Berlin → Tel Aviv, one way (v1.1)

1 adult, Sep 27 – Oct 1, 2026 — cheapest overall wins. Flight duration capped at <6h (nonstop or 1-stop).
Includes flying direct from Berlin (BER) and taking a bus to a nearby airport first — only Prague (PRG) turned out to have a competitive sub-6h connection to TLV; see excluded airports below.
Cheapest overall: Sep 27, Prague, 1-stop via Austrian, 5h30m, €200 — but add a ~4h20m / ~€23 Berlin→Prague bus on top.
Cheapest flying straight out of Berlin: Sep 28, Israir, nonstop, 4h, €207. Rate/fares are live off Google Flights just now, 1 adult, economy. ILS conversion at 1 EUR ≈ ₪3.50 (today's rate) — reconfirm at checkout. Checked-bag fees not verified — Bluebird/Israir/Smartwings are low-cost carriers, bags are almost certainly extra. Bus fare is FlixBus's advertised "from" price, not a locked quote.

Direct from Berlin only (skip the bus-to-Prague options)

Top 8 cheapest options found, Sep 27 – Oct 1, sorted by price. All under 6h flight time.
#	City / Carrier / Time	Price	Link
1	PragueBEST VALUE Austrian · 1 stop Sun Sep 27 · 11:15–17:45 · 5h 30m + Berlin→Prague bus first: ~4h20m, from ~€23	₪700 €200	View on Google Flights →
2	BerlinBEST DIRECT Israir Airlines · Nonstop Mon Sep 28 · 19:40–00:40+1 · 4h	₪724 €207	View on Google Flights →
3	Berlin Israir Airlines · Nonstop Sun Sep 27 · 19:05–00:05+1 · 4h	₪818 €234	View on Google Flights →
4	Prague Nonstop Mon Sep 28 · 18:55–23:40 · 3h 45m + Berlin→Prague bus first: ~4h20m, from ~€23	₪903 €258	View on Google Flights →
5	Berlin Bluebird Airways · Nonstop Tue Sep 29 · 18:30–23:50 · 4h 20m	₪1200 €343	View on Google Flights →
6	Berlin Bluebird Airways · Nonstop Wed Sep 30 · 18:50–00:10+1 · 4h 20m	₪1200 €343	View on Google Flights →
7	Berlin Bluebird Airways · Nonstop Thu Oct 1 · 19:05–00:25+1 · 4h 20m	₪1200 €343	View on Google Flights →
8	Prague Nonstop Tue Sep 29 · 23:45–04:35+1 · 3h 50m + Berlin→Prague bus first: ~4h20m, from ~€23	₪1406 €402	View on Google Flights →

Nearby airports checked and excluded: Leipzig (LEJ, ~2h05m bus) and Dresden (DRS, ~2h25m bus) — these were your named examples, but neither is actually a 4–5h bus ride (they're much closer); more importantly, neither has an economy-class flight to TLV under 6h — cheapest sub-6h options were €930+ business class. Nuremberg (NUE, ~4h15m bus — genuinely in your 4–5h band) and Wrocław (WRO, ~4h30m bus — also genuinely in-band) both route through hubs with 8h+ layovers; no viable sub-6h fare found at either. Only Prague (PRG, ~4h20m bus) had real direct low-cost service to TLV.