Ila Rabinowitz

[Ila Rabinowitz @IlaRabinowitz]

Commissioner McMurray and CDA Leadership,

I am writing as a Chicago resident and taxpayer because the current operating conditions at O’Hare have reached an unacceptable level.

I understand that O’Hare is undergoing a massive and necessary modernization effort. What I do not accept is the idea that Chicago residents and travelers should simply endure years of extraordinary delays, excessive taxi times, ground stops, gate congestion, and operational breakdowns until construction is complete.

Yesterday was a perfect example.

As our flight was preparing to depart Bangor, Maine, O’Hare announced a ground stop. We were delayed approximately 3.5 hours before departure. Once airborne, another roughly 45 minutes was added to our flight as we waited in heavy traffic to land at O’Hare.

When we finally landed, there was an aircraft occupying our assigned gate. That aircraft apparently had a mechanical issue and needed to be towed. We then sat in the penalty box for another 1 hour and 15 min after landing. Our pilot ultimately explained that the airport was so overwhelmed that they could not find another gate for our aircraft. He then gestured... "O'hare is just being O'hare" and it is amazing because everyone knew exactly what he meant. 

At some point, this stops being an unfortunate travel delay and becomes an operational failure.

Is this really considered an acceptable way for one of the world's major airports to operate in 2026? Why can't O’Hare better anticipate and manage traffic following weather-related ground stops? Why can't arriving aircraft be dynamically reassigned when a gate becomes unavailable? What contingency plans exist when the airport knows that a ground stop will result in a surge of arriving aircraft?

More importantly, what is being done about these problems right now?

This was not an isolated experience. Virtually every flight we have taken through O’Hare this summer has involved tremendous delays, excessive taxi times, or both. For those of us who live in Chicago, O’Hare is not simply another airport. We pay taxes here, build our lives here, and depend on our city's airport to connect us to the rest of the country and the world.

O’Hare should be one of Chicago's greatest competitive advantages - a stepping stone to the world. Instead, travelers are increasingly forced to plan around the possibility that flying through O’Hare means being stranded, missing connections, cancelling plans, or spending hours sitting on an aircraft waiting for the airport to accommodate it.

I recognize that construction creates constraints. But "construction" cannot become a blanket explanation for years of unacceptable operations. The people of Chicago cannot reasonably be expected to suffer through these conditions until the broader modernization program is complete.Waiting until 2033 is not an acceptable operational strategy.

I would appreciate a substantive response from CDA leadership addressing:
•What immediate measures are being taken to reduce excessive taxi-in and taxi-out times;
•How CDA is improving operations and recovery following ground stops and severe weather;
•How gate assignments and contingency gates are managed when arriving aircraft encounter occupied or disabled gates;
•What specific operational improvements Chicago travelers should expect during the ongoing construction period; and
•What metrics CDA is using to determine whether the passenger experience and airfield operations are actually improving.

Chicago is a world-class city. Its primary airport needs to operate like one - including while it is under construction.

I would appreciate a response explaining what CDA is doing now, not simply what O’Hare will look like when construction is eventually complete.

@fly2ohare @ChicagosMayor @FAANews @USDOT

[Jared Kushner @jaredkushner]

September 27th is the most important day in the Middle East since the Abraham Accords breakthrough.

I have spent countless hours studying Hezbollah and there is not an expert on earth who thought that what Israel has done to decapitate and degrade them was possible.

This is significant because Iran is now fully exposed. The reason why their nuclear facilities have not been destroyed, despite weak air defense systems, is because Hezbollah has been a loaded gun pointed at Israel. Iran spent the last forty years building this capability as its deterrent.

President Trump would often say, “Iran has never won a war but never lost a negotiation.” The Islamic Republic’s regime is much tougher when risking Hamas, Hezbollah, Syrian and Houthi lives than when risking their own. Their foolish efforts to assassinate President Trump and hack his campaign reek of desperation and are hardening a large coalition against them.

Iranian leadership is stuck in the old Middle East, while their neighbors in the GCC are sprinting toward the future by investing in their populations and infrastructure. They are becoming dynamic magnets for talent and investment while Iran falls further behind. As the Iranian proxies and threats dissipate, regional security and prosperity will rise for Christians, Muslims and Jews alike.

Israel now finds itself with the threat from Gaza mostly neutralized and the opportunity to neutralize Hezbollah in the north. It’s unfortunate how we got here but maybe there can be a silver lining in the end.

