Friday, October 02, 2026

10/01 Links Pt1: Melanie Phillips: Those amazing and heroic Israelis; How Fiction Will Remember October 7 - with Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff; Does U.N. stand for "unknown"?

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Those amazing and heroic Israelis
The British government is blind to the risks posed by the Palestinian Arabs because, to the morally bankrupt left, the Palestinian cause is synonymous with morality.

The spittle-flecked fanaticism of Miliband’s speech to this week’s Labour Party conference took many people aback.

Having paid lip service to standing against antisemitism and for Israel’s right to defend itself, this scion of a Jewish family decimated by the Holocaust denounced Netanyahu’s responsibility for Palestinian “suffering” in Gaza and the West Bank as a “stain on the conscience of the world.”

Having falsely accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” by the “settler terrorists of the West Bank,” “war crimes in Gaza” and the “illegal occupation of Palestine,” Miliband declared: “To the millions in Britain and elsewhere who have been moved and outraged by the plight of the Palestinian people, we hear you. You were right.”

Precisely what does Miliband think those people were “right” about? Their claim that Israel is committing “genocide”? That Palestine must be Arab “from the river to the sea”? Their demand to “globalize the intifada”?

Miliband, who came across as an unhinged demagogue, is a stain on the memory of his slaughtered family.

The suicidal imbecility of Britain’s hostility to Israel was demonstrated by the incident at RAF Fairford, the base in southwest England from where U.S. bombers have taken off for Iran.

Last Sunday, five men were arrested on suspicion of being about to attack the base. Although much about this incident remains murky, Britain’s Prime Minister Andy Burnham has now said there are “strong indications” that Iran was involved.

But as Netanyahu has revealed, it was Israel that gave the Brits the intelligence warning of such an Iranian attack—and pretty much the next day, he said, the United Kingdom announced sanctions against the Israeli “settlements.”

Where Britain leads, the rest of the West follows. There is acute concern that these sanctions are intended to broaden out into a global financial strangulation of Israel, especially if the Democrats win the post-Trump presidency.

There’s anxiety that American support for Israel is crumbling. Some reports suggest that, apart from CENTCOM, even the U.S. defense establishment has become hostile to the Jewish state.

This is fundamentally because the West is undergoing a rapidly progressive erosion of its core values, including the destruction of morality, truth and reason itself.

Even today, diminished as it is, the United Kingdom sets the Western cultural pace. That’s why the British government’s defamation and delegitimization of Israel are so important.

Britain is leading the West into the heart of darkness—the abandonment of civilization for the embrace of barbarism. And the people upon whose backs Miliband et al have accordingly stuck a bullseye are the Jews.

But another narrative is emerging to counter this obscenity. Flydubai is a United Arab Emirates airline. The terrorist co-pilot was Omani. Oman is an ally of Iran. The UAE has become a close ally of Israel fighting Iran. The Emirati crew helped Israelis on the plane to avert catastrophe. And the plane was allowed to land in Saudi Arabia.

A new order is being born in which Arabs and Jews are fighting together against the forces of barbarism in the Islamic world.

On their way home to Israel, survivors of the hijacking sang the words written by the 18th- century Chassidic rabbi Nachman of Breslov: “The whole entire world is a very narrow bridge, and the main thing is to have no fear at all.”

Britain and much of Europe—and even America if it allows the Democratic Party to gain power—are now hurtling downward towards a catastrophic crash. But Israel will live because it has seized the cockpit controls.
JPost Editorial: The flydubai passengers have returned home safely, and that is all that matters for now
Serious questions will have to be answered about how the terrorist came to be piloting an Israel-bound aircraft and whether every security requirement governing flights to Israel was properly followed. Those questions are legitimate, and they should be investigated thoroughly.

But this incident is not an indictment of the UAE.

One terrorist does not represent a country. The UAE has maintained its relationship with Israel through years of regional upheaval, including war, and Wednesday’s attack should not be allowed to undermine a relationship that has become an important part of the region since the Abraham Accords.

Another country also deserves Israel’s gratitude: Saudi Arabia.

Israel and Saudi Arabia still do not have formal diplomatic relations. Yet when an aircraft carrying 166 Israelis needed somewhere to land after a terror attack in the cockpit, Saudi Arabia opened its doors.

The Saudis did more than provide a runway.

Passengers received food and medical care after landing in Tabuk; the wounded were treated, and frightened children and families were looked after. One Israeli passenger described the Saudi treatment as “very nice” and “very understanding.”

At a moment of extraordinary fear, Saudi authorities responded with humanity and professionalism. Israelis should recognize that and say thank you.

There will, of course, be time for questions, and there should be.

The investigation must determine exactly how this attack was possible, whether security procedures failed, whether warning signs were missed, and what changes are needed to ensure nothing like it happens again.

A political argument is already developing around the attack.

