The Israeli paradox: While the world flees the Middle East, Israelis fight for a plane ticket to war
As Gulf elites scramble for private jets, Israel races to bring 150,000 citizens back into a missile zone.
For an outside observer, it is difficult, if not impossible, to understand the logic. In a country under multi-front missile attack, the most natural human instinct is to pack a suitcase and flee. Indeed, that is precisely what residents of the Persian Gulf and many foreigners staying there are now doing.
In Israel, however, the opposite is taking place. Rather than escaping, the country is mounting a vast national effort to bring home 150,000 citizens, directly into a war zone.
To grasp the magnitude of this paradox, one must first look beyond Israel’s borders. The Iran-U.S.-Israel war that erupted at the end of February has plunged regional aviation into turmoil, affecting an estimated 1.5 million passengers. Airspace over the Gulf states has been designated high-risk. The massive hubs of Dubai and Qatar, which together account for roughly 10% of global air traffic, have been severely disrupted, with flights suspended or rerouted.
Across the Gulf, fear is palpable. Wealthy residents of Dubai and neighboring principalities are reportedly willing to pay almost any price to leave. With commercial airlines reluctant to operate in high-risk airspace, demand for private flights has soared. A short flight to Istanbul now costs as much as €85,000. Individual seats on rare outbound flights to Europe are reportedly being sold for €90,000 per passenger. Those unable to afford such prices are embarking on arduous overland journeys, driving up to 10 hours to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia in search of an operational airport. The message across much of the region is clear: leave, at any cost.
At the same time, just a few hundred kilometers away, Israel’s skies have become a battleground. Hezbollah has joined the conflict, launching barrages of precision missiles and drones not only at northern cities and Haifa, but also toward major population centers in central Israel.
Yet contrary to what many would consider a Western survival instinct, Israelis stranded abroad are not choosing to remain in safer cities in Europe or Asia. They are demanding to return.
In response, the Israeli government has launched a large-scale repatriation operation, mobilizing an entire civilian air fleet to land approximately 200 passengers per hour at Ben Gurion Airport. Israeli carriers, El Al, Arkia, Israir and Haifa Air, are operating around the clock. El Al is placing customers on rescue flights without additional charges. Even the low-cost airline Wizz Air has joined the effort, adding dozens of flights from European cities to Sharm el-Sheikh to help Israelis get closer to the country’s borders.
The Airports Authority has set an ambitious goal: to return 150,000 Israelis within ten days.
The landings themselves resemble a military drill designed to minimize exposure to missile fire. Passengers disembark quickly, passports are processed, luggage is retrieved, and travelers are ushered out of the terminal with minimal delay.
Perhaps the clearest illustration of Israel’s priorities lies in what happens next. To maximize the pace of rescue operations and reduce risk to air crews, aircraft that unload Israeli passengers take off again immediately, completely empty.
For many foreign tourists, the sight is bewildering. When the war began, approximately 36,000 tourists were in Israel. Now, foreign governments are dispatching diplomats to coordinate evacuation efforts for their citizens. At Ben Gurion Airport, tourists watch Israeli planes depart for Europe with no outbound passengers aboard.
Tourism industry representatives have protested that foreign visitors have effectively become “stranded,” while Israelis continue to be flown home. Israeli authorities, however, appear unwavering in their priorities: every additional minute an aircraft remains on the ground presents a security risk, and the immediate objective is singular, to bring as many Israeli citizens home as possible, as quickly as possible.
In much of the Middle East today, the dominant instinct is flight. In Israel, it is return.
