Lapid accuses PM-linked ‘diplomatic source’ of falsely linking security briefing to flydubai incident