Netanyahu Seizes on Flydubai Hijacking Attempt as Security Credential Ahead of Israel's Election

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has moved swiftly to shape the public narrative around the attempted hijacking of a Flydubai passenger jet, framing the incident as vindication of his long-standing warnings about threats facing Israelis at home and abroad. The move comes just weeks before a parliamentary election that will decide whether he remains in office.

The flight, FZ1073, was travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv when its co-pilot attacked and stabbed the captain before being overpowered. The aircraft was diverted to Saudi Arabia after an emergency signal. Many central questions about the episode remain unresolved, including the attacker's identity, his precise motive, and what he hoped to achieve. The co-pilot has not been named in the source reporting.

Despite acknowledging that it is too early to determine a motive, Netanyahu has pointed to Iran and its allied groups as being intent on escalating attacks against Israelis overseas. Israel and the United States launched a war against Iran in late February, and Netanyahu claimed on Thursday that investigators had established the co-pilot underwent what he described as "Islamist radical indoctrination."

The Israeli leader has spent years cultivating an image as the only politician capable of genuinely protecting Israelis from the dangers he says surround them. The attempted hijacking, and his response to it, arguably reinforce that message at a politically sensitive moment. The upcoming parliamentary vote later this month will determine whether he continues to lead the country.

Daniel Levy, a former Israeli government adviser, told Al Jazeera that the political consequences are difficult to predict this early. He suggested, however, that the incident could push other stories off the front pages — including the approaching anniversary of the October 7, 2023 attacks — and replace them with a narrative hinting at Iranian involvement. Levy noted that this comes as other claims of possible Iranian operations are also surfacing, including accusations of Tehran's potential link to an incident near a United States Air Force base in the United Kingdom.

According to Levy, such a framing would give fresh momentum to the outcome Netanyahu is pursuing: the resumption of intensified strikes against Iran. That course of action, Levy argued, also helps divert attention from Netanyahu's domestic difficulties and can be presented as proof that the warnings he issued earlier in the week were justified.

On Tuesday, Netanyahu released a video statement warning of "indications that, ahead of the elections, our enemies will try to attack us." Opposition figures quickly dismissed the warning as unevidenced fearmongering. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz described the plane attack as an "attempted jihadist terror attack" and appeared to invoke that earlier warning, saying that when he and the prime minister issue security alerts based on intelligence, everyone — enemies abroad and what he called uninformed former officials at home — should listen and take them seriously.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid, who received a security briefing from Netanyahu on Tuesday night, rejected any connection between the briefing and the attack. Speaking on Wednesday, Lapid said nothing even resembling the plane attack had appeared in that briefing.

For observers who have tracked Netanyahu's long career — he is Israel's longest-serving prime minister — his handling of the aftermath fits a familiar pattern of steering crises to his political advantage. Ahron Bregman, an Israeli security analyst and senior teaching fellow at King's College London, said plainly that Netanyahu is trying to gain politically from the event.

The timing is significant. The election later this month will shape Israel's direction at a moment of intense regional tension, with the war against Iran still casting a long shadow and the anniversary of the October 7 attacks approaching. In that environment, security credentials carry substantial weight with voters, and a leader who can claim to have foreseen an attack gains a valuable talking point.

Still, the ambiguity surrounding the Flydubai case cuts both ways. No motive has been firmly established, the attacker's aims remain unclear, and the co-pilot's background — including how he was cleared to fly — is under scrutiny. Those unanswered questions leave room for competing interpretations, and opposition politicians are already contesting Netanyahu's attempt to link the attack to his earlier warnings.

The picture is further complicated by parallel developments. The United Arab Emirates is investigating a possible "terrorist" link in the attack on the flight to Israel, while British authorities have said Iran may be connected to an alleged plot near a US airbase — an accusation Tehran has angrily denied. Together, these threads create a climate in which claims about Iranian intentions are proliferating, even as hard evidence remains scarce.

For Netanyahu, that climate is politically useful. A security-focused message allows him to concentrate public attention on external threats rather than domestic controversies, and to cast his opponents as unprepared for the dangers he says he alone can manage. Whether voters accept that framing will become clear when they cast their ballots later this month.