‘I’m only human’: Regev faces growing criticism over wartime transit, travel snafus
From allegedly failing to arrange buses for reservists to mistakenly claiming to be at a cabinet meeting but on a trip to Budapest, Israel’s transport minister is in the crosshairs
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
On Sunday evening, Israel’s controversial Transportation Minister Miri Regev made an appearance on national broadcaster Kan to defend her record.
“I’m only human, we’re not angels. It so happened that I got confused,” Regev declared, pushing back against against criticism that she had earlier claimed to have been present at a cabinet meeting last Tuesday, the day when Israeli troops started to enter Lebanon. She was actually in Hungary.
“I flew on Monday morning and was supposed to return on Tuesday evening,” she told the network, explaining that as soon as she landed “on Wednesday afternoon, I was already in a security meeting with the prime minister” to discuss the rapidly escalating security situation.
Regev had already come under domestic fire for her trip to Budapest, part of an effort to pressure Europe’s aviation regulator to reverse its guidance to avoid Israeli airspace for the coming month.
Regev, together with the Civil Aviation Authority, have been holding talks with European Commission and European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) officials in recent days in an effort to, among other things, find solutions for tens of thousands of Israelis who found themselves stuck abroad for lack of flights as dozens of airlines have canceled flights to the region amid spiraling tensions.
On Tuesday evening, as Iran launched an 200-strong ballistic missile attack on Israel, Regev was photographed outside a Budapest jewelers, sparking angry social media criticism. She claimed that the photo was framed to make her look like she was shopping when she was only passing outside.
לכל הישראלים התקועים בחו"ל
בוודאי תהיתם מה מירי רגב (שרת התחבורה)
עושה למען השבתכם ארצה
אז הנה ????????(שׁוֹפִּינְג בבודפשט. ועל הפרק – תכשיטים…) pic.twitter.com/QdkCiJqnhq
— Neri Yarkoni (@YarkoniNeri) October 1, 2024
Despite so many other Israelis being stuck abroad, however, Regev also declined to utilize the government’s so-called “golden share” in national carrier El Al to force the airline to operate flights on the Rosh Hashanah holiday and Shabbat in order to bring back reservists amidst the growing war up north.
And like their reserve counterparts struggling to get home from abroad, some in Israel over Rosh Hashanah also faced difficulties reaching their bases due to Israel’s prohibition on public transportation during the Jewish holidays and Shabbat, leaving them with no rides to their units.
The issue of public transportation on Shabbat and the Jewish holidays has long been a contentious issues, with ultra-Orthodox parties — often parliamentary kingmakers, and key members of the current government — adamant that no state-run buses, trains or airlines operate on those days.
After the war began on October 7 — when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill nearly 1,200 people and take 251 hostages — Regev allowed trains to operate over the weekend, but stopped the program in mid-November.
Private initiatives sprang up on social media last week to meet the challenge, while the Defense Ministry slammed the Transportation Ministry, sparking a days-long feud between the two.
“The IDF and the Ministry of Defense are busy with the war effort and defeating the enemy,” it said in a statement. “The Transportation Ministry is expected to respond in accordance with [its] assessment of the situation and assist within its responsibilities.”
The Transport Ministry, in turn, shared correspondence from a ministry official with The Times of Israel which it said showed it had offered the army vehicles to transport soldiers.
“Reserve units took care of transportation,” Regev told Kan on Sunday evening, claiming that her ministry had placed thousands of cars and buses on standby but the Defense Ministry had not called for their use.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the sole responsibility for the transportation of the soldiers” lies with the Defense Ministry, the Transportation Ministry said in a statement on Saturday evening, arguing that it “does not have the authority to force El-Al to fly on Shabbat” and has been working to increase flights.
“I’ve spoken to many soldiers who have confronted this problem,” Yesh Atid lawmaker Moshe Tur-Paz, a former IDF battalion commander, told The Times of Israel.
“It’s very hard to serve in the reserves without a personal car” and many reservists are forced to take their family vehicle, leaving their spouses without transportation, in order to get to their units, he said.
“It’s simply absurd that soldiers cant get to their bases on public transit. It’s the responsibility, first of all, of the army and Defense Ministry [but] the transport ministry didn’t assist or help.”
Regev has also faced widespread public criticism over her management of the state memorial service on the anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which was expected to increase on Monday, the day of the commemorations.
Families of hostages and other victims of October 7 have fumed at the government’s decision to charge Regev with organizing that event — and several Gaza border communities have accused the government of using the official ceremony to avoid responsibility for the role it played in failing to prevent Hamas’s terror assault, and for failing the communities in the aftermath of the massacre.
Over the last several months, Regev has refused a number of compromise proposals to solve the dispute, dismissing the criticism as “noise” and comparing the idea of holding memorial ceremonies other than the official one to a contentious annual joint Israeli-Palestinian memorial ceremony held annually on Memorial Day, which is seen by right-wing critics as equating terror victims with slain assailants, or criticized for equating Israeli and Palestinian pain.
Sharon Wrobel and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.