Terrorists want nothing more than to prevent peace.
It’s why they fly planes into buildings, don explosive vests and rain indiscriminate missiles on civilian populations.
The response to such terrorism isn’t to cower — but to lead with boldness, courage and, sometimes, outright heroism.
The world saw such heroism this week in the high drama of FlyDubai Flight 1073, from Dubai to Tel Aviv.
There was pilot Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, who had the presence of mind to open the cockpit door as he was brutally stabbed by his terrorist Omani co-pilot, in a plane nose-diving 10,000 feet a minute.
There were the ordinary Israeli citizens — and above all new national hero Yaniv Hayoun — who, Todd Beamer-style, swiftly rushed the cockpit and subdued the terrorist in a chokehold.
There was the Emirati flight crew, which handled the madness with aplomb, preventing chaos in a terrified cabin and ensuring the passengers’ safety.
There were the two off-duty pilots — reportedly British, South African or New Zealander in nationality — who were somehow able to glide the plane to a safe emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
That’s extraordinary, as a military pilot pointed out to Israeli tech writer Hillel Fuld: “In virtually every historical incident where an airliner got anywhere close to these speeds, the tail ripped off the entire back of the plane.”
In the Bible’s Book of Esther, God is not mentioned once. This is deliberate.
His name doesn’t need to appear: His presence is felt, and seen, everywhere.
So it is with the events aboard FlyDubai Flight 1073.
Some have reacted to this mesmerizing story in knee-jerk fashion.
They have leapt to call for the cancellation of all direct flights between Israel and the United Arab Emirates — and perhaps downgrading the ties between Israel and the Arab world more broadly.
The instinct is understandable.
The anti-Israel press may have downplayed the harrowing affair as a “pilot altercation,” but the fact is a Muslim pilot tried to crash a plane full of Jews.
That looks like terrorism — and that’s certainly what the Israelis think happened.
But terror attacks and near-terror attacks must not be permitted to derail peace.
Allowing that would actually do the terrorists’ bidding.
The Abraham Accords, those dynamic 2020 peace agreements that normalized Israeli relations with the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco, must go on.
Indeed, they must expand.
Many predicted the Abraham Accords would die after the Hamas savagery of Oct. 7, 2023, and the ensuing war in Gaza.
They didn’t.
On the contrary, the accords are stronger today.
The Iran conflict, which has seen the Islamic Republic strike the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait, has sent an unmistakable message: The threat to the Sunni Gulf states doesn’t come from Jerusalem.
It comes from Tehran.
That’s why, just days before the near-catastrophe aboard Flight 1073, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Abu Dhabi to meet with representatives from eight different Arab countries.
Prior to that confab, Netanyahu rendezvoused directly with Emirati President Mohamed bin Zayed — the first time such a bilateral meeting was publicly verified by both countries.
Perhaps, then, the attempted terror attack timing isn’t a coincidence: The rumor mill has been swirling that Kuwait might soon join the Abraham Accords.
It’s not hard to see what’s going on here.
Before the Oct. 7 pogrom, Saudi Arabia — the de facto leader of the Arab world — was on the precipice of making peace with Israel.
Just weeks previously, Netanyahu dedicated much of his September 2023 address to the UN General Assembly to the topic; Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Fox News’ Bret Baier that September, “every day we get closer” to diplomatic normalization.
Peace seemed imminent.
One of the aims of Hamas’ massacre was to stop Israeli-Saudi normalization in its tracks.
In that, Hamas was successful — for a time.
But despite the setback, the House of Saud still knows that peace with Israel is an inevitability.
We cannot allow this week’s would-be terrorist copilot to succeed, either.
This is not the time to pump the diplomatic brakes.
And we might have to brace ourselves for additional attempted terror attacks, as jihadists once again try to stop peace.
Israel is undoubtedly prepared for that, and the Arab states should prepare too.
But the pursuit of regional peace must go on.
There would be no greater tribute to the heroes of FlyDubai Flight 1073 than that.
Josh Hammer is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and author of “Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West.”
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