Try this routing
 

I was wondering could a flight to Israel from California go over Alaska to Russia south over Turkey and then make it's way to Israel as opposed to SF-JFK over the Atlantic to Portugal and then the Mediteranian Sea to Israel? How much longer would the over Asia routing take? What would be the time difference issuses i.e more jetlag? Also could a plane do it without re-fueling? I saw the Great Circle Mapper and it shwed going over Portugal was the quickest way possible.

The Great Circle route SFO-TLV certainly does not go through Alaska or Portugal. Nor does a JFK-TLV flight. I have no idea what you put in or looking at. It's similar to many California to Scandanavia routes in operation today. Just a bit longer.

SFO-TLV routing
 

danielonn,

As you may have seen from using the Great Circle Mapper program, when you enter the city combination of SFO and TLV, the flight path from SFO starts heading Northeast through Canada, Greenland, western tip of Scandinavian pennisula, Germany, Turkey before getting to TLV for a total distance of 7422 miles. It may be doable as a non-stop on a B747-400 since LAX-SYD (7488 miles) is done using a B747-400. If it needs to be one-stop then I think it is a shorter trip to go through JFK rather than say going the long way through NRT. SFO-NRT-TLV is doable on B747-400 since each leg is about 5100 and 5700 miles. It would be a good MR to go through NRT to earn miles, though.

HJ

A routing like SFO-JNU-SVO-TLV is about 7700 miles acording to the Great Circle Mapper while a "direct" rote is about 7400 miles. Also, the routing over the north pole takes a much longer route over water than the other one which makes it more complex.