El Al is a modern business.7 days a week.You dont like that medieaval barbarians? WALK. or SWIM.Please El Al. Do not succumb to these idiots.

When you look at judaism from j.. viewpiont then the Shabbos was made for man, until then man was made from g-d to observe what he wants and not how we decide it.

I always have problems getting flights on Shabat. Where can I book the new EL AL cargo flights?

GREAT GREAT GREAT.

As a moderate Jew, an un-orthodox one, I obviously do not see this through the eyes of Israelis Orthodoxes. but I find it foolish to get in a fit over this. For crying out loud, there are more things for Israel to worry about than this...*ahem* Gaza/West Bank, Syria, Iran......the list goes on and on.

My Dear man you will never ever bring people back to Yiddishkeit by being bossy and pushy. Why do you think Lubavitch is so successful in what they do. Hint: They dont push it in your face and they dont have a Yeke Potz Attitude ala misnagdim. If the Frum Yidden really wanted to have ElAl change their attitude a few well placed calls would have suffice. But I get the idea that being a bore and a bully is much more cool as it shows that you are doing something. Moshe rabbenu appealed to pharoh several times before he unleashed the plagues. Quiet diplomacy works much better instead of grandstanding for an audience. And as far as the Holiness of Shabbos please dont descetrate the Shabbos with these vacant arguments. The Religious of today have much to learn about menshlichkeit and midos.

Totally agree with those 2 posts. Moderate here also. There are times I have to work on Saturdays. I am not going to lose a good paying job by telling my boss I cannot work. Plus I have flown many times on Saturday overseas. Would El Al fly on Shabat during a time of crisis? What about the IAF flying sorties on Shabat?

Some people showed outstanding discipline and spent hundreds of dollars in cancellation fees to follow their principles and some people can't even control their mouths and vitriolic hatred and biases.

Cargo flights are operated out of Tel Aviv by B 747 ( CAL and EL AL ) The airplane shown on the picture is probably B 767, passenger and cargo.....but this is secondary...We are getting worst than Islamic extremists ! This is stupidity and this costs the country a lot of money, the same money that serves to maintain ....the Haredim ! Religion and economics do not go together.....There are a lot of "kosher places" in Tel Aviv who are maintaining business on Shabbes.....Long Live extremist obscurantism !

El Al may still be the "flag carrier " of Israel...however , El Al Has been privatized some time ago and the Israeli government is not the sole owner of the company. Private investors do have shares of the company even if the government ( for some national interest reasons ) still controls the majority of existing shares.

beginnings are hard but in the end elal will do MUCH better without the haridim. the routes london-tel aviv and nyc-tel aviv have become unbearable because of them. they really think they own the aircraft. no more hat boxes and glatt trolleys!!!!! GREAT!

Honestly EL AL airpalnes are very big terrorist targets. I fear that now that EL AL is descrating the shabbat it is no longer safe to fly anyday.. the protection is no longer there.

This is sad, we have 7 days a week 6 of them is not enough to make enough money? The one day that Hashem says observe my Shabbat come closer to me , a day of rest for heavens sake! - You have to take that gift away that Hashem has given. As history shows and repeats itslef those who kept shabbat made more money then those who desecrated it !

that's a 767 and is used for passenger transport.

... the Haredim will boycott El Al yet continue to fly on airlines which also don't observe the Shabbat. While I can understand their desire for El Al to observe the Shabbat (sort of), this does seem perverse !

Rami, in principle not a bad solution. "wet Leasing" is a known practice in the airline industry....But not possible here for many "grossly administrative"issues connected with the traditional Israeli burocracy known to all countries eats of Rome. 1) non Jewish crew ? What about the work contract ? Non Jewish people need to have work permit short of being allowed to benefit from the law of return. 2) Flying an Israeli registered airplane would require an Israeli Civil aviation License Unless.........the airplane and ALL of its crew is registered abroad and flies under an el al flight number but NOT in El Al colours......so that it looks less "offensive" .....No ! The real solution is that if Haredim do not like it , they can simply take a hike ! There is enough religious obsucrantism in this part of the world and such an attitude, sponsored by the laxism of the Israeli government , is enough to maintain Israel in religious obsurantism and deprives people to exercise their own choice. The result is very simple : more and more people are rightly so shunting flying El Al out of Tel Aviv.

