So... guess this card never really panned out?
My first AF will post tomorrow, and obviously going to call for retention. In light of world events, I'm optimistic (unless they prefer to kill the card and hope people don't renew...).
Unfortunately, absolutely none of my predictions or hopes came to fruition: no bonus spend opportunities or promos came up, no positive changes to the general card offering.
The only thing is the USD/ILS FX rate has changed significantly, so if you're in Israel and value Matmid points for some reason, it's like earning 1:125ILS vs. 1:190 on the Israeli version...
El Al should incorporate some of the aspects of AA's new program into Matmid.