Attempted Suicide Attack n on Fly Dubai Plane to Israel
A Fly Dubai aircraft flying from Dubai to Israel was almost taken down today. The story is still developing but there have been several interviews with passengers and those involved on Israel TV and radio.
Apparently, the co-pilot, an Omani national, who had been with Fly Dubai for only 8 months, used a hatchet to attack the pilot. Reports indicate that it might have been the hatchet located in the cockpit for emergency use. In any case, it appears that the pilot managed to press an emergency signal, indicating that the plane was being hijacked - and managed to release the cockpit door.
Details are still fuzzy but apparently three or four Israeli passengers jumped into action. They ran to the cockpit, while the plane was rapidly descending, subdued the attacker, administered first aid to the injured pilot - and restored control of the plane to an alternate pilot crew that happened to be on the plane.
These quick thinking heroes saved the lives of close to two hundred passengers. The rescuing passengers were covered in blood stains, though it is unclear whether any of them were injured themselves. The plane landed at a remote airport in Saudi Arabia. The passengers are apparently all safe and are on their way back to Israel on a Fly Dubai plane.
This does not give me a warm and fuzzy feeling about flying Fly Dubai. In all the years of going back and forth, I have not taken that route yet. But my family members have, several times, without incident. Because of the peace deal that Israel has with the UAE, and the financial benefits for both countries, I do believe that the UAE and Israel will work together to take extensive precautions to try to ensure that this will not occur again.
Fiddler On the Roof
versions of it. Some were wonderful, like the 2016 Broadway revival starring Danny Burstein. Some were awful, like the 2004 Broadway revival starring Harvey Fierstein, who was woefully incapable of fulfilling the requirements of the starring role. This year, we saw the Yiddish production in Toronto. This was fun because it was in Yiddish (with subtitles). But it was a very minimalist set and not exactly a top tier cast.
I have also seen the current Israeli production starring Natan Datner twice over the past seven years in Tel Aviv. Last night, during Hol Hamoed Sukkot, we travelled to Beersheva (about an hour and half from Ra'anana) to see it once more.
It was once again, excellent. Datner is a fantastic Tevye. He has a great voice, he is very convincing and he truly brings out the whole embodiment of the original Tevye. The rest of the cast was also fantastic - with only one exception, perhaps. This production is continuing to play at different times through 2027. If you are in Israel and have the chance to see it, I would strongly recommend it.
There is something particularly powerful about seeing Fiddler in Israel. For so many people sitting in the audience, this is the story of their grandparents or great grandparents who immigrated to Israel from Europe, somewhere between the 1880s and the 1940s. For others, they have family members who emigrated from Europe to other parts of the world, United States, Canada, South America during this same time period.
And for Jews who came to Israel from places all over the world, the themes of anti-Semitism and persecution are almost universal, whether it was from European countries or Arab and middle Eastern countries.
And of course, the ultimate themes of the balance between tradition and modernity, the vanishing Jew, intermarriage and the challenges to the Jewish religion - these themes are all so particularly relevant today. While the challenge of intermarriage may speak more to the diaspora audiences than to those in Israel, Israelis are certainly well aware of the interplay between the traditions that their grandparents followed and the spread of secularism in Israel - with a corresponding growth in 1800s European style ultra-orthodoxy for a growing but minority portion of the Israeli population.
Thinking about all of these themes, I think it is easy to see why there were few dry eyes in the audience as Tevye's daughter Hodel left to take a train to Siberia to join her fiancé Perchik. Or when Chava left the house to marry a non-Jew while Tevye grappled with what he could do in this situation. And of course, the play ending with the villagers being forced out of Anatevka, following a pogrom, is always like a gut punch to so many Israelis.
While many people have used Fiddler to draw more universalist messages about tradition and change, or about the place of the immigrant in a country - and the treatment of minorities - there is little doubt, especially when seeing this play in Israel, that it is quintessentially about the Jewish experience and its own particularistic messages - the dangers of antisemitism, the unviable state of being a people without a homeland and the constant challenges to Jewish religion and heritage including challenges of how to pass on these traditions to the next generation.
By the way, I note parenthetically, that this same conflict between particularistic and generalist messages is the also something you see if you visit Yad Vashem (the Israeli Museum of the Holocaust) in Jerusalem and then you visit the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. But that is for a longer blog on a different day.