Netanyahu warned on Tuesday that Israel’s enemies could try to attack ahead of the election. Opposition leader Yair Lapid, who received a security briefing from Netanyahu that evening, said afterward that nothing resembling the flydubai incident had been presented to him and accused government figures of trying to use the attack for political purposes.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) responded that Netanyahu had been briefed about a significant increase in terrorist activity around the world.

Those competing accounts will need to be examined. Israelis deserve to know what intelligence existed, what the government knew, and whether the statements now being made accurately reflect the information available beforehand.

But that reckoning does not have to overshadow what happened on Wednesday.

For now, think of the passengers who ran toward danger. Think of the pilots who regained control of a plunging aircraft. Think of the dentist who treated a wounded pilot in midair. Think of the Saudis who received Israelis in Tabuk and cared for them.

And think of 174 families who could so easily have received a very different call.

A terrorist tried to hijack an aircraft carrying 166 Israelis.

He failed.

They are alive and safe.

For now, that is more than enough.
Khaled Abu Toameh: 'October 7 Will Return': Hamas, Like Iran, Will Not Voluntarily Give Up the Fight
The chants matter because they reveal what speeches about peace and reconstruction conceal.

These slogans raise a fundamental question for anyone discussing the future of the Gaza Strip: What exactly has changed?

The answer is particularly important because the international framework for the Gaza Strip explicitly calls for something very different.

US President Donald J. Trump's 20-point peace plan states that Gaza is to become a "deradicalized terror-free zone" that poses no threat to its neighbors. The plan calls for the decommissioning of weapons, demilitarization and the establishment of an International Stabilization Force. It also envisages a process intended to change Gazan mindsets and narratives by emphasizing tolerance and peaceful coexistence.

On paper, the objective is peaceful coexistence. Public gatherings are proclaiming that Gaza belongs to Hamas and rejecting international forces.

This is the main problem facing any attempt to transform the Gaza Strip.

Reconstruction can rebuild buildings. It cannot dismantle an ideology.

The answer will determine whether Gaza's reconstruction becomes part of a genuine transition toward stability, or whether reconstruction takes place alongside the reorganization of the same forces that brought the Hamas terrorists to power in the Gaza Strip and the region into war.

Has the ideological and military foundation for another October 7 massacre actually been removed?

On the eve of the October 7 anniversary, the world should pay close attention when people in the Gaza Strip say they want the October 7 massacre to happen again.

It is crucial to remember what senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad said shortly after the October 7 massacre: "The Al-Aqsa Flood [what Hamas calls the October 7 massacre] is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth, because we have the determination, the resolve, and the capabilities to fight."


Widely cited Times of Israel archive of Oct. 7 fallen now available on social media
After 15 years in the Israeli media, Times of Israel reporter Amy Spiro was accustomed to covering war casualties and terror attacks, as well as their aftermath.

“The victims were always front and center,” Spiro said.

However, the unfathomable scope of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught changed the way Israelis cover and commemorate tragedy.

Some 1,200 people were brutally slain on that day, and 251 were abducted to the Gaza Strip, where they were held hostage by Hamas and other terror groups. Many members of Israel’s security forces were also killed as the country battled Hamas in Gaza and the Hezbollah terror organization on the northern border.

“How can we possibly tell that many stories?” Spiro said. “How could we possibly really spotlight that many people?”

Between constant hostage and military developments, and hundreds of grieving families, it seemed impossible for local media to devote enough space to memorialize the individual victims.

But that didn’t stop Spiro and a team of Times of Israel reporters from trying. They set out to document the stories of the terror victims and soldiers killed in the Israel-Hamas war through September 2025. The project was later updated after the final hostages’ remains were returned in late 2025 and early 2026, making it the most comprehensive English-language archive of civilians and soldiers killed in the war.

Those We Have Lost is a public resource that, until now, has lived on The Times of Israel’s website. As the third anniversary of October 7 approaches, we have dedicated new ToI channels on Instagram (@toithosewehavelost), X (@ToILostsProject), and Facebook (Those We Have Lost), to help those creating memorial projects more easily access the information.

On the website, the archive has a search function to find specific names linked to an obituary, and the front page reshuffles every time it’s clicked to unveil a new set of profiles.

​As the database expands to social media, users will be able to simply type a name into the search function on X and Facebook to share a victim’s obituary, or repost their snapshot memorial on Instagram.

“We’ve tried to make it as accessible as possible,” Spiro said.
Call me Back Podcast: How Fiction Will Remember October 7 - with Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff
How do you turn October 7th into fiction when it still feels like the present?

For more than a decade, Fauda has turned the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a global television phenomenon. But Season 5 takes on something different: two episodes that put its fictional characters inside the events of October 7th, while the trauma is still very much alive. Dan sits down with Fauda creators Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff to discuss the responsibility of dramatizing a real catastrophe, what they chose to show—and leave unseen—and what happens when fiction begins to shape how the world remembers history.

