My Travel Back to the US, Part 1: Leaving Israel

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Yom Shshee, Friday

24 Tevet, 5781

January 8, 2020

The News on the Israeli Street

The daily Corona update . . .

Please note that these number encompass from 8 am Wednesday to 8 pm Friday Israel time (about 60 hours):

477,357 Israelis have been confirmed with the virus since the pandemic began last March.

There are 21,218 newly confirmed cases.

920 are in critical condition—an increase of 77

224 of the most critically ill are on ventilators—a increase of 13

3,596 have died–an increase of 100

There are currently 65,008 active Corona cases in Israel.

The horrific numbers speak for themselves. We are now averaging more than 10,000 new cases a day and 50 dead a day.

In a desperate attempt to enforce the strict Corona lockdown, the Israel police announced that they would man 25 checkpoints in and out of major cities:

As you can see, the checkpoints (orange circles) cover the length and breadth of the country.

Whether the checkpoints will do any good is anyone’s guess.

Palestinian terror in the last 48 hours . . .

Palestinian terrorists attacked IDF forces near Jericho,  Kochav HaShahar, outside of Ramallah, at the Halhul Bridge, and at Al-Aruv.

Palestinian terrorists attacked Israeli motorists with Molotovs and “rocks” at the Giti Avishar Junction (woman wounded), at the Ariel Junction, at Neve Tzuf, the Yitzhar Junction (woman wounded), Mt. Baal Hatzor, on Road 446 beside Na’alin, between Kiryat Arba and Beit Anun, near Mt Hevron, on the Gush Etzion-Hevron Road, at Nili Square, and on the Hossan Bypass Road among other locations., 

IDF forces captured a terrorist who breached the Gaza fence.

Terrorists in Gaza launched more than a dozen explosive balloons into southern Israel.

TODAY’S BLOG:

My Travel Back to the US

Part 1: Leaving Israel

Following the governmental directive of arriving at the airport at least 3 hours prior to flying, your humble servant arrived by taxi from Ashdod to Ben Gurion Airport at 9:45 pm on Wednesday night for his United Airlines flight to San Francisco at 12:55 am.
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Along the way through the fog, we had passed several active police checkpoints with brightly flashing lights which had been set up to try to control people leaving Ashdod and Rishon, 

Once at the entrance to the airport, things immediately seemed different mainly because there were very few cars where usually there are dozens. But our taxi driver answered the requisite questions, and then drove past the plainclothes M16 armed security guards on to Terminal 3.

Once, there I said goodbye to my wife who is remaining in Israel a bit longer to care for her extremely ill mother, gathered my two carry-ons and my suitcase, stepped onto the sidewalk, and headed toward the entrance door.

With Health Ministry form in hand.

The form is required these days and contains answers to a number of Corona-related questions such as “Have you been in a quarantine recently?” Since I had been, I expected to be grilled on the quarantine, my negative testing, etc.

But I wasn’t.

I merely handed the nice smiling lady the form and walked on in. Where I was met by a uniformed young woman who took my temperature and put a green wristband on me to indicated that I was “green”–with no obvious evidence of Corona.

Then, it was on to the line for the United flights (to SFO and to Newark), one of those twisting back and forth Disneyland-like lines–only we were supposed to maintain a 2 meter distance from the person in front of us.

As usual, two security guards had to continually tell the orthodox people in the line to obey the distancing.

After a short time, I arrived at the security checkpoint at which each person is asked where they have come from, who packed their bags, and what their destination is. The checker asked me to remove my masks (I was wearing a plastic one over my regular one) so she could match my face with that on my Israeli passport photo.  Having met the ID check and answered the questions to my checker’s satisfaction, a security tag was attached to my suitcase and I proceeded to the United counter.

At the counter, I suddenly got a lecture from the strangely accented (perhaps not an Israeli?) woman checking me in because I had neglected to pull my mask up sufficiently over my nose following the previous check. It was all I could do to hear her through her mask and plexiglass divider.

The only question I had for her concerned whether a person would be sitting beside me or not. She cattily answered that no, it didn’t look like it, but she couldn’t guarantee it. She gave me my boarding pass, and I left.

To the next checkpoint, the one prior to having one’s carry-ons and person machine-checked.

Having passed that, I proceeded to immigration where once again all masks had to be removed because the camera taking your picture must get a photo that matches your passport.

Once it had, I was finished! Despite all the checkpoints, it only took about 45 minutes to complete the route.

Because so few people were there; in a normal situation, it might well have taken at least an hour and a half.

From there, it was down the long ramp to the departure lounge where just about the only stores open were 2 fresh markets selling water and snacks–and the McDonald’s. I went to the latter got my Big Mac and took a seat back in the open area.

And waited.

And waited. For two hours.

And that is where we will stop for today to be concluded on Sunday . . .

Shabbat Shalom!