"We're crazy. I think to myself - fly on Sunday in order to arrive at noon on Monday, vote on Tuesday morning, and get on a plane coming back at 10:30, assuming no traffic jams. I'm not the only one. There are quite a few nuts like me, for whom writing posts and complaining isn't enough," an Israeli resident of Silicon Valley wrote in a Facebook post.
He also wrote, "A few months ago, we started a WhatsApp group in Silicon Valley in order to help bring about a change. It eventually turned out that there are some nuts. How many? A group I founded on Facebook of 'Silicon Valley residents Flying To Vote' already has 167 men and women who care. It's all because of a friend who explained to me that I had to do it.
"It's shitty timing that Netanyahu chose. In the middle between Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco. In the middle of peak working time, and when the children just want another hug, because they aren't seeing their daddy, but we have no choice. It's like filling out a lottery ticket - dreaming that the flight ticket will suddenly change everything and turn a fantasy into reality. A one in a …chance, but for my children, for my parents, for my friends, for the forces of light, it's worth 30 hours in the air. My flag is blue and white. This time, I'm flying blue and white for the first time in years. This is the most symbolic way of voting here. People who are also at war will continue to vote and fly."
Thousands of people living overseas who are eligible to vote are joining the Facebook writer (not in a consular framework that allows them to vote at ballot boxes in Israeli embassies) in making their way to Israel. Exercising their right to vote will cost them a great deal of money. According to Issta VP marketing Ronen Carasso, prices of flights to Israel before this year's elections have risen higher than he remembers from recent elections.
According to the Kayak website, a direct flight from San Francisco on Sunday, with a return flight on Wednesday, will cost $2,900 on El Al and $2,400 on United Airlines. The same flight taking off from San Francisco on April 9, the day of the election (too late to vote), will cost $1,000.
Carasso gives another example. A person flying from New York to Tel Aviv on April 7 or April 8 and returning on April 10 or April 11 will pay $1,900 for direct flights on El Al, Delta, or United Airlines. The same flight taking off on April 5 and returning on April 8 (before the elections) costs only $800.
Carasso says that the gap in prices from London is also especially dramatic. An El Al flight from London on April 8 returning on April 10 will cost $1,300, compared with $487 for flights after the elections.
Carasso adds that the low-cost airlines are also taking advantage of the demand for flights to Israel before the elections. He says that an easyJet flight taking off from London on April 8 and returning the day after the elections costs $780, not including refreshments and seat selection. "These two destinations have always had the highest demand for flights to Israel during an election period because a large haredi group living in Brooklyn or Golders Green in London flies to Israel specially in order to vote."
The haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) are not the only ones, however - Israelis living in other places in Europe have also sent faress skyrocketing because of the demand to come and exercise their voting rights. A direct flight from Rome on from April 9 to April 10 will cost $1,000, compared with $350 for someone coming from and returning to Rome before the elections. Someone coming from Prague for a period that includes the election date will pay double what someone flying after the elections will pay: $600 versus $300.
"I can't remember such demand before an election. I think that thousands will come," Carasso concludes.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on April 4, 2019
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