th problem is not that el al flies on shabbat... the problem is that el al claims to be a jewish company and has, of its own accord, announced that it intends to keep shabbos and kashrus in order to please the haredi and observant communities. the haredim don't care if continental fleis on shabbat because it is not a jewish company. also, in terms of business, a company cannot make a claim, break it, and still expect that their customers will remain loyal. and to all you haredi haters: you may not care about the haredi community, but el al sure does. they make up a sizeable portion of el al customers, becuase when they fly el al, they feel that they can trust that the airline is commited to providing them with their halakhic needs. el al made these claims and re-enforced these claims because the haredi community is a valued portion of their customer base. the haredim are not "the taliban" as one post suggested. they are simply exercizing their political right to protest/boycott a company that they feel has wronged them (which regardless of whether you care or not, it has!!). el al can either fully follow up on its commitments (that el al itself proposed), or risk losing the haredi sector of its customers. they will gladly fly on other airlines that don't betray them as customers and that don't violate halakha (because the other airlines are not jewish airlines).

all the haredim did was call for a boycott within their communities. it became such a big deal because ynet and others published the story. what they are doing is totally correct from both a consumer rights standpoint and a halakhic standpoint. it is not a hillul hashem to defend g-d's holy shabbos!!

datim can observe whatever they like. no one is stopping them. they have the freedom to observe shabbat and other holidays, but why do they care if others choose not to? it just makes absolutely no sense to me. religious people need to learn that they cannot control aspects of public life that affect everyone.

Outraged about how some one else spends their own money - THEN YOU GOT THE PROBLEM NOT THEM! IT'S THEIR MONEY- NOT YOURS! GET A LIFE! Or try therapy.

That's GREAT news. I'll book BA. and Continental.Please take your clones with you though. At last, a chiloni free flight, I can't wait.

Somewhat surprised as taking photos on shabbath is not permited by the halaha therfore should be ignored by the Rabbis, dealing with this question. I beleive they made their point, and should rest their case, this behaviour is only adding more fuel to those who don't really like the Haredim and their actions. There are many other transgressions of the Shabbath,for which they don't call for a boycott.

dear # 50 .... If el Al wants to please the Haredi....and only them...that is perfectly fine with me. What I know as a regular traveller tp/from israel is that there is a growing number of " regular travellers " including Israelis or Jewish non-israelis shunting El Al for many reasons which include the behavior of "some of their passengers" who refuse to sit near women, are abusive and non-respectful of other passengers right to be quiet. So that you better grasp the situation, over 75% of passengers travelling on Lufthansa ( !!!) are Israelis, over 56% of passengers travelling to Paris on Air France are Israelis about 85 % of Passengers travelling to Istambul on Turkish are Israelis ! "regular Israelis" if there is such a thing will travel less and less on El Al which has regularly shown its unability to deal with the general public.

The final word is that without the hareidi business El Al isn't profitable. If they boycott then the airline will be in very big trouble in a time where the market is already too tough for many airlines. It was a bad decision to test fly a cargo jet, although it doesn't have the same symbolic importance as flying passenger lines on Shabbat. I hope a compromise works out, but if El Al is "our" airline it has to commit itself to respecting the needs of the Israeli public, including keeping Shabbat.

If the Muslims were arguing about this or a similar subject you'd all jump and say how backward these Muslims are and how intolerant, imposing and strict Islam is !

El Al belongs & I belief is fully controlled by the Government of Israel. Israel is a unique Country in the world because all Nations seem to have either positive or negative interest towards the Country. For those who seek spiritual guidelines on Israel, will mostly be affected by this action. They will flash back to what happened when in the past, the Sabbath discretion made All the Jews//Government expelled//exiled to Babylon. My advice on the issue is that El Al should retract/stop these Sabbath flights. It should enjoy the uniqueness and not be driven by this ideology of high profit making. What is being targeted by the Management is a short term benefit. All Jews should not that many a Gentiles (spiritually) world look upon you for proper Guidelines. And it should never be the opposite. The two other main faiths used JEWISH ‘‘Torah’’ scripts as a base to have followers. LET SABBATH REMAIN HOLLY IN THE HOLLYLAND. Regards, J.GYMA. Nairobi, Kenya.