Benjamin Netanyahu hails the Flydubai ‘miracle’: ‘I served in special forces. I’m not sure we could’ve done it’
Speaking the day after the extraordinary events on Flight 1073, Israel’s prime minister praises the passengers who prevented Israel’s 9/11, looks ahead to the election and give his candid views on Britain’s foreign policy and…
Assessment
Netanyahu is publicly framing the Flydubai incident as a national near-miss and a display of civilian heroism, directly comparing it to 9/11 to sharpen the stakes. His praise for the passengers and his explicit doubt that his own special forces background would have sufficed is a deliberate rhetorical move: it elevates ordinary Israelis into the story and deflects any questions about security or intelligence failures. The timing matters. He speaks the day after the event, with an election ahead, and volunteers unsolicited opinions on British foreign policy and settlers. That suggests he is using this moment to reset the political conversation on his terms, wrapping his campaign messaging around a spectacle of collective survival.