Festive flight ticket, crossing over Saudi Arabia and peak excitement • El Al flight will take off at 10:30 from Israel to the United Arab Emirates, as part of the establishment of relations between the countries • The joint delegation includes 75 representatives, and will reach the destination after only three hours. Of the countries
History at Ben Gurion Airport
Photo:
El Al spokespersons
History begins: This morning (Monday), the first official commercial flight from Israel to the United Arab Emirates will depart, which will cross the Saudi Arabian sky on the way. After two decades, Israel will prepare a third peace agreement with an Arab state.
The "Israel Today" envoy on the historic flight to the UAE reports from Ben Gurion Airport
At the capital Abu Dhabi airport, the first public meeting between representatives of Israel and the United Arab Emirates will begin today. The Israeli and US delegations are expected to be received at an official ceremony by representatives of the kingdom. The US mission, which will have about 15 members, is headed by US National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien and Special Adviser to the President Jared Kushner. At the top of the Israeli delegation, about 50 people in total, will be the head of the National Security Council, Meir Ben Shabbat, and with him senior officials, including the director general of the Foreign Ministry, Alon Ushpiz.
From the airport, the members of the three delegations will move to the St. Regis Hotel in Abu Dhabi, where a marathon of meetings of civilian working teams will take place today and tomorrow. Despite this, representatives of the defense establishment, headed by the director general of the Ministry of Defense, Amir Eshel, will eventually join the delegation despite reports last weekend of their cancellation.
According to the plan, in each area the relevant representatives of Israel and the Emirates will meet, with an American representative taking part in the meeting. The main topics to be discussed are the areas of banking, aviation, healthcare and space. Based on a plan formulated by the Ministry of Regional Cooperation, the scope of cooperation with the princesses is very wide.
The meeting is expected to end on Tuesday morning and the Israelis are expected to return to Israel. Adviser to the President of the United States, Jared Kushner, told Israel Today: "We will continue to strive for peace between Israel, the biblical homeland of the Jewish people, and its Arab and Muslim neighbors. I have never been so hopeful about peace. ".
"There were many obstacles"
In recent weeks, thorough and detailed staff work has been conducted in the Prime Minister's Office and in the State Department, in coordination with representatives of the Emirates and the United States, in order to prepare the talks. Under the guidance of Acting Prime Minister Ronen Peretz, the necessary issues Between countries. These include talks with the mutual opening of embassies, the issuance of visitor visas, the regulation of a tax treaty and the creation of a mechanism for cooperation between banks.
A senior official in the Prime Minister's Office illustrated this yesterday: "We are currently concentrating on the layout of the carpet, so that the business sector can step on it later."
Above the skies of Saudi Arabia, on the way to Abu Dhabi
El Al's LY971 flight will depart from Ben Gurion Airport at 10:30 in the morning, and about three hours later the plane will land in Abu Dhabi.
The return flight will be LY972. The return flight, 971, matches the telephone area code of the Emirates, the return flight, 972, matches the telephone area code of the State of Israel. The flight will pass over the skies of Saudi Arabia today, and El Al will be the first Israeli airline to fly on this route. The flight ticket that will be issued to passengers who will be on the flight today, has been specially designed for the festive day. The card reads "Making History" in three languages - Hebrew, Arabic and English.
The aircraft that will make the flight will be a Boeing 737-900. For the festive occasion, the word "peace" was written on the upper front of the plane in three languages: Hebrew, Arabic and English. The plane will have 16 seats in the business class, where senior members of the American delegation and the Israeli delegation will sit; The journalists and the other people who would join sat in economy class at the back of the plane.
To operate the flight, El Al returned three senior pilots from the IDF. The pilot who will lead the crew will be Tal Becker, and with him will be the plane Tal Bina Naor and Gal Flevitz. And prepare for the historic event.
The aircraft that will fly the expedition will also have a sky-protection system, a missile defense system manufactured by Elbit. The system operates using a laser beam that is launched towards the missile head and moves it away from the aircraft by disrupting the tracking. Among the staff members will be Liat Elazar (50), whose father, who was an El Al employee, was killed in a terrorist attack while wearing an El Al uniform in Turkey exactly 40 years ago. "It is a great honor for me to make this flight as part of the peace process," she said, "I have not slept three days of excitement."
The flight service manager will be Hedva Optovsky, who will retire immediately after the flight: "I flew with the late Begin, the late Rabin, the late Sharon, Barak and Netanyahu. I worked on El Al's route to Tehran and Brazil, I was on rescue flights and I worked during the Corona period. This is a very exciting way to end El Al's services after 46 years. It is an honor to do so on the peace flight, after which I will immediately take off my uniform and embark on a new path. "
Shimon Yaish participated in the preparation of the article