In a related development, the U.S. Navy has denied reports that it will soon resume naval visits to Haifa, saying it plans to keep its sailors out of the country due to the escalating Middle East tensions.
The U.S. Sixth Fleet has stayed away from Haifa since October, shortly after the current intifada broke out, and following the U.S.S. Cole suicide-bomber attack in Yemen. Not only have U.S. naval personnel been kept from Israel, but also other neighboring units such as the Multi-National Force and Observers in the Sinai.
The Haifa Bay economy has suffered somewhat from the end to port visits by the tens of thousands of U.S. sailors on leave.
There were reports last week that the Americans had decided to renew the visits. These were denied by U.S. officials in Tel Aviv and at the Sixth Fleet’s headquarters in Italy.
“There is no change in our current policy. We have not been making calls into Haifa, because we have read there is a high level of violence and our forward deployed forces operate there,” said Cmdr. Bob Ross, head of public relations for the Sixth Fleet.
Speaking before Sunday’s suicide bombing in the Haifa suburb of Kiryat Motzkin, Ross said the decision was not based on any concrete threat that US personnel may be targeted.
“We are just wanting to keep our sailors out of the proximity,” Ross said. “We hold the initiative on these things and we are exercising this right.”
Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, however, say there has never been a change in policy and attribute the absence of US naval vessels in Haifa since October to “scheduling conflicts.”
Both the embassy and the Sixth Fleet said U.S. naval vessels will again call on Haifa in the future, but gave no date.
“I would expect that one day we will return. It is only a question of when,” Ross said.
Travel precautions are also being implemented by airlines that fly to Israel.
Citing the need to secure their staff and planes, both British Airways and Lufthansa German Airlines announced Sunday that they will no longer lodge air crews in Israel overnight. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Swissair have recently made similar scheduling changes.
The move by B.A. and Lufthansa is said to be a direct product of the devastating suicide bombing.
“This was the request of the air crews,” said Lufthansa spokesman Yitzhak Zaroni.
In light of the decision, Lufthansa has rescheduled some of its flights from Frankfurt and Munich to Tel Aviv. But Zaroni added that the new policy is temporary.
“You have to see it from their view point…They were here in Israel during the last big bombing,” Zaroni said, noting that various airline crews had witnessed June’s Tel Aviv disco bombing from their hotel rooms.
Despite the decision, all 17 of Lufthansa’s weekly flights from Germany to Israel and back are being operated without cancellations. The most significant change in the airline’s service will be one regularly scheduled flight from Munich to Tel Aviv that flies Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Instead of its normal 3:05 afternoon departure, the flight is now set to leave at 10:55 p.m., arriving at Tel Aviv at 3:30 a.m.
Lufthansa’s other flights to and from Tel Aviv were either pushed back or forward by less than two hours.
British Airways air crews will also not make overnight stays in Israel. On Wednesday, one British Airways flight from London’s Heathrow Airport to Tel Aviv made a stop in Athens to pick up a crew for the Tel Aviv-London leg.
Because of the sudden policy change, two British Airways flights were canceled from London and Tel Aviv. Airline representatives said all passengers were transferred to other carriers.
Both KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Swissair recently amended their schedules, canceling overnight stays for air crews. Just one day before the Jerusalem bombing, KLM decided that its Amsterdam-Tel Aviv run would make a brief stop in Larnaca, Cyprus, where the crews will be changed.
Meanwhile, Israel’s El Al airline will post record losses of $160 million in 2001 because of lost tourism caused by Israeli-Palestinian violence, the Israeli daily Yediot Achronot reported Monday. After losing $109 million last year, El Al needs to reduce expenses by 25 percent to carry on operating, an El Al source reportedly said.