𝗜𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲
How Fauda reconstructed the events of October 7th
How the co-creators determined the level of violence they could portray
Why the creators saw Season 5 as more than just another season of TV
Why Fauda is drawing a huge audience across the Arab world
Can a television show become part of the historical record that’s still being written?
In an era of misinformation and anti-semitism, why it’s important to tell this story during a still-living trauma


UK-Iranian man arrested in connection with suspected RAF Fairford terror plot
A dual UK-Iranian national has been arrested in connection with the suspected RAF Fairford terror plot.

Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) said the 27-year-old man was arrested in the borough of Westminster on Thursday on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts.

He is the sixth person to be arrested over this incident.

CTP said a 26-year-old man, a UK national, has also been questioned under caution.

Five British nationals, all in their mid-20s, were arrested on suspicion of explosives offences and terrorism near the military site in Gloucestershire over the weekend before being bailed under investigation on Monday.

Senior CTP national co- ordinator Vicki Evans said: “The investigation into circumstances surrounding events in Gloucestershire is hugely complex, and our specialist teams are interrogating multiple lines of inquiry.

“As we’ve made clear, we’re looking at all possible angles – including possible foreign state involvement.

“I’d like to thank the public for their continued support and patience whilst we work through this investigation.”
Israel gave UK intelligence about suspected Iran-linked RAF Fairford plot, claims Netanyahu
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that Israel provided the UK with intelligence ahead of the suspected RAF Fairford plot.

Five British nationals were arrested last weekend on suspicion of terrorism and explosives offences.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has since stated there are “strong indications” that Iran was involved in the attempted attack.

In an interview with Fox News, Netanyahu said: “We gave the Brits the intel that there was going to be an attack and that it’s an Iranian-sponsored attack, and pretty much the next day they slapped sanctions on us. “

He added: “You talked about the thing in Britain. Do you want to hear how absurd things are there? And how far the anti-Israeli propaganda has gone?”

“It’s wild, the caving in, the collapse before the Islamist-Marxist alliance is very dangerous for the future of the West.”

Jewish News has contacted the Foreign Office for comment on Netanyahu’s claims.

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog echoed Netanyahu’s remarks on the intelligence sharing during an appearance on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, saying: “I can only echo the prime minister’s words on this without adding anything further.

“I’ll leave it to the British authorities to make the final judgment, but I think the statement of Prime Minister Burnham on this issue, you know, gives a big zoom on this topic, and I think it’s preferable that I leave it to him.”

The five British nationals, all in their mid-20s, were arrested near the Gloucestershire military base, which has recently hosted American bombers after former PM Keir Starmer permitted the US to use British bases for “defensive” strikes against Tehran during the Middle East conflict.

The suspects were bailed under investigation on Monday.

Asked about the case in a series of broadcast interviews on Wednesday, Burnham said: “There are strong indications that Iran played a part in what happened over the weekend at RAF Fairford, but it remains an ongoing, complex and serious police investigation.”


John Spencer: Heroes and Terrorists: The Courage to Fight Islamist Terrorism
As an American, I know full well what terrorists in a plane can do. Despite all of the protocols after 9/11, terrorists still seek ways to use those protocols against the world. The protocol to reinforce and redesign cockpit doors for every commercial aircraft in the world were implemented to keep attackers out. But a threat already inside the cockpit presents a threat. In this case, the Captain Machchhar ability to open the door gave others the opportunity to intervene.

But it raises a much larger conversation that we need to have on Islamic radicalization and its continuing threat to the world. Israel's Prime Minister said the co-pilot had undergone radical Islamist indoctrination, while Flydubai said the underlying reasons and motives remained subject to a formal investigation. Reports say passengers hearing “Allahu Akbar” shouted from the cockpit. The investigation must establish the facts, including whether anyone encouraged or helped prepare the attacker.

The number of instances of Muslim radical leaders propagating extremist views and radicalizing their societies is unacceptable. We need wider Muslim communities to come out and condemn attacks committed in the name of Islam, whether attempted or executed. We all must call out these Islamist terrorist campaigns that target civilians in the pursuit of their warped ideology.

Whether it’s 9/11, Pahalgam, or Mumbai, enough is enough. The same demand for condemnation applies to attacks on Jewish communities in Canada, in the United States, and in Britain. In Boulder, Colorado, people taking part in a walk calling attention to the Israeli hostages in Gaza were attacked with Molotov cocktails. People should be able to board an airplane, practice their faith, or walk through their own community without becoming targets.

That’s why we celebrate the heroism and courage of Captain Smit Machchhar. He is the best of us. He’s the best of humanity, as are the other Israeli citizens, like Yaniv and the others, who got into the cockpit and subdued the attacker, and the pilots who were passengers and safely landed the plane.

