San Francisco Frontiers - Israelis swell with pride over foiled plane disaster

For many Israelis, the foiled disaster on the flydubai plane bolstered their view that their country is exceptional, that with their can-do spirit -- and nearly universal military training -- they can save themselves against all odds.

Israelis posted online memes about the plane heroics, with several showing mock aircraft seating maps, inviting foreign passengers to choose those next to Israelis.

"I don't know if you'll be the next hijacked, but make sure an Israeli is sitting next to you," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Fox News.

Netanyahu, weeks away from a tight election, quickly moved to bask in the national mood, personally heading to the airport Wednesday where cheering crowds greeted the passengers by waving Israeli flags.

President Isaac Herzog, who holds a mostly ceremonial role, said he would present the Presidential Award for Civilian Heroism to five passengers who started the charge for the cockpit as the plane's co-pilot appeared set to crash the plane bound for Tel Aviv.

"You put yourselves at risk to save others and prevented a terrible disaster. Today, the whole world saw the beautiful and courageous face of Israeli society," Herzog said.

Among the five was Yaniv Hayoun, who quickly emerged as a made-for-television hero, a plumber who said he beat and pinned down the co-pilot.

Israelis also praised the plane's Indian pilot, Smit Machchhar, who officials said managed to open the cockpit and let in passengers after the co-pilot stabbed him and tried to take control.

Hayoun was still wearing a bloodied T-shirt and blue jeans as Netanyahu, in suit and tie, gave him a bear hug in a side room at Ben Gurion Airport.

"You are a hero. How did you do this?" Netanyahu asked him.

Hayoun responded with language reminiscent of Netanyahu's, telling him, "We are a people of lions."

Of beating the co-pilot, he also told the prime minister: "Unfortunately we didn't succeed in killing him, but it will take him awhile to recover."

- Shifting narrative from October 7 -

The Yediot Ahranoth daily put Hayoun in his dirty T-shirt on its front page Inside, it ran a cartoon of Netanyahu standing in the shadow of the dates "October 7" and shouting, "Look, a plane!" as a flydubai aircraft whizzed by.

Israelis have taken pride for decades in defending their borders as well as themselves overseas in the face of frequent threats. El Al, the national carrier, boasts of stringent security with armed air marshals on board.

That confidence in security was shattered on October 7 when Hamas-led militants killed 1,221 people in the deadliest attack on Israel in the country's history.

Israel responded with a massive assault on Gaza that has killed more than 74,000 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Yair Golan, the leader of the opposition centre-left Democrats Party, said he was "feeling filled with pride" over Israeli bravery on the plane, likening it to the spirit of cooperation seen after October 7.

Golan decried attempts by Netanyahu to "score cheap political points at the expense of this heroism".

For ordinary Israelis, the plane episode spoke to the national character.

"It's a good thing we have people who go to the army," Lea Michaelov said at a Tel Aviv cafe.

"If it would have happened in another country, how would it have ended?"

The incident has a parallel to United Airlines Flight 93, one of four planes hijacked in the United States on September 11, 2001 but which passengers deliberately brought down after realising it would target a high-profile site below.

The flydubai flight had the good fortune to have additional pilots among the passengers in preparation to take another flight, and they successfully landed in Saudi Arabia.

K.Torres--SFF