Israeli Politics · updated 1h ago · 3 min read
Netanyahu Projects Security Leadership After Flydubai Incident at Ben Gurion Airport
Co-pilot stabbed captain, attempted crash; passengers overpowered him, plane landed safely. Netanyahu cited Islamist radical indoctrination as motive behind the attack.
Whether it is characterised as jihadist terror or broadly unknown.
7 of 9 outlets skipped it: UAE investigation includes whether it was linked to a terrorist purpose.
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CBS News
“Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz called it ‘an attempted jihadist terror attack, which was thwarted only thanks to the heroism of several Israeli passengers’.”Read the original ↗
The Guardian
“All possible scenarios, from terrorism to mental disorders, are being looked into.”Read the original ↗
CBS and the Guardian differ mainly on how far to label the attempt as jihadist terror versus keeping broader scenarios open.
Election-season security fight
Benjamin Netanyahu used the Flydubai flight incident to project security leadership as he appeared at Ben Gurion Airport to greet Zionist passengers who had survived a “potentially catastrophic Flydubai flight,” according to Zionist political analyst Tal Schneider of Zman Yisrael. Schneider said Netanyahu’s public-relations team had spent the campaign waiting for “the right picture,” and she added that Likud had lost momentum, falling to 18 seats in some opinion polls. Schneider also said the Amcha Yisrael party, founded by Reserve Brigadier General Ofer Winter, helped bring back right-wing bloc voters undecided about voting for Likud, while the strengthening of the Joint List and the United Arab List, Ra’am, weakened Gadi Eisenkot’s bloc and stabilized Netanyahu’s bloc enough to prevent Eisenkot from forming a government.
Schneider described a dispute over advance information, saying Netanyahu adviser Yonatan Urich exploited the incident politically after the prime minister briefed Yair Lapid, at Lapid’s request, on security information. Lapid said after the meeting that he did not take the threats lightly but had heard no new details, while Schneider said Urich accused Lapid and Naftali Bennett of mocking Netanyahu’s warnings.
Netanyahu links motive to indoctrination
Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News that investigations suggest the man who stabbed his fellow pilot and tried to take over a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv had undergone "Islamist radical indoctrination". Netanyahu said he was "calling out to the aircrew 'kill me, kill me', so it's clear he was suicidal - that's not a question," and he added that he did not want to draw firm conclusions as to motive yet. The BBC reported that the Flydubai plane plunged more than 17,000ft (5,200m) two hours into its journey on Wednesday before passengers and crew overpowered the attacker and retook control to land safely.
The UAE state news agency reported that investigations began there to determine "whether the incident was linked to any terrorist activity or purpose," while the Interior Ministry of Saudi Arabia said the pilot and co-pilot had been sent back to the UAE on Thursday morning after medical teams cleared them. Israeli officials said the flight was registered in the UAE and flies under its flag, and Netanyahu said there was a "loophole" that Israel was addressing with the "full co-operation" of the Emirati government.
Aftermath, awards, and investigations
Israel’s government said it would check the identities of all pilots flying into the country after Flydubai suspended flights to and from Israel while it investigated Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv, according to Al Jazeera. Netanyahu praised Captain Smit Machchhar as “a true hero” for saving the 174 people on board after he was stabbed by his co-pilot, and he said Machchhar “fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker”. Al Jazeera reported that Saudi authorities arrested the co-pilot after the landing and interrogated him, while it also said a motive had not been established.
Doron Spielman, a spokesman for Netanyahu, said Israel would vet the identities of all pilots flying into Israel, and he told Reuters: “Every pilot that is going to be flying into Israel, we are going to know the pilots’ identities, know who they are, and do some type of security check,”. The Guardian reported that Netanyahu said the co-pilot had previously undergone radical Islamist indoctrination and was suicidal, and it quoted Netanyahu telling Fox News: “We know that he underwent Islamic radical indoctrination.”T