We also have to have the hard conversations. Leaders of nations and leaders of Muslim communities need to call out and condemn this and every attempted terrorist act in the name of Islam and the Islamic radicalization that encourages it.
Brendan O'Neill: Flydubai and the Heroism of Ordinary Jews
On that insane flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv, the murderous bigotry of the extremist came head to head with the Jewish people's love of life. Mercifully, the latter won. The Jews were victorious. Once again, they thwarted their enemies.

The footage from that Flydubai flight is terrifying. The plane plummeted 17,000 feet in just two minutes. Imagine the horror of that. Then came the brilliant, brave fightback. The passengers weren't ready to die. According to one passenger, "three to five guys" stormed the cockpit and subdued the attacker. This was by all accounts an act of resistance against the culture of death.

Whether it was an act of suicidal lunacy or of jihadist hate, the fact remains that Israelis fought back against barbarism in the skies and landed a beautiful blow for humanity over hatred.

If this was an attempt to kill Israelis, can we really be surprised? Hatred for Israel is out of control. Israelophobia unites the plummy keffiyeh-wearer of the leafy campus and the conspiratorial cab driver in Kabul. It's the great moral blight of our times. In such a fevered climate, assaults on Israelis, and on the Jews of the West too, are naturally going to spike.

If this does turn out to have been an attempted mass murder of Israelis, I expect the response to the heroism we saw will be muted. Heaven forfend we praise Israelis! Aren't Israelis meant to just suck up suspected jihadist attacks on their way of life and never fight back? That's effectively been a rallying cry since the pogrom of 7 October.

Do you side with the swirling anti-human hatred for the Jewish state, or with the Jews' determination to survive against all the odds? I know whose side I'm on.
'I saw the cockpit was empty': Israeli recounts the fight to survive flydubai attempted hijacking
The cockpit was empty as the flydubai aircraft descended, Tal said, and the two additional pilots who could take its controls were still in the passenger cabin. While other Israelis fought the attacker at the front of the aircraft, he had to get those pilots forward.

A day later, Tal, an Israeli businessman who lives abroad, sat across from me at the beachfront Carlton hotel in Tel Aviv.

He spoke readily about the passengers who had fought and the dentist who had treated the wounded pilot. He made comparatively little of his own part in getting someone back to the controls.

The view, however, deserved some attention.

With the Tel Aviv skyline visible from where we sat on Thursday, Tal spoke about how extraordinary it felt to see the city from there. The previous day, he and the other passengers had been desperate to land and finally arrive in Israel. Now he could take in the buildings from a hotel by the beach.

His account of an empty cockpit was among the most consequential details to emerge from our second conversation.

During the confrontation aboard the Dubai-to-Tel Aviv flight on Wednesday, he said, there had been an interval when nobody was inside it. He understood that the two pilots traveling among the passengers had to take over.

“I had to shake them to get them to move to the front and take control of the plane, because it was diving,” he had told The Jerusalem Post in our initial exchange.

The aircraft eventually made an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. Flydubai confirmed that all passengers were safe and accounted for. Tal’s description of the empty cockpit remains an eyewitness account; the precise sequence inside it and the duration of that interval have not been independently established by the Post

In our correspondence from Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, he had already offered a description of his own contribution.

Others had physically subdued the attacker. He had dealt with the additional pilots and helped find restraints.

He called it “combat support” and added a smiley face.
Omani flydubai hijacker told passengers to kill him after he was restrained, Israelis tell PM
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with four of the passengers from the hijacked flydubai flight who helped restrain the terrorist who attacked the pilot on Thursday.

Netanyahu met with Yaniv Hayoun, Or Pardilov, Dr. Shota Musayev, and Sigalit Musayev.

During the conversation with Netanyahu, the passengers revealed that they tied up the terrorist, an unidentified Omani pilot, with a headphone cable in the cockpit.

"We tied the stabbing pilot with the headphone cable. He was saying 'Kill me' – meaning that he failed at his mission and prefers to die," one passenger told the prime minister.

The group added that they told the attacker to speak English to the crew so they could all understand what he was saying, and that, at the time, they were unsure whether any other members of the flight crew were involved in the attack.

“We tried to maintain control over the situation, because we couldn’t trust anyone," one passenger said in a video released by Netanyahu's office.
Netanyahu says Omani copilot who tried to bring down flight ‘underwent Islamist radical indoctrination’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday asserted that the Omani first officer who stabbed the pilot on the flydubai flight “underwent Islamist radical indoctrination.” While Netanyahu did not elaborate, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel that the copilot discussed killing Jews on social media.

Netanyahu also said in a separate video that the attacker asked the Emirati crew members to kill him after he had been subdued, citing conversations with passengers on the flight.

He was basing this comment on accounts of the attack given to him by some of the Israeli passengers who subdued the assailant and saved the plane. Yaniv Hayun, one of the Israelis who overpowered the Omani copilot, told Netanyahu that the attacker called out, “Kill me,” when he had been bound and immobilized and he knew his attempt had failed.

