The lesson of Flydubai? Don’t mess with Zionists

I was in the calmest place in the world yesterday as the news of the terror on that Flydubai flight started to trickle in: Tel Aviv airport. Yes, the very airport for which that plunging, blood-stained jet was destined was an oasis of serenity. Passengers watched the news on their phones with superb, unflappable composure. Smiles cracked over pints of dark lager as it became clear the crisis had been resolved. Then it struck me: we were chill because we knew that if a suicidal loon tried any shit on the flights we were about to board, he’d be slapped and hogtied in seconds.

It was more than stoicism I saw in that airport. It was more than the bluntness Israelis are famed for that meant they carried on sipping espressos and eating babka even as news of the possible attempted murder of more than a hundred of their fellow citizens came through. It was confidence. Right into the palms of our hands we were receiving clips of staggering Israeli valour; blurry, viral reminders that Zionists love life and are more than prepared to fight for it. I’ve never felt safer getting on a flight than I did in Tel Aviv yesterday.

Some things are still unclear about the mayhem on the 7.05 Flydubai flight from Dubai International airport to Ben-Gurion in Tel Aviv. We know that one of the pilots, who’s from Oman, stabbed another pilot, with a knife or possibly an axe. We know this caused the plane to virtually nosedive, falling 17,000 feet in less than two minutes. The wails heard in one of the clips are a testament to how terrifying it must have been. We know the flight was then safely diverted to Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia.

But the attacker’s motive is murky. Israel suspects it was a ‘jihadist terror attack’, his demonic aim being to crash the plane somewhere in Israel. An Israeli 9/11 to add to the 10/7 the nation still reels from. Flydubai, though, is warning against ‘premature speculation’. Seriously, why are we always being told not to speculate? Given that hating Israel is a global pox, a mania ailing everyone from keffiyeh hipsters in NYC to conspiratorial pricks in Kabul, we’re well within our rights to speculate that this was an attempted mass murder of Israelis, a mercifully foiled act of anti-Jewish savagery. We will see.

But there’s one thing we know for certain: there was unfathomable courage on that airplane. Passengers rose up in glorious resistance against the culture of death. The resistance was enabled by the pilot who was stabbed – Captain Smit Machchhar, an Indian national. He valiantly kicked back against his crazed co-pilot and even managed to open the cockpit door. That was the key event, the event that saved the life of every soul onboard, for it allowed the storming of the cockpit by Israeli passengers who were not ready to die.

First came Yaniv Hayoun. In his own words, he ‘grabbed the attacker [and] put him in a chokehold’. Remarkably, he then seized the controls, yanked them up, and managed to level the swirling, falling plane. Next up was Dr Shota Musayev, an Israeli dentist. He says that within 10 seconds of hearing the pilot’s piercing cries from the cockpit, he leapt into action. He tended to Captain Machchhar, stemming his bleeding, and then helped to restrain the knifeman. Asaf Rejuan and Tzvika Manes kept a watch on the tied-up lunatic for the hour-long flight to Saudi Arabia. And who was flying? Two off-duty pilots, whose names haven’t been released.

This was a revolt worthy of the history books. A people’s fightback against the violent narcissism of either a suicidal freak or a murderous Jew-hater (or possibly both). This man may have craved death, and possibly loved it, but he came up against a swarm of people who far prefer life. That’s the civilisational divide distilled: worshippers of death vs lovers of life. There is something profoundly moving about the clip in which the passengers chant ‘Am Yisrael Chai’ as the plane safely lands. ‘The people of Israel live’ – in a time of untrammeled Jew hate, it’s the most defiant, life-giving cry you can make. It fortifies the hearts of those of us who love civilisation, and breaks the spirit of civilisation’s enemies.

There was humility with the bravery. The footage of Yaniv Hayoun meeting Benjamin Netanyahu is extraordinary. His t-shirt is drenched in the blood of the man who was possibly plotting a historic massacre of Jews. He apologises for his appearance, explaining that he asked for his suitcase 10 times so that he might change into something more fitting. Netanyahu says it doesn’t matter and asks him: ‘How did you do it?’ Yaniv’s reply? ‘We are a nation of lions, aren’t we?’ It gives me life to think of how much rage and puking such a comment will have provoked among those whose whole identity is hating Israel and dreaming of its violent destruction. Israel’s continued survival causes them to feel not only spiritual angst but actual physical pain. It’s wonderful.

The media coverage of the Flydubai horror has been disgraceful. It feels expressly designed to downplay both the horror of what occurred and the valour of those who stopped it. It’s been called an ‘altercation’ and a ‘clash’, as if it were a brawl outside a pub. The FT actually called it a ‘brawl’. Others are calling it an ‘incident’, the preferred flat, neutral word of every Israelophobic midwit who wants to ensure there isn’t too much public sympathy for Israelis. A possible jihadi assault on Jews becomes an ‘incident’, and a pogrom of the like we hadn’t seen since the Nazis becomes an ‘attack’. These are the slippery linguistic means with which they neuter and crush that thing they dread above all else: Gentile solidarity with the Jewish nation.

UK foreign secretary Ed Miliband said he was ‘deeply concerned about the incident’, which was only stopped by ‘the actions of those on board’. Oh Ed, would it kill you to say something nice about Israelis? To use the word ‘heroism’? To congratulate the citizens of our supposed ally who saved so many innocents with such valorous distinction? There’s been a kind of bigoted churlishness in response to this uprising in the skies, with politicians and columnists all treading super carefully lest they unwittingly praise the people of the Jewish nation. That’s a moral offence in their circles, virtually blasphemy, so they bite their tongues to avoid it. The clipped speech of the moral coward.

Ask yourself this: who would you rather have with you on a flight if some psycho with a knife were to try to take it down? Coddled, pasty-faced Gen Z Westerners who need a self-care day every time JK Rowling tweets? Or Zionists? A few people from that state that has survived against all the odds? Men and women who likely have military training, don’t buckle in the face of danger, and who are world famous for refusing to take shit from jihadists? I know who I’d choose. Yesterday, the world was once again reminded: don’t fuck with Zionists. How many more reminders do you need?