“Mr. Speaker, ladies and gentlemen, members of the Knesset,” Begin began, “the government has decided that following a time lapse of three months, the aircraft of our national airline, El Al, will no longer fly on the Jewish Sabbath and festivals.” This announcement resulted in looks of sheer hatred appearing on the faces of the union men, who sat watching the proceedings in the public gallery. The opposition benches erupted into paroxysms of heckling: “So why don’t you shut down the television on Shabbat, too?” screamed one. “Are you going to stop Israel merchant ships at sea, too?” yelled another. The derision fazed the premier not one bit. On the contrary, it supplied him with new inspiration. “Shout as much as you want,” he taunted, scanning the opposition faces with scorn, his gaze finally settling on the young radical leftist, Yossi Sarid. “I have nothing to say to you and your kind. In fact, I have nothing to say to anyone who supports a Palestinian state, which is a mortal danger to our people.” And then, changing his tone, altering his voice to a muted, sonorous pitch, this man who believed in oratory as the supreme weapon, an artful combination of style, cadence, and the application of formidable intellectual energy, argued, “Forty years ago I returned from exile to Eretz Yisrael. Engraved in my memory still are the lives of millions of Jews, simple, ordinary folk, eking out a livelihood in that forlorn Diaspora, where the storms of anti-Semitism raged. They were not permitted to work on the Christian day of rest, Sunday, and they refused to work on their day of rest, Saturday, for they lived by the commandment, ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.’ So each week they foreswore two whole days of hard-won earnings. This meant destitution for many. But they would not desecrate the Sabbath day.” “So, stop football on Shabbat, too?” heckled Sarid, triggering off yet another squall of jeers, hissing and name-calling.
“Chutzpah!” boomed Begin, bristling. “I speak of our people’s most hallowed values and you dare stoop to mockery. Shame on you!” With arms held high, he thundered, “One nation alone sanctified the Shabbat, a small nation, the nation that heard the voice at Sinai, ‘so that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you.’ Ours is the nation that bequeathed to humanity the imperative of a day of rest to apply to the most humble of beings. Ours is the nation that gave the laborers the dignity equal to that of their employers, that both are equal in the eyes of God. Ours is the nation that bequeathed this gift to other faiths: Christianity – Sunday; Islam – Friday. Ours is the nation that enthroned Shabbat as sovereign Queen.” A chorus of approval from the government benches went up, muffling every last vestige of dissent. Begin, idol of the common folk, caught up in his enthusiasm and sense of mission, rose to a crescendo. “So are we, in our own reborn Jewish State, to allow our blue and white El Al planes to fly to and fro, as if to broadcast to the world that there is no Shabbat in Israel? Should we, who by faith and tradition heard the commandment at Sinai, now deliver a message to all and sundry through our El Al planes – ‘No, do not remember the Sabbath day. Forget the Sabbath day! Desecrate the Sabbath day.’ I shudder at the thought that the aircraft of our national carrier have been taking off the world over on the seventh day over these many years, in full view of Jews and Gentiles alike.”

Sorry Charlie but there is a difference according to Halocha.

Mark Levin, as #9 GG-chap points out, El Al has NEVER been shomer Shabat. It has always done maintenance on aircraft on Shabat, and its wholly owned fake subsidiary Sun D’Or flies on Shabat.

9. The maintenance work is more b’tzina. Flying with the flag of Israel on the plane on shabbos is b’farhesya and is MUCH worse.

So why do most people seem to think that it’s a Shomer Shabbos company?

NO OTHER AIRLINE IN THE WORLD PROVIDES THAT KIND OF SECURITY!

And since the influx of tourism is critical to Israels economy, Israel will keep El Al operational at all costs.