In a video released by the Government Press Office, Dr. Shota Musayev, who treated the plane’s stabbed captain, described to Netanyahu how the Israelis initially used headphone wire to tie up the copilot, “to ensure that he could not start to go wild.”

Hayun interjected, “He shouted, ‘Kill me, kill me,’ in English.” Hayun elaborated, “That means he had failed in the mission and preferred to die.”

“This was a person who was willing to commit suicide,” said the official. “His social media accounts [say] clearly that he has been radicalized into jihadist ideology. He talks about killing Jews.”

“We can’t say for sure until the investigation’s over,” the official continued, “but it certainly seems like he was a suicide actor who was probably going to try to down that plane.”

Netanyahu echoed that assessment during an interview with Fox News, saying, “The attacker, he calls out to the aircrew, ‘Kill me, kill me,'” making it “clear he was suicidal.”

“I think it’s too early to say whether there was Iranian collusion,” the prime minister added, but said he anticipated more definitive findings soon.
Before flydubai attack, dozens of Omani pilots flew to TLV despite ban — report
Israeli security agencies were negligent in enforcing a ban on pilots from hostile states flying into Tel Aviv, a failing exposed by Wednesday’s attack on a flydubai flight, according to a report on Thursday.

The attack, which was thwarted by Israeli passengers, the captain and other pilots on board, was perpetrated by the plane’s Omani copilot, who allegedly tried to deliberately crash the plane after first stabbing and injuring the captain. The plane eventually made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, and the passengers, almost all of them Israeli, were later flown on to Israel.

Oman does not have relations with Israel. The Abraham Accords, which established diplomatic ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates in 2020, bar pilots from flying into Israel if their countries do not have relations with Jerusalem.

But despite that provision, Channel 12 news reported that Israel has allowed dozens of Omani pilots to fly into Israel in recent years. It added that Israel has ceded oversight of that prohibition, trusting the foreign airlines to enforce it.

The report said the Shin Bet security service never examined the origins of flydubai’s pilots, beyond merely asking the airline not to use pilots from states that lack ties with Israel.

The Transportation Ministry, for its part, said in a statement to the network that the Shin Bet never issued a specific warning regarding threats from flydubai, beyond asking for increased baggage checks.

“The Shin Bet has all the means to know, within five minutes, who all of the pilots on the Dubai airline are, and they simply chose to turn a blind eye,” the network quoted an anonymous airline industry official as saying. “In Israel, they expected the airline to be reliable enough, so they didn’t conduct reviews in recent years.”

The report also cited a 2024 recommendation from the State Comptroller’s Office instructing the government to review security protocols in all matters relating to air travel.

As Israeli authorities probe the incident, the Transportation Ministry will also be checked, including the activities of the Center for Aviation Security Operations, which was set up in recent years to oversee and monitor the entry of flight crews to Israel, Channel 12 said.
Flydubai hijacker, wounded pilot accompanied by Emirati security team to UAE, Saudi Arabia says
The Omani flydubai hijacker and the wounded pilot, Capt. Smit Machchhar, have been transferred to the United Arab Emirates, the Saudi Interior Ministry said in a Thursday statement.

Both individuals were accompanied by an Emirati security team after being cleared to fly by medical professionals after being hospitalized once the aircraft landed in Tubuk, according to a Saudi Interior Ministry official.

The official continued, stating that Saudi Arabia “handles emergency situations in accordance with its international and humanitarian obligations, as well as the regulations and procedures adopted by the relevant authorities, to ensure the safety and security of air navigation and the readiness of the Kingdom’s aviation and security system.”

On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacker was being investigated in Saudi Arabia, where the plane landed at Tabuk airport, and that he believed he would be taken to the United Arab Emirates.

"We'll be following and possibly also participating in this investigation," Netanyahu said in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.


Nearly $80,000 raised for wounded flydubai pilot
Two online fundraisers for Capt. Smit Machchhar, the Indian pilot stabbed aboard an Israel-bound flydubai flight, had raised more than $79,000 combined by Thursday, as supporters rallied to assist his recovery.

A GoFundMe campaign organized by Jewish Breaking News raised more than $73,000 toward a $130,000 goal. A separate campaign organized by Tal Dooreck raised more than $6,000. Both described their purpose as supporting the wounded captain.

“You risked your life to protect ours. We will not forget you,” the Jewish Breaking News campaign stated, appealing to Jewish and Israeli communities and supporters worldwide.

Organizers said the funds were intended to assist Machchhar and his family, with transfer arrangements still being finalized.

The fundraising came alongside tributes from prominent Indian entertainers and athletes. Cricket star Sachin Tendulkar praised Machchhar on X/Twitter, writing: “A true real-life hero. The entire world is proud of you.” Former India cricketers Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag and Suresh Raina also posted messages honoring him, The Times of India reported.

