Who said anything about Israeli credit card issuers? Why not just partner with Chase? Amex? BoA? Cap 1?
...and maybe they should focus on airline partnerships, even if they don't want or can't get into an alliance, a la AS?
And even if they didn't do that, all they really need to do to capitalize here is revamp their entire program to make it less complicated, more favorable, and infinitely more engaging: the majority of people interested in LY want to fly -- you guessed it -- LY. They don't *need* partners to make bank.