Politics
I do not have too much to say for this blog about Israeli politics. I will dedicate a few blogs to the upcoming election shortly. But I thought I would mention a few things quickly.
As you might have heard, a few different newspapers and media outlets (TV, Radio) reported that Prime Minister Netanyahu was phoned and warned about the upcoming October 7, 2023 Hamas Massacre - within about two weeks before the attacks. Netanyahu has strenuously denies this and, apparently, flew to Dubai to meet with MBZ last week and asked MBZ to issue an official statement that the conversation never happened. So far MBZ has not released any such statement.
However, sometimes the best defence is offence. So Bibi decided to sue all of the media outlets that published the reports including Haaretz, Ynet and others. He also sued a large number of individual reporters. One can assume that a big motive for this lawsuit is political. Netanyahu knows that his major weakness in the coming elections is being tied to the failures of October 7th and he wants to be able to pin the blame on everyone else - and take no responsibility.
He is also trying to draw a parallel between his lawsuit and the one launched by Yair Golan. As you may recall, Netanyahu's wife Sara held a TV interview in which she basically suggested that Golan, leader of the left-centre Democratic party - knew about the October 7 attacks in advance (or worse). She accused Golan of being "dressed and ready" for the event even before it occurred. These claims by Netanyahu do not appear to have been made based on any factual underpinnings. Though we will wait to see how they are resolved, it is hard to imagine what kind of defence Sara Netanyahu will put forward, other than to argue that she has some sort of immunity or these allegations were "fair comment."
On the other hand, the various reporters that claimed that Netanyahu was warned about October 7th, 2026 apparently based their information on sources that they could verify. If this was, in fact, all made up by the media outlets, that would be quite shocking and would be the basis for a big win for Netanyahu. If, on the other hand, it becomes the word of MBZ and his advisors against Netanyahu - well that will be really interesting.
Lots more can be said about this but let's wait and see what, if anything, happens with these two lawsuits.
I will leave the political area by saying that I feel that we are in a current trend of votes moving to the right in Israel. That does not mean that they are going to Netanyahu - in fact - his support seem to have eroded significantly. But voters seem to be moving, according to many polls, to the other smaller right wing parties that have vowed to support Netanyahu - including Ben Gvir's party, Smotrich's party and the new "Amcha" party led by Winter.
My other final comment is that the polls are all over the map. The polls conducted by the pro-Bibi channel 14 and channel 24 are showing the Likud party winning 30-32 seats and being able to form a government with 62-65 seats.
Almost all of the other polling companies are showing the two blogs (pro and anti-Bibi) running in a much closer race. Most polls are still showing Eisenkot and the Yashar party running ahead of Netanyahu and his Likud party. When full coalition numbers are added in - it seems to be very close - with neither bloc currently forecast to form a government. But we still have almost four weeks.
Sports
The Israeli national soccer team was humiliated by Ireland last week 3-0 in the Nations Cup tournament - a game which was played on "neutral territory" in Hungary. Israel will get a chance to avenge itself when it plays Ireland again on Sunday October 4th. Before that, Israel will get a chance to pick up its first points of the tournament when it plays Kosovo tomorrow night (Thursday October 1st). The Irish players wore black armbands and taunted the Israelis with allegations of genocide. Let's just say that there were some heated exchanges between the players on the pitch.
Not sure that this current Israeli side will be up to the task of picking itself up by the cleats but it will need to do so in a hurry if it wants to have any chance of advancing in this tournament. Israel also lost its opening match to Austria. That match had been tied 1-1 in the 90th minute but the Austrian side scored two goals in extra time to take the three point win.
I was up late last night and watched the Montreal Canadiens defeat the Maple Leafs in the opening game of the NHL season for both of those teams. Interestingly, Israeli TV was actually broadcasting this game. They rarely show Leafs or Canadiens' games - other than during the playoffs. I am not expecting much from the Leafs this year but I do think the Habs will be one of the top teams in the league.
Baseball season is pretty much over for me with the Jays' exit. I might watch a few playoff games here and there. One of our family members was at the Yankees' game last night - which started as a pitching duel and turned into a major route. I would certainly be happy to get to a Yankee's playoff game if I could do so - just for the experience. Maybe some time in October....
The weather continues to be beautiful here - mid to high 20s - though there are are reports of some rain. Our Sukkah is getting some use - and we have managed to wave around the lulav and etrog a few times. Mo'adim L'Simchah!