Machchhar unlocked the cockpit door before collapsing
Bollywood actors Sonam Kapoor, Raveena Tandon and Shamita Shetty shared tributes on social media, ANI said. The reports did not establish whether any of the celebrities had donated to the campaigns.

Machchhar was wounded during Wednesday’s flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv. Passenger Yaniv Hayoun said he believed the captain had unlocked the cockpit door before collapsing, The Jerusalem Post previously reported.

Israeli dentist Shota Musayev helped treat the wounded pilot before the aircraft made an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, where Machchhar was hospitalized.


Ben Shapiro: The Hijacking Story Just Got More Insane. Here's The Latest.
New details emerge about the FlyDubai attempted hijacking, and the heroism of the Israeli passengers and Indian pilot who stopped it; we talk about the West’s choice between standing up and surrendering to radical Islam.




Independent MP condemned for ‘Toxic conspiratorial’ post about Israel flight terror attack
The Board of Deputies has condemned the “toxic conspiratorial thinking” of a Member of Parliament who said that he “smell[ed] a rat” in response to an Israeli report of what happened on the flydubai flight which managed to neutralise a terrorist threat from a member of the cabin crew.

Ayoub Khan, the independent MP for Birmingham Perry Bar, shared a BBC article about the attack with the headline “’Hero’ pilot stabbed by other pilot on Israel-bound plane, Israeli PM says. Alongside the article, Khan wrote: “I am genuinely shocked at the speed of this enquiry by the Israeli spokespeople!!! Normally it takes them months if not years. I think I smell a rat!”

Responding Khan’s comments, Adrian Cohen, Senior Vice President of the Board of Deputies and Chair of its International Division, said:

“A potentially catastrophic event was averted by courage of brave passengers and crew. It was a stark reminder of the threats faced by hatred directed against Israel and Jews around the world.

“In a situation where more than 170 lives have were saved by these heroic acts, we could all do without this sort of toxic conspiratorial thinking which feeds extremism. The response of this MP is callous and distasteful, and should have no place in our politics.”

On Wednesday morning, a flydubai flight from the United Arab Emirates to Israel sent out distress signals, and subsequently made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. It transpired that the co-pilot, believed to be of Omani origin, had stabbed the captain, Indian national Smit Machchhar. Captain Machchhar fought back, and managed to open the door to the cockpit, allowing Israeli passengers to enter and subdue the terrorist. The plane plummeted thousands of feet during the attack, with a passenger who had seen documentary footage of air disasters able to use what he had seen to level out the plane.

Labour Peer Lord Austin also condemned Khan’s remarks, saying: “Ayoub Khan needs to apologise for this disgraceful comment which appears to endorse crazy conspiracy theories that the Flydubai terror attack was somehow a false flag by Israel. This MP seems to be totally obsessed with the world’s only Jewish state. Decent Brummies and the good people of Perry Barr deserve much better than this.”

Khan responded on social media, saying “Is this peer having a laugh? Please tell me he’s joking. Apologise?

“My fellow colleague of the Commons, I wouldn’t believe a word from Netanyahu unless it came independently corroborated, double-checked and preferably notarised by the universe itself.”

Khan, who is also a criminal barrister, was believed to be a key figure in the attempt last year to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from coming to Birmingham when the Israeli football team was drawn to play Aston Villa. In 2023, while a Liberal Democrat councillor, he released social media videos questioning the extent of the 7 October atrocities carried out by Hamas. When the Liberal Democrats said Khan had apologised, deleted his tiktok videos and agreed to undergo antisemitism training, Khan released a further video in which he said: “At no stage have I considered my material on TikTok offensive, nor have I agreed with anyone that I would undergo a training course in antisemitism. There is simply no need.”


Does U.N. stand for "unknown"?
One has to wonder why Albanese is apologizing now, rather than for her defenses of Hamas or her claim that the hostage takers were the real victims and not the innocents they kidnapped, starved, tortured, and murdered. And one has to wonder whether this apology is sincere, or if she was truly as unforgivably ignorant as she now claims to have been. The odds of her suddenly recognizing that it is evil to kidnap or murder Jewish babies and that massacring thousands of Jews just for being Jewish is wrong are virtually zero. And if she did start acting like a human being instead of like a Hitler cheerleader, she would likely not remain in her position for much longer.

Actually knowing the meaning of words is frowned upon at the UN, which fired UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide Alice Wairimu Nderitu because she correctly understood the definition of “genocide" and would not falsely apply the term to Israel’s acts in self-defense. However, when UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women Reem Alsalem claimed that “No independent investigation found that rape took place on the 7th of October," in deliberate ignorance and blindness to the UN’s own reports that sexual violence and rape were committed that black day, she was allowed to keep her position. Ignorance and denial of reality are prerequisites to working at the UN, to which truth and human rights for Jews are unknown concepts.

