Waiting in the Wings

Gleaming there in the hot sun, behind the concrete and wire barriers that ring the runway, are serried ranks of neatly-parked planes with crisp blue-and-white livery. Like freshly-minted air cadets standing at attention, it looks like the entire El Al fleet is there, grounded due to coronavirus and the financial storm into which the company has been thrown.

It’s a sight that must give Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu heartburn, as he whisks past in his motorcade on the way to the nearby Defense Ministry, aware that Israel’s flagship carrier is on life-support and will expire without a $400 million cash transfusion.

But whereas the masses of Israelis making the daily Jerusalem-Tel Aviv commute see the silent airliners as a catastrophe, in more than one boardroom in the New York area, those same planes are generating excitement as the next big business horizon.

Over the last few weeks, a fascinating race has opened up, as first one, then another, Orthodox tycoon has thrown his hat into the ring to bid for El Al, the Israeli icon that’s fallen on hard times.