The excitement of yesterday\'s arrival of some 400 new immigrants from North America in the largest-ever group of its kind has not worn off. They came from 23 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, and included 150 children under the age of 12. Interior Ministry clerks were on the flight to process their immigration papers during the flight, to save long lines afterwards. (See yesterday\'s report for more information.)
One of the new immigrants could barely contain her emotions as she later wrote that it is customary for passengers to clap as El Al planes land in Israel, \"but this was the first time I ever heard us clap for the captain as we took off.\" Crying tears of joy, together with other fellow-olim, during the flight, she wrote that when the plane landed, she saw \"an entire hangar filled with people waving flags, singing, shouting, laughing, crying. Easily 1,000 people had gathered to greet the 400 American olim. Moreover, the path from the steps of the plane to the hangar was lined with El Al employees and government people singing Heveinu Shalom Aleichem [We have brought peace to you], hugging us and welcoming us home... Singing, clapping, crying. Time for more tears. People were holdings signs welcoming us, with tears in their own eyes.\"
Ex-and-future-hopeful Prime Minister Netanyahu saw it in a Biblical context: \"In the midst of this terror campaign that is directed against us, you have this reaffirmation of the Zionist spirit and the culmination of the Biblical prophecy of the ingathering of Jews to the Jewish State, to the Jewish Land. I think this is just a tremendous answer to these forces of terror that want to drive us out of here.\"
One of the new immigrants could barely contain her emotions as she later wrote that it is customary for passengers to clap as El Al planes land in Israel, \"but this was the first time I ever heard us clap for the captain as we took off.\" Crying tears of joy, together with other fellow-olim, during the flight, she wrote that when the plane landed, she saw \"an entire hangar filled with people waving flags, singing, shouting, laughing, crying. Easily 1,000 people had gathered to greet the 400 American olim. Moreover, the path from the steps of the plane to the hangar was lined with El Al employees and government people singing Heveinu Shalom Aleichem [We have brought peace to you], hugging us and welcoming us home... Singing, clapping, crying. Time for more tears. People were holdings signs welcoming us, with tears in their own eyes.\"
Ex-and-future-hopeful Prime Minister Netanyahu saw it in a Biblical context: \"In the midst of this terror campaign that is directed against us, you have this reaffirmation of the Zionist spirit and the culmination of the Biblical prophecy of the ingathering of Jews to the Jewish State, to the Jewish Land. I think this is just a tremendous answer to these forces of terror that want to drive us out of here.\"