It is easy to accuse Israel when you go out of your way to ignore the meanings of words like “genocide" and “famine" and pretend that they mean something completely different. It is easy to defend Hamas when you can act like antisemitism does not mean hatred of Jews and thereby pretend that anti-Jewish prejudice does not exist. It is easy to deny that rape, kidnapping, and murder occurred when you pretend that these crimes do not apply when applied to Jewish women and children.

Real suffering goes ignored when the UN Secretary General acts as though every conflict other than Israel's is unknown to him. Real women suffer when the UN official tasked with defending women acts as if the concept of Jewish women being victims is unknown to her. And real people suffer when the UN official tasked with the Arab-Israeli conflict acts as if the concept of Jew-hatred is unknown to her.

If the UN is to function, if it is to be anything other than a den of hatred and a safe place for dictators and mass murderers, if it is to be of any benefit to humanity whatsoever, then it needs to be led and staffed by people of integrity, people for whom the truth and reality are not optional. The UN cannot continue to stand for “unknown."
UN Watch: Natasha Hausdorff Puts World Leaders’ U.N. Claims on Trial

Yad Vashem accuses Albanese of ‘obvious Holocaust revisionism’
Yad Vashem has accused UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, of “obvious and dangerous historical revisionism” after she made false claims about Jews and antisemitism during the Holocaust.

The World Holocaust Remembrance Centre issued a strongly worded response after Albanese claimed Jews in Nazi concentration camps had been called “Muslims” and suggested antisemitism originally referred to hatred of people from the Middle East more broadly.

Albanese has since apologised and admitted she had misunderstood the meaning of the German term “Muselmann”.

Yad Vashem said: “Francesca Albanese ventures into obvious and dangerous historical revisionism with her attempt to recast the Nazi persecution and murder of Jews as merely part of a broader hatred of the ‘non-white’, non-European or ‘non-Christian.’

“Her portrayal of the history of modern antisemitism – and of the term itself is deeply flawed. The term ‘antisemitism’ emerged in the mid-19th century as a term for ‘Jew-hatred’ and referred specifically to hostility toward Jews.”

Albanese made the remarks during an interview with the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of State Workers while discussing the origins of antisemitism.

“When the term ‘antisemitism’ was first coined, it referred to anyone who wasn’t European and came from the Middle East… in reality, the concept of antisemitism is broader,” she said. Francesca Albanese speaking during the interview in which she discussed the meaning of antisemitism. Photo Credit: UN Watch

“In fact, when they were taken to the gas chambers, there are some testimonies about life in the concentration camps that mention how Jews were referred to as ‘Muslims’”.

Her comments were challenged by Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, who accused her of “completely rewriting” the meaning of antisemitism and “distorting the history of the Holocaust”.

Neuer said Albanese was wrong on both points: antisemitism was coined to describe hatred of Jews, while “Muselmann” did not mean Jewish prisoners were considered Muslims.

The term was used in Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps to describe prisoners who had become extremely weak through starvation and exhaustion and were close to death. It applied to Jewish and non-Jewish prisoners and was not a Nazi racial classification. Its exact origins remain unclear.


CENTEF report reveals Hezbollah acquired $157m of weapons in 2024, majority provided freely by Iran
Hezbollah acquired an estimated $157 million worth of weaponry in 2024, despite its war with Israel, with the vast majority of it donated by the Islamic Republic of Iran at no cost to the terror group, according to the Israeli Center for Research of Terror Financing’s new research published on Thursday.

The report, “Hezbollah Financial Statements,” is the first installment in a series set to expose Hezbollah’s media spending, payments to wounded fighters and spending on its military infrastructure.

Based on open-source information and valuations of known Hezbollah military assets, CENTEF estimates that Iran provided roughly $129 million worth of weapons and military equipment as an in-kind grant while Hezbollah itself spent approximately $28 million in cash on its acquisitions.

Seeking to understand Hezbollah’s expenses as a business entity, to better assess the terror group’s financial health and identify ways to weaken it, while avoiding the costly airstrikes that can have significant consequences for Lebanese civilians, the researchers examined the group’s weapons procurement and manufacturing costs, as well as its ability to sustain its arsenal if the Islamic Republic’s capacity to supply it were reduced.

Explaining the rationale behind the analysis, CENTEF CEO Sharon Gal told The Jerusalem Post that breaking down Hezbollah’s finances could help legislators and operators efficiently identify and prioritize key supply chains to disrupt, creating pressure points for the Iranian-backed terror group.

Researchers aim for interactive tool on Hezbollah finances
Expanding those efforts, researcher Marc Cohen told the Post that they plan to release an interactive tool to help civilians understand Hezbollah’s financial statements, with the hope that it can raise awareness of Hezbollah’s negative impact on the Lebanese economy and the scale of its operations.

