My Travel Back to the US, Part 2

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Yom Rishon, Sunday

26 Tevet, 5781

January 10, 2020

The News on the Israeli Street

The daily Corona update . . .

Please note that these number encompass from  8 pm Friday Israel time until 8 pm Sunday:

487,680 Israelis have been confirmed with the virus since the pandemic began last March.

There are 10,323 newly confirmed cases.

1,029 are in critical condition—an increase of 109

240 of the most critically ill are on ventilators—a increase of 16

3,651 have died–an increase of 55

There are currently 68,933 active Corona cases in Israel.

The growing number of dead is alarming, and so is the number of critically ill which now tops 1000. It seems like only yesterday that we were at a critically ill number in the 300s.

According to the Health Ministry, 1.82 million people have now been vaccinated (see more about vaccinations below).  In terms of target groups, it is believed that 72% of those aged 60-69, 81% of those aged 70-79, and 76% of those aged 80 and over have been vaccinated.

The impact of Corona . . .

**One would think that with the daily stress of Corona in both private and business lives that we might see more families being broken apart by divorce.

However, 11,076 couples divorced in 2020 compared to 11,451 in 2019.

**Not surprisingly the number of Israeli taking the train has plummeted because after all many businesses are closed.

Before Corona struck about 280,000 Israelis took the train each day; in recent weeks, the number has dropped to around 35,000–many of whom are soldiers going to their bases.

With the current closure upon us, Israel Rail has just announced that it is closing down all train stations south of the Tel Aviv Hagana station for at least a month to work on electrical upgrades.

These are the stations that will be closed: Rosh HaAyin North, Petah Sgula, Petah Tikva, Kiryat Arie, Bnei Brak, Lod, Lod Ganei Aviv, Kfar Chabad, Modi’in Merkaz, Pati Modi’in, Jerusalem Yitzhak Navon, Holon Junction, Holon Wolfson, Bat Yam Yoseftal, Bat Yam Komemiyot, Ramla, Beit Shemesh, Beer Yaakov, Rishon LeZion Rishon Lezion, Rishon LeZion Moshe Dayan, Rehovot, Yavneh East, Yavneh West, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Sderot, Netivot, Ofakim, Mazkeret Batya, Kiryat Malachi Yoav, Kiryat Gat, Lehavim Rahat, Beer Sheva North University, Beer Sheva Center, and Dimona.

Water to Jerusalem . . .

With the population of our capital now reaching toward 1,000,000 residents, water is expected to becoming increasingly scarce.

Israel’s water company Mekorot is moving forward on a 2.5 billion shekel project to supply the city desalinated water from the Mediterranean.

It is no small engineering project raising the desalinated water by almost 900 meters as it makes its way from sea level to Jerusalem.

As we all know via King Hezekiah’s Tunnel, Jerusalem has always been renowned for its water projects.

TODAY’S BLOG

My Travel Back to the US, Part 2

In my last blog, I began the saga of my trip back to the United States and left you while I was eating a tasty and expensive ($15) Big Mac from the only open “restaurant” in Ben Gurion Airport.

I inhaled that burger in the spacious main lobby which is noted for its water display where, when working, jets of water shoot toward the ceiling of the room which then beautifully shimmers back to the floor like a cascade of rain. It is especially cooling on a hot day.

However, as suggested, the “waterfall” was not working, and the room was the only place to sit. Metal tables socially spaced throughout were mostly empty because few people were there, so I turned my attention to the one of the giant overhead departure screens.

Now, you might think that with almost no one flying that there would be almost no airlines flying. But not so–here is a photo I took:

Planes scheduled for departure late night Wednesday/Thursday.

Realizing that you might need a magnifying glass, let me list the flights in the first column alone in the sequence:  Airline: Destination: Take-off Time.
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United: Newark: 23:50

Delta: New York: 23:55

Ethiopian: Addis Ababa: 00:45

FlyDubai: Dubai: 00:45

El Al: New York: 00:50

United: San Francisco: 00:55

Turkish: Istanbul: 05:15

Lufthansa: Frankfurt: 05:20

Turkish: Istanbul: 05:30

Ukrainian: Kiev (Kyiv): 05:30

Aegean: Athens: 05:40

SunTurk: Istanbul: 05:45

El Al: Moscow: 06:00

In the second column, you see more flights to Hong Kong, Paris, London, Vienna, and Bucharest. The third column is mainly a repeat of the first column on the next day.

As you have undoubtedly deduced, dear reader, I was on the United flight to San Francisco. The scheduled flight time was 15 hours and 5 minutes–arriving in San Francisco at 6:00 am Thursday morning.

So, I waited for about an hour and then made my way down to the boarding gate. Once there, I discovered that there was confusion as to what was allowed on board to drink. At the small duty free shop, the manager assured me that if I bought a bottle of something, they could place it in a sealed bag, and I could take it and drink it on board.

Before I bought it, I went over and asked a United rep if that was true. She assured me that it was not. When I told her what the manager said, she told me to ask the security person at the gate. He told me that the duty free manager was correct. Based on that information, I bought two bottles.

And sure enough, when I boarded, I sailed right through with my hermetically sealed plastic bag.

I took my comfortably appointed seat which was surprisingly in an upgraded cabin that I had not requested and not been told about, sat down, looked around and saw that the cabin was only about 10% filled.

I took out my motion sickness pills (I always take two on long flights), opened my sealed bag and a bottle, and washed them down. Whereupon a kindly flight attendant (they were all spectacularly nice) told me that what I had done was not allowed–that I could not drink anything that I had brought on board. 

Back into the sealed bag the bottle went.

As you saw above, the flight was scheduled to leave at 12:55 am, but because there were very few passengers on board, everyone had boarded by 12:30 am, and we were off the ground by 12:45 am.

Leaving Israel usually gives your humble servant very mixed feelings, and this time was no different. For the same reason that my wife and I never leave the country during a war crisis, I felt badly leaving Israel during the Corona crisis. Oddly enough, my feelings were somewhat assuaged by knowing that I was essentially flying from one Corona crisis to another.

Once off the ground, many people moved back to the empty economy cabin to grab an empty row, stretch out and sleep.

And so I did for about 10 hours, awakening just as the plane was about to cross the Canadian border into American airspace.

I returned to my seat up front and watched “Citizen Kane” and “The Martian” from the huge movie selection on board.

Four hours later at 5 am–one hour early–we were on the ground. In fact, we were so early that Customs and Immigration had not yet opened leaving us to sit on the plane on the tarmac until 6 am.

Off the plane and through immigration I quickly walked with the immigration officer only asking me where I had been and for how long. Nothing was asked about Corona at all which I found astonishing given that the entire Bay Area is under “stay at home” orders.

This story ends with me picking up my suitcase and catching my awaiting ride outside the airport.

And so it went on the morning of June 7th.