What happened at Ben Gurion Airport is bullying: In Israel there is no longer law and no judge | Avi Ashkenazi
One hundred thousand passengers were caught in a power struggle at Ben Gurion Airport while the Minister of Transport is abroad. The chaos at the airport, the violence on the roads, and the lack of governance are no longer isolated incidents.
In a normal country, one that has a police force that does not belong to the ruling party, in a normal country that has an airport that is not operated by political cronies of the government. In a normal country, where during the busiest week at the airport and on the roads, the Minister of Transport, Miri Regev, and the top brass of the Ministry of Transport would not go on a vacation overseas in Morocco.
In a normal country, police officers would arrive at Ben Gurion Airport and arrest two people: the failed political crony of the Likud, Ron Tal, who now serves as Chairman of the Board of the Israel Airports Authority, and the Chairman of the Workers' Committee, a powerful man in the Likud, Pinhas Idan. Both should be behind bars for what was happening and is currently happening at Ben Gurion Airport.
This is not a strike, this is not a labor dispute. This is bullying, this is the trampling of civil rights in the country. The Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty states that every citizen has the right to leave and enter Israel. The group of bullies from the party cronies on both sides, management and the workers' committee, conducted a power struggle after the primaries. A battle at the expense of one hundred thousand citizens: among them children, women, the elderly.
In the morning (Thursday), Ron Tal said on the "Kan" Reshet Bet radio station, when referring to the attack in northern Syria against the airport that the Turks are renovating, that "Israel must be the neighborhood bully," but the act of bullying that those whom Ron Tal admires and the government led to chaos. The government's policy is that there is no longer law and no judge here.
And not just at Ben Gurion Airport. Everything happening in the territories of Judea and Samaria, where, under the auspices of the government, Jewish terrorists riot on a daily basis against Arabs. Likewise, on the roads of Israel, where the number of fatalities in traffic accidents rises from day to day. Likewise, on the streets of Israel, when grenades explode near restaurants of a well-known chain. Likewise, in the Arab sector, where there is not a day without a murder. Likewise, when Haredim decide for themselves, they close Highway 4 and other roads. As if they are the masters of the land.
But, what do we have to complain about the situation? Like in the song by Shalom Hanoch, "The public is stupid, and the public pays" for its own irresponsibility. It is willing to move on to the order of the day after the massacre of October 7. The greatest disaster for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. And that same public continues to entrust the keys to leadership to the failures in the political echelon and beyond. The same people who failed to protect the residents of the Gaza envelope, and abandoned tens of thousands to their fate, refuse to appoint a state commission of inquiry. For three years now, everything has been moved to the order of the day.
Yes, today's strike is probably a test run for the Likud party, the ruling party. Which does not want to see an "airlift" of one hundred, maybe two hundred thousand Israelis, who are abroad and are asking to exercise their democratic right.
Israel is no longer a normal country: the Minister of Transport continues to vacation overseas, the political cronies walk around free and they are not under investigation and arrest by the police, on suspicion of offenses of disturbing the public order, and causing a public disruption. Israel in August 2026 no longer looks like a normal country. It is a country that has been conquered by political cronies who are now fighting over the division of the spoils, over the meat of the carcass that lies helpless.