The researchers looked at the different types of military equipment Hezbollah is estimated to have acquired in 2024, including rockets, missiles, drones, ATGMs, air-defense systems, ammunition, launchers, naval equipment, and IED-related assets.

Hezbollah’s own investment in its weapons is limited to small arms, ammunition, drone components, dual-use equipment, and equipment obtained through its international procurement networks.

Because Hezbollah’s weapons acquisitions are clandestine, the researchers had to estimate how many weapons the group acquired in 2024 rather than rely on procurement records. They used three methods: Analyzing Hezbollah’s historical rate of replenishing its arsenal, assessing Iran’s capacity to manufacture and deliver weapons, and comparing global benchmarks for the costs of equipping, training, and mobilizing military forces.


Ottawa is sending another $100 million to Palestinians without knowing where the money will be spent
Canada’s latest round of $100 million also includes transfers to the Palestinian Authority, the de facto civil government for Palestinians living in the West Bank.

It was the Palestinian Authority that Carney recognized as the official Palestinian government in his September 2025 recognition of Palestine as a state.

One condition of that recognition was that the PA had to suspend an infamous program providing pensions to Palestinian terrorists – a program that would have been active throughout years of Canadian aid funding, including the first tranches of the $600 million paid out since October 7.

Branded by Israel as the “pay for slay” program, the Palestinian Authority Martyrs Fund guarantees financial support for anyone jailed or killed in the course of carrying out an act of “resistance,” including murders of Israelis.

According to a 2017 analysis by the U.S.-based Modern War Institute, the PA’s own “Amended Palestinian Prisoners Law No. 19” explicitly lays out a pension system for any Palestinian deemed to have participated “in the struggle against the occupation.”

That year, the fund cost US$300 million, representing up to eight per cent of the Palestinian Authority’s budget.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas promised in February 2025 to abolish the martyr’s fund.

Although, just eight months later, a report by Euronews said the European Commission – another major financial supporter of the Palestinian Authority – was suspicious that so-called “pay for slay” payments were still getting through, albeit by different channels.

As the EU Commission stated in a public statement in November 2025, “we understand that a recent payment has been made to the families of prisoners, based on a previous scheme. We profoundly regret this decision, as this seems to go against prior announcements.”

Canada’s latest $100 million includes $20 million for “peace and stabilisation initiatives,” such as training and equipping law enforcement employed by the Palestinian Authority.

Although, in previous dispersals of Palestinian aid, Canada has boasted that its funds are uniquely free of strings or conditions.

“Canada’s humanitarian assistance funding is largely flexible and unearmarked,” wrote Global Affairs Canada in June, the last time Ottawa approved $100 million for Palestine.


Alleged Hamas fundraiser to undercover agent: I have a network in New York
US federal investigators have charged two brothers in Louisiana with fundraising for Hamas, according to court filings unsealed on Tuesday, in the latest in a series of cases alleging financial support for the terrorist group in the US.

Abdel Adhami and Omar Adhami were charged with providing material support to a terrorist organization in a federal Louisiana court.

Court filings said Abdel Adhami coordinated Hamas fundraising with an individual named Saleem Alzaq. The FBI said it believed Alzaq is based in Gaza and had posted Hamas propaganda on social media since at least 2021.

Adhami and Alzaq coordinated the collection and distribution of funds to support Hamas on Snapchat, investigators said.

Adhami began soliciting funds on Instagram the week after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre, instructing followers to use a Western Union account to “donate to our afflicted brothers in Gaza.” He also appeared to have solicited funds from acquaintances.

The complaint indicated that the network also routed funds through a purported charity in France. The name of the charity was redacted. Palestinian gunmen from Hamas and Islamic Jihad gather next to Eid al-Fitr prayers in Gaza City, March 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Adhami and Alzaq used codewords to disguise their activity. Messages included in the criminal complaint showed both repeatedly referring to “bread” or “bread people,” and instructing others to use the terms.

A Hamas fundraising case filed in the US last week said that “bread” had been used as a codeword for Hamas.

While discussing “bread” in 2024, Alzaq told Adhami, “They are present at al-Shifa Hospital,” a medical center in Gaza that had housed Hamas terrorists, according to IDF documentation.

“By God, every time I see one of the bread people do something, I would wish I was there with him,” Adhami said several weeks later. “I ask God almighty that I be one of those who make jihad with their money.”

“The one who wages jihad with money is also considered a jihadist,” he said in another message.

Adhami instructed his brother on how to send money abroad, telling him, “The prophet said, ‘He who equips a fighter is as if he has taken part in the fighting himself.’”

“When you want to send something, you tell him, ‘This amount for the bread,’ and he will understand. Don’t mention anything by its name on WhatsApp and use the word ‘bread’ instead,” he said.

Adhami used PayPal to send more than $83,000 abroad to three recipients. The locations of two of the recipients were redacted, while the third was in Gaza. His brother allegedly sent more than $6,000 to Alzaq and his associates.





 




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