speaker Boehner keeps on writing Blank Checks to Obama to continue his personal pledge to “Fundamentally transform the United States of America” into a single-payer Communist State.
It only take three people to run the US Federal Government: Boehner, (to write the blank checks), Reid, (to shutdown the Federal Government anytime that he doesn’t get his way), and Obama to do whatever he wants to do.
The soft under belly of the USA is to keep a weak, crybaby Speaker of the House in power for years, and years, and years.
The Democrat’s favorite tune might be the old popular that goes: “ - - - - This is so EASY - - - .”
______________
We do not have a Constitutional Republic anymore, what we have is an Oligarchy, according to Webster’s Dictionary:
“Oligarchy - - - noun. 1.) a form of Government in which the ruling power belongs to a few persons.
2.) a state governed in the way.
3.) the persons ruling such a state.”
_______________
Oligarch Boehner writes the blank checks.
Oligarch Reid pouts and shuts down the Federal Government every time that Boehner refuses to write even one blank check.
Oligarch Obama plays and plays and plays.
____________________
BTW, it is rumored that Oligarch Obama has a bid on a 4.7 Million Dollar House in California.
If this is true, then that house should be known as “The House that Oligarch Boehner Built for Oligarch Obama.”
Ted may realize that we don't want to have another major air disaster, this time involving one of our own airliners, so maybe a redirection of flights to another airport is called for.
Yes, if they had the ba!!$, which they don’t.
Then the Jews should boycott America...and since the far left jew haters think they run all the banks and all of Hollywood they’d all be broke and out of work!! /s
People seem to have forgotten that when Israel relinquished Gaza to the Palestinians in 2005, they were doing their part in a land-for-peace deal.
The current Israel-Gaza war and the two preceding ones came about because the Palestinians did not honor their side of the bargain. Instead of peace, the Israelis got war from the Palestinians, this time to the tune of 2,000 Hamas rockets being fired into Israeli cities.
The only reasonable response of the Israelis now is to END the violence in Gaza NOW once and for all. Whatever has to be smashed or exploded in Gaza to bring about the peace that the Palestinians falsely promised Israel in 2005 must be smashed and exploded. NO cease-fires, NO John Kerrys, NO more press conferences by Bibi Netanyahu until the job is done.
Then, once all the missile installations and other Hamas weapons have been destroyed, the Israelis must institute a Zero-Tolerance approach to all violence in Gaza, as Rudolph Giuliani once did in violent New York City areas so that innocent people could walk the streets once again.
Of course, Rudolph Giuliani was hated by the Left the more his policies succeeded. But he didn’t care, because saving his city was paramount to him. If Israel’s current prime minister is too worried about people not liking him for taking the steps that must be taken to save Israel, Israel must get a new prime minister who will get the job done, ASAP.
Next comes the refusal to allow Israel the funds to replenish the iron dome missles.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.