EWR - MAA

Flew Jet Airways to India. When going to Chennai in particular, Jet flies there directly from Brussels. This saves a five-hour stop-over in Bombay. Still, it’s a long time to be up in the air. When you come back down, you’re happy to be just about anywhere.

The uncontested champ of the multiple forms of in-flight entertainments offered is the GPS screen that shows the plane’s progress. I, personally, can’t get enough of it. I watch for minute changes in outside temperature, speed and altitude. The screens rotate between maps and statistics in a multitude of languages.

I noted this time (and every other time) that Israel and any of its cities were not on the map. Meanwhile, all the countries and towns of the rest of the Middle East, including Mecca, were prominently represented. Apparently, Arabs are thought to fly into a rage whenever they hear or see any mention of Israel. And we all can count ourselves as enablers of that rage. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen maps without Israel on them.

If Arabs should succeed in wiping Israel off the map - as many are said to want to do - I can promise, there won’t be enough water on planet earth for anyone to get their hands back to clean.