# Do U.S. planes have permission to use Israeli air space?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-u-s-planes-have-permission-to-use-israeli-air-space/162917>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 20, 2003, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-u-s-planes-have-permission-to-use-israeli-air-space/162917 "2003-03-20T22:37:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2003, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-u-s-planes-have-permission-to-use-israeli-air-space/162917/1 "2003-03-20T22:37:20Z")

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I thought I heard in the news that US planes have to fly around Israel. Is this true? If so, why?

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**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2003, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-u-s-planes-have-permission-to-use-israeli-air-space/162917/2 "2003-03-20T23:16:13Z")

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Well, if they fly through Israel, they would then have to fly through either Jordan or Syria to get to Iraq. I don’t see it would be useful for them to fly through Israel, and it might be yet more bad publicity in the Arab community if they heard the US was using Israel’s airspace to attack Iraq.

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**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-u-s-planes-have-permission-to-use-israeli-air-space/162917/3 "2003-03-21T00:23:34Z")

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To amplify what **Punoqllads** said, I heard one report that Jordan would get very nervous if it saw jets flying out of Israel heading to their territory.

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**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-u-s-planes-have-permission-to-use-israeli-air-space/162917/4 "2003-03-21T00:24:09Z")

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In other words, they haven’t asked. I’m pretty sure Israel would allow it if they did.

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**Author:** ![Road\_Rash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@Road\_Rash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Road_Rash)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-u-s-planes-have-permission-to-use-israeli-air-space/162917/5 "2003-03-21T03:33:18Z")

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I thought Israli planes were U.S. produced planes.

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**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-u-s-planes-have-permission-to-use-israeli-air-space/162917/6 "2003-03-21T06:35:15Z")

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Israeli planes are US produced planes (at least most of them), but I’m not sure what you were responding to.