Alitalia Pilot flies to "Palestine?"

[Bubbette]

Aren't there rules on this sort of thing? Do you think the pilot should be reprimanded?

Passengers on board an Alitalia flight from Rome were startled Tuesday morning when the captain welcomed them to Palestine upon landing at Ben-Gurion Airport.

"This is a very serious matter and we are scheduled to meet with Alitalia's country managers in the morning to see what if any steps must be take in response to this incident," said Pini Schiff, spokesman for the Israel Airports Authority


http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1052297607552

[Caslance]

Aren't there rules on this sort of thing?
What, you mean using words that offend Bubbette?

Don't think so!:p

[Departures Beckham]

When we arrived at Ovda (southern Israel) in the early weeks of Gulf War 1, the FD cheerfully welcomed us all to Baghdad International Airport. I think it was an El-Al flight which makes it even more surprising.

[Bubbette]

Hmm, I don't think I got that DB. Were they trying to be funny? Or was it supposed to be political?

[Skunkworks]

Do you think the pilot should be reprimanded?

In my opinion he should be awarded "employee of the month"!

[The Resistance]

...nice to see the usual and predictable European anti-semitism rearing it's ugly head again. If this was 1939, most of you people would be supporting the Nazis...(oops, forgot, Vichy France DID do just that...:) ). Perhaps most of you should reflect on who is responsible for all the frustrating security procedures that have almost ruined our industry....

[concordino]

Great indeed :E
Bubette, Welcome aboard AZ where flights to TLV end up in Palestine
And they called it an Incident
:rolleyes:

[squeaker]

.....but he did make the trains run on time....

[Flip Flop Flyer]

And what usual anti-semitism may that be? You make reference to the Vichy "government" in southern France during the occupation. Do you seriously propose that a single, non-elected, nazi-friendly "government" provides an accurate picture of the European sentiment during WWII? If memory serves me right, the US government turned down a boat full of Jewish refugees, sending them back to a certain death in Nazi concentration camps. However, that single act does not consitute a general anti-semite attitude amongst Americans, does it?

You further say something about the "frustrating security procedures ruining our industry". I'm a bit flabbergasted at this one. The cause of the Israeli / Palestinian conflict may perhaps be clean and cut in your mind, but not so much so in mine and many others. Israels are in material breach of several UN resolutions regarding their occupation of Palestinian land. The US supports Israel. The arabs support Palestine. The Europeans are somewhere in between. One result of the US support was evident on Sep 11 2001, and brought on the most idiotic of all security precautions ever taken; the introduction of the TSA and their hordes of incompetent, shoe-removing and nail-clipper confiscating, college drop-outs. Because the TSA is anti-semetic? I think not.

However, the security procedures in place at European airports were not just spurred by Arabian terrorism; we've had our fair share of home-grown terrorists to deal with since the 70s. Baader-Meinhof, Rote Armee Fraktion, IRA etc etc etc. How on earth do you connect Marxist terror groups with anti-semitism and security procedures?

[Departures Beckham]

Bubbette: It was said as a joke - the cheeky laugh afterwards gave it away!

[CarltonBrowne the FO]

Sadly, the tradition of antisemitism in Europe is a very real thing- certainly going back at least through the entire last millenium. In most of the countries invaded by the Nazis, the majority of the local population did little to prevent their Jewish neighbours being taken away to a (then) unknown fate. In many cases this was due to the level of organisation applied to the task by the Nazis, and a lack of real ability to resist: in many others, though, there was eager cooperation, and sometimes even active, zealous collaberation. The sole honourable exception is Denmark, where active measures to hide Jewish friends and neighbours were the norm, instead of the exception.
None of this was new, however. Even before the crusades, violence against Jews was endemic throughout Europe, often with the approval of their rulers. They were prevented by law from entry into many professions- in Britain this lasted into the late 19th Century.

[Caslance]

nice to see the usual and predictable European anti-semitism
Equally nice to see the usual and predictable pro-Zionist lobby accusing anyone who disagrees with them of being "anti-semitic".

Care to name any Jewish US Presidents? I can name a Jewish British PM.

That same "logic" would make anyone who opposes Mugabe's excesses a "racist".

[B767300ER]

There IS a Jewish Presidential candidate, however, for the upcoming 2004 elections: Senator Joe Leiberman. He was also the VP candidate for Al Gore in '00.

[Caslance]

There IS a Jewish Presidential candidate, however, for the upcoming 2004 elections: Senator Joe Leiberman
Right. You reckon the KKK will endorse him, then?

[jean-Luc RICARD]

September 11 had nothing to do with the Palestine-Israel conflict, Bin-laden couldn`'t care less about the palestinians....

Bin-laden claim has always been an extremely racist one....no "infidels" in the holy land..that is Saudia...the rest are just excuses he and other islamic nuts used to gain support....

the truth is nobody gives a .....ck for the poor palestinians..they are just used as expendable amunition to justify lost and bloody causes.....

Most of the Arabs view the palestinians as second class people, anyway, so do not mix up an anti-american view with a lie, they don't care at all about them....

cheers

[yggorf]

French jewish prime ministers: Pierre Mendes France and more recently Laurent Fabius. Scores of ministers. Nobody gives a shoot about their religion as long as they are competent. (And in fact, we had more problems with the protestant prime ministers...:O ).
I am NOT anti-semitic, and I think that the Alitalia pilot is entitled to voice his solidarity with the palestinian people. Let's not mix the terrorists ( a minority) with the people as a whole. Would you say that all the the Irish are terrorists because of the IRA?

[surely not]

Incongruity time:

The Jewish members of this web site never fail to mention the second world war and the dreadful actions taken against Jewish people at that time.

These same people forget to mention the Jewish terrorist groups that killed British and French troops during the birth of Israel. Terrorism was heroic at this time.

They also ignore history whenever they use massive force to destroy a palestinian village in response to the death of one or two Israelis. History shows that this will merely breed resentment and anger, just as it did to the members of Likud when they were the terrorists.

The deliberate provocation of the settlement programmes is stupidly arrogant.

If Jewish people feel the world is turning against them they should ask themselves why. My view has certainly changed in the course of the last ten years.

On television a leading editor of a British newspaper called a member of the audience of question time Stupid and ignorant simply because he had an opinion opposite to hers. Her attack on him was uneccessarily strident and probably did more to harm the Jewish cause by demonstrating an elitist attitude.

I am fed up with situation in the Middle East destabilising the world and would welcome a return to the days of real statesmen like Anwar Saddat and the ex terrorist Begin who realised that only by co-operating and tolerating different views would the situation improve.

Don't live in your history, move forward and stop seeing anti-semetics at every dissenting voice.

The Alitalia pilot was unwise in his comments but didn't deserve the over reaction he received.

[Bubbette]

surely not, Jews have been hated since time immemorial--it's predicted in the Bible. Just remember--when societies start to hate the Jews they start to fail.

And dream on with your tales of Israel "destroying Palestinian villages" yeah, if they are villages full of terrorists!

And the Israeli leaders have a been ready to talk peace since 1948--it's the Arabs who invaded Israel then, and have not stopped murdering since (with a few exceptions).

[Caslance]

it's predicted in the Bible
Starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel a bit now, Bubbette.

How many times has the Bible been re-written and edited to further one agenda or another?

Maybe it's time to move this thread to "Current Affairs"?