Anyone who has been calling for a ceasefire in the North is wrong. There is no going back for Israel. They cannot afford now to not finish the job and completely dismantle the arsenal that has been aimed at them. They will never get another chance.

After the brilliant, rapid-fire tactical successes of the pagers, radios, and targeting of leadership, Hezbollah’s massive weapon cache is unguarded and unmanned. Most of Hezbollah fighters are hiding in their tunnels. Anyone still around was not important enough to carry a pager or be invited to a leadership meeting. Iran is reeling, as well, insecure and unsure how deeply its own intelligence has been penetrated. Failing to take full advantage of this opportunity to neutralize the threat is irresponsible.

I have been hearing some amazing stories about how Israel has been collecting intelligence over the past 10 months with some brilliant technology and crowdsourcing initiatives.

But today, with the confirmed killing of Nasrallah and at least 16 top commanders eliminated in just nine days, was the first day I started thinking about a Middle East without Iran’s fully loaded arsenal aimed at Israel. So many more positive outcomes are possible.

This is a moment to stand behind the peace-seeking nation of Israel and the large portion of the Lebanese who have been plagued by Hezbollah and who want to return to the times when their country was thriving, and Beirut a cosmopolitan city. The main issue between Lebanon and Israel is Iran; otherwise there is a lot of benefit for the people of both countries from working together.

The right move now for America would be to tell Israel to finish the job. It’s long overdue. And it’s not only Israel’s fight.

More than 40 years ago, Hezbollah killed 241 US military personnel, including 220 Marines. That remains the single deadliest day for the U.S. Marine Corps since the Battle of Iwo Jima. Later that same day, Hezbollah killed 58 French paratroopers.

And now, over the past six weeks or so, Israel has eliminated as many terrorists on the US list of wanted terrorists as the US has done in the last 20 years. Including Ibrahim Aqil, the leader of Hezbollah’s Islamic Jihad Organization who masterminded the 1983 killing of those Marines.

[Kyle Becker @kylenabecker]

BREAKING: CNN just found out that Kamala Harris is a LIAR. This is simply hilarious 🤣

[Bill Ackman @BillAckman]

.@CNN is upping its act. Three minutes on @KamalaHarris worth a listen.

[Bill Ackman @BillAckman]

Consider that Hamas chose to execute an American hostage with a bullet to the back of his head during the last two or three days (along with five other hostages) whose parents just spoke at the DNC less than two weeks ago, while hostage negotiations were underway.

Consider that the U.S. strategy over the last 330 days has been to pressure Israel to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, including through the withholding of weapons from @Israel, and by periodically leaking our failure to support our ally to the media in the midst of hostage negotiations.

Consider what pressure if any the U.S. has brought to bear on Hamas and our friends in the region who harbor Hamas’ leadership?

Why? Why has our leadership adopted this failed strategy?

Because @POTUS Biden (who has been on vacation for 16 days) and @KamalaHarris, who also just skipped a ceremony at Arlington Cemetery to honor 13 fallen soldiers from the failed Afghanistan withdrawal, along with their advisers in the DNC, believe they will lose important votes in certain key swing states and from Hamas supporters on campuses.

It has been proven time and time again that the only thing that terrorists understand is brute force. Rather than pressure Israel, the United States should have put more pressure on our other allies in the region to help, and done everything we can to help Israel defeat Hamas and recover the hostages, but unfortunately this was not good politics for Biden/Harris and some of their supporters.

By being weak and lacking resolve, we failed our captured, now dead citizens, and the other hostages and their families while emboldening terrorists around the world.

The result:

It has become much less safe to be an American since October 7th because of our failed leadership.

It has become much less safe to be a member of the free world since October 7th because of our failed leadership.

We are in desperate need for a change in leadership so our enemies once again fear the United States and think twice before they act against us and/or our allies.

The time has come.

[Eyal Yakoby @EYakoby]

The tents are identical at every single school. Either, they all coincidentally ordered the same tent OR a single source is paying for all of this to happen.

[Bill Ackman @BillAckman]

.@GovRonDeSantis is spot on.

[Senator Katie Boyd Britt @SenKatieBritt]

This shouldn’t be complicated—

1). Deport any non-citizen in the U.S. who supports Hamas.

2). Defund any educational institution that authorizes, facilitates, or otherwise supports these pro-terrorist activities.
https://t.co/GvbXkbIQMn

[Ila Rabinowitz @IlaRabinowitz]

@KhaledAhmed_1 @Jerusalem_Post So you support Hamas and are a terrorist? Good luck in life.

[Ila Rabinowitz @IlaRabinowitz]

@Rania_Hammoud @Jerusalem_Post @EylonALevy Are you mad at Israel or Hamas

[Ayaan Hirsi Ali @Ayaan]

I urge you to read both long posts by @BillAckman. Were it not for Elon Musk taking over Twitter all this rot in education would have gone on turning the USA to a Third World country.

It is also true that the DEI folks will stop at nothing to cling to the institutions they have captured.

What they are doing to @elonmusk and @BillAckman now is what they do behind closed doors in class rooms, board rooms, on campuses, in medical rooms to vulnerable students and professionals who speak up. They threaten to ruin people by amplifying their mistakes, pile up on them and cancel them.

This is changing now.

Let’s have a full audit!!!!
Bravo @BillAckman and @elonmusk.
But remember we are only at the beginning of this fight.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

@EdKrassen Discrimination on the basis of race, which DEI does, is literally the definition of racism

[Adam Milstein @AdamMilstein]

Hamas leader: “Not just in the West Bank or Gaza, but in every city worldwide, we're shaping the future—training suicide bombers to target Jews”

[Ila Rabinowitz @IlaRabinowitz]

@stoolpresidente Connexion in Roscoe Village! It’s on me to thank you for standing up against antisemitism!!!

[Bill Ackman @BillAckman]

The world will be able to judge the relative quality of the governance at @Harvard, @Penn, and @MIT by the comparative speed by which their boards fire their respective presidents.

[Amy Spitalnick @amyspitalnick]

When we say Jews are being gaslighted about what happened Oct. 7, this is what we mean.

It’s not hard: you can stand up for Palestinian humanity and rights without turning to conspiracy theories, antisemitism, and support for terrorism. And yet.

[Wokeflix 2.0 @_wokeflix]

Exposing Hamasists…

[Hillel Fuld @HilzFuld]

This is what humanitarian aid looks like. And the fact that it’s coming from IDF soldiers says it all.

[Bill Ackman @BillAckman]

Putting aside whatever you think of @POTUS, it is time for him to step aside and allow other candidates to emerge.

We are in an extremely unstable, high-risk world. The job of the president is a high-stress, contact sport that requires extraordinary judgment, leadership, and indefatigable energy. You need to be at your mental and physical prime to succeed. Unfortunately, Biden is falling fast and often.

The argument before was: “He is the only one who can beat @realDonaldTrump.” Recent polling makes it increasingly clear that he will lose to Trump. The polls will only get worse as he deteriorates and the risk in the world increases.

A growing number of liberal Democrats that I know who would never vote for Trump ‘over their dead body’ have recently told me that if the election were held today and the choice was Biden or Trump, they would vote for Trump.

There is a growing sentiment that the global disarray that we are witnessing is due to the perception of weakness in the White House. As such, voters will vote for strength and Biden is only getting weaker. People no longer want to rely on: ״Don’t worry, he will surround himself with good people.”

I know of a couple of extraordinary potential candidates who would likely run if Biden announced that he was not going to, but they won’t otherwise.

Biden’s approval ratings would go up, and the American people would cheer if he gave a speech tomorrow announcing his accomplishments, his goals for the next year, and his acknowledgment that one of the most important qualities of a great leader is knowing when the time has come to step aside for the next generation of leadership.

A year is enough time for a new candidate to build his/her constituency to win the presidency. The country needs a more centered choice to bring us together.

And Trump is highly vulnerable to the right alternative candidate. There are many Republicans who would gladly vote Democrat if a centrist, pro-business Democrat ran for office.

Our divisiveness makes us highly vulnerable to our enemies.

Imagine what life would be like if the substantial majority of Americans could wake up each morning excited about our country’s leader. It has been much too long since this was last true.

There comes a time in life when we must rely on our closest family and friends to put their arms around us, sit us down, and tell us the truth.

If you are one of the President’s closest family members or friends, please tell him that the time has come.

Madame First Lady, please, please do so. It is your most important civic responsibility.

All of us would be incredibly grateful and the world could be a much happier, safer place.

[Shaun Maguire @shaunmmaguire]

Very few will take 7 minutes to watch this, but @DouglasKMurray is the face of extreme moral clarity