Netanyahu rode the wave of scarecrow of external security threats and sought to exploit them as an electoral material to the fullest, as part of his efforts to impose the election agenda by keeping security and external threats at the forefront of the debate.
Afrasianet - Dr. Mohamed Halsa - At the time of writing, neither the Saudi nor Emirati sides have issued any confirmation of the narrative that Israel has fabricated, based on the testimonies of the Israeli passengers on board, about a "terrorist" attack by the plane's deputy commander, who wanted to "seize the plane and destroy it, including the plane."
Despite the many flaws in the narrative of the "terrorist attack", Israel dealt with it on the assumption that it was conclusive, and attributed the incident, temporarily, to an individual act or what it called the "lone wolf", even though it is eager to obtain a presumption, and perhaps a fabrication of a presumption, linking the incident to Iran or one of its affiliated parties.
Although Netanyahu told Fox News that it was too early to say whether Iran was involved in the attempted attack on the plane, he stressed that he would follow up on the investigation, and that Israel might "be involved in it as well" as it presses Saudi Arabia to allow access to and investigate the plane's "hijacker."
So far, for Netanyahu, this narrative, with its pros and cons, has brought him quick political gains, which were soon manifested in the euphoria of his showmanship with some of the plane's passengers, his speech after the incident, and his conversation with both presidents, Donald Trump and Mohammed bin Zayed, about the plane crash.
The first fruit of this incident was to divert the attention of Israeli society from the issue of Netanyahu's responsibility for the events of October 7, especially with the frequency of news and sources confirming that he was warned before the events occurred, but he did not prevent them from happening, and then denied his advance warning from any source. After the plane accident, this issue was no longer at the top of the Israeli internal debate, and Netanyahu was able, with the ability to divert the internal debate from this story and replace it with the discussion of the plane accident and the scarecrow of external security threats that lurk in Israeli society.
The second benefit that Netanyahu received from the plane crash was the confirmation of his "credibility" and the credibility of his warnings about the existence of real threats to Israel, of which he had been warned, by a strange coincidence, only one day before the plane incident. This was confirmed by the sharp attack by Netanyahu's right-wing media machine and mouthpieces on the opposition poles, led by Lapid, who downplayed Netanyahu's warnings and considered them "a cheap trade in the blood and security of Israelis for electoral propaganda considerations."
The Minister of War, Katz, was quoted as saying: "The serious incident on the flydubai plane was an attempt to carry out a jihadist attack, and when the Prime Minister and I issue security warnings and warnings based on intelligence, it is better for everyone, whether our enemies abroad or former officials who are not informed at home, to listen to them and take them seriously."
Journalist Amit Segal, who is close to Netanyahu, was also quoted as commenting on the incident, saying, "If it turns out that there are indeed attempts to harm Israel ahead of the elections." Segal was not satisfied with that, but later titled an article he published "with the warning that preceded the attack attempt and the complete intelligence blindness that almost ended in disaster," in which he referred to the sharp disagreements that have taken place in recent weeks between the Shin Bet service, headed by David Zinni, and Israeli airlines over the restrictions imposed by the Shin Bet on flights to the UAE.
According to Segal, the Shin Bet, which is responsible for securing Israeli flights to and from Israel, believed that the security arrangements at the UAE's airports were inadequate, and explained that these warnings may be related to the current incident even though the flight belonged to a foreign company, considering that additional security arrangements for flights to Israel could have helped thwart the attack.
Netanyahu rode the wave of the scarecrow of external security threats and sought to exploit them as an electoral material to the fullest, as part of his efforts to impose the election agenda by keeping security and external threats at the forefront of the debate, unlike what the opposition, which focuses on recruiting the ultra-Orthodox and taking responsibility for internal failures, wants.
After this incident, Netanyahu wanted to show that his security response to any ordinary event was very swift, and that his main concern was the security of Israelis. This exaggeration of the plane incident confirms that Netanyahu is interested in drawing attention to the fact that he handled every security information he received with great sensitivity during the period of elections and Jewish holidays that are highly security-sensitive.
On the external level, Netanyahu tried to exploit the plane incident to make a preliminary breakthrough in the normalization file with Saudi Arabia by allowing the arrival of Israeli rescue planes to evacuate passengers, and perhaps at a minimum, security normalization with a direct and indirect Israeli presence in all Arab airports and planes.
Israeli journalist Amichai Stein revealed that political and security officials in Israel were confident that Saudi Arabia would allow an Israeli civilian rescue flight to evacuate Israeli passengers after the flydubai plane landed in its territory, but the Israeli side was ultimately surprised by a Saudi refusal. According to the report, the Israeli airline El Al submitted a proposal to send a plane, and the option of using an Israeli Air Force plane was also raised.
At one point, the possibility of sending a plane without Israeli signs or emblems was even discussed, but Saudi Arabia rejected all these options, and the Israelis were eventually returned on another flydubai flight. "Israel must understand that normalization cannot be imposed as a fait accompli," Stein quoted a source close to the Saudi royal court as saying, noting that the Saudi refusal was a "big surprise" to Israeli officials who were expecting Riyadh's approval in light of the exceptional circumstances.
The fourth bird that Netanyahu is hunting for in the wake of the plane accident is what was suggested by his conversation with UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed, and what was reported about their agreement to work on arranging the issue of security measures at airports to secure air traffic between the two countries, following the plane incident. The Hebrew Channel 12 claimed that following the Israeli threat to cancel flydubai's flights to Israel, the UAE agreed to Israeli security demands and the installation of additional inspection equipment.
According to the channel, the Emirati response was that flydubai agreed to send details about the identities of the new pilots of the replacement plane to the "Mossad" and "Shin Bet" security search and investigation services, after which the Israeli intelligence approved and the plane took off for "Tel Aviv", after the Israeli passengers refused to board the replacement plane until the identity of the replacement pilots was confirmed.
The two sides also agreed to "encircle the security impact of the incident through direct cooperation in the face of any extremist elements that seek to undermine security and the stability of air navigation in the region," which opens the door to broader Israeli security and intelligence intervention in the Gulf region.
It is more likely that Israel's use of the plane incident will not stop at the limits of security arrangements, so will the UAE, under Israeli pressure, respond to Netanyahu's wishes by issuing an official Emirati denial of Netanyahu's prior notification of the events of October 7, which Netanyahu sought to achieve, and did not succeed, in his last meeting with Mohammed bin Zayed in Abu Dhabi a few days before the plane incident...!
________________
