Attempted Hijacking Could Strengthen Arab-Israeli Ties and Abraham Accords

The horrors aboard Flight FZ1073 to Tel Aviv from Dubai could mark a new phase in Israeli-Arab relations, including by further tightening, and even widening, the Abraham accords.After disaster was narrowly averted Wednesday, saving the lives of the commercial flight’s 174 passengers, phone lines heated up between Jerusalem and Abu Dhabi, as well as, more quietly, Riyadh. “This incident can strengthen ties even further,” a former top adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayahu and an Israeli ambassador to Britain, Mark Regev, tells The New York Sun.In a briefing to foreign ambassadors, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that the attempted terrorist crashing of the FlyDubai airliner was designed to hurt Israelis, Emiratis, and the Abraham accords. “Terrorism won’t harm relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and other regional developments,” Mr. Saar said. The FlyDubai co-pilot who stabbed the flight captain in an attempt to crash the passenger plane in the desert near the Saudi border with Jordan is being held by Saudi authorities. Interrogators are attempting to derive a motive. Initial reports that the Saudi interrogators were denying Israeli counterparts access to intelligence were later refuted. “Intelligence channels are open and working,” Mr. Regev told the Sun. Mr. Netanyahu’s spokesman to the foreign press, Doron Spielman, told Fox News that Israel “will be part of the investigation.”While Riyadh attempts to underplay relations with Israel, there are ample reports that intelligence sharing between Jerusalem and Riyadh have been tightened as Iran turned its fire on Gulf countries. According to some reports, Saudi officials participated in a strategy session Sunday at Abu Dhabi along Mr. Netanyahu, who flew there for the occasion.Saudi officials reportedly requested Israeli assistance in fending off Houthi attacks. Yet Riyadh is more sensitive to advertising its ties with the Jewish state than the UAE. The latter’s relation with Israel is now at the forefront of the region’s war with the Iranian regime and its proxies. “I often use FlyDubai when traveling to the UAE, because El Al doesn’t fly there,” an Israeli businessman with ties to Dubai counterparts tells the Sun. The Israeli national airline, he said, suspended flights to Dubai a while back over security concerns. Now, though, the script is being flipped. Israeli authorities announced on Wednesday that FlyDubai flights will be suspended for six days as of Thursday, N-12 television reports. Instead, secure Israeli flights will be operated on the line until an investigation is completed. The move, according to the report, was coordinated between Mr. Netanyahu and President Mohamed bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates. For long periods after the October 7, 2023, Hamas assault that launched the region-wide war, world airlines stopped flying to Israel. The UAE’s Etihad and FlyDubai were the exception, at times becoming the only non-Israeli-owned flyers operating between Ben Gurion airport and the outside world.Following the February 28 American-Israeli strikes that renewed the Iran war, the Iranian regime and its allies turned their attacks to Gulf countries. Israel sent air defense batteries and operating crews to the UAE, saving lives and commercial installations. Intelligence sharing between the two countries increased. Saudi Arabia, in contrast, reversed previous comments on its intention to recognize the Jewish state. On Wednesday the Saudis denied Jerusalem’s request to send Israeli planes to Tabuq to evacuate passengers that landed there in the aftermath of the harrowing terror attack. Some of the 166 Israeli nationals who had been on the ill-fortuned FlyDubai flight said they were too traumatized to once again board the same airline. It took some convincing from Jerusalem officials to tell those passengers that due to Saudi authorities’ denial, no Israeli planes were coming. A FlyDubai plane then brought all passengers to Ben Gurion. At Tabuq, though, passengers commended their Saudi hosts. “They are the perfect hosts, offering medical and other assistance to any of us who need it,” one passenger, Almog Itali, told I-24 television in an interview from Tabuq. Relations between countries, apparently, can start with human to human, rather than government to government.

Attempted Hijacking Could Strengthen Arab-Israeli Ties and Abraham Accords

Attempted Hijacking Could Strengthen Arab-Israeli Ties and Abraham Accords

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