Politics 2025

As DC power shifts, Cruz says airlines will return

Senate big cites anti-Israel politics, not safety worries, for prolonged cancellations

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There’s a new marshal in town and his sheriffs are preparing for high noon.

For some time, Texas Senator Ted Cruz has been asking the US airlines to resume flights to Israel. Now his demands are carrying considerable weight.

“Look, I’m the incoming chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee that has jurisdiction over, among other things, over 40 percent of the US economy, including aviation.

“A lot can be done. I think this will be fixed,” he told The Free Press’ Bari Weiss on Monday.

“I think US airlines need to resume flights to Israel. We have El Al that has flights. We have regional airlines in the Middle East and in Europe that are having flights go in and out. I think it is politics that is driving that decision rather than their stated concerns.”

Particularly, the politics of the flight attendants union “that has been very vocally anti-Israel and in fact has supported the antisemitic protests on college campuses,” he said.

Cruz said he was “going back to drawing a line in the sand.”

“I’m going to predict within 30 days they’ll resume flights.”

Meanwhile the resumption of international flights to Israel is gaining momentum, with the Lufthansa Group preparing to restore service through six of its carriers within two weeks.

On other matters, Cruz told Weiss that changes were coming to how the federal government treats acts of alleged antisemitism, Title VI violations, and threats of violence on university campuses. He singled out elite schools — which receive material percentages of their budgets from federal sources — as places most likely to have their funding reduced.

“I do believe one of the most significant shifts under Trump is that the Department of Justice is going to go after any university that looks the other way, that tolerates antisemitic threats of violence, intimidation and threats directed at Jewish students,” said Cruz.

“And Columbia [University] is right at the top of the worst, worst offenders. And so if they don’t change their conduct dramatically, I think you’re going to see the Trump administration cut off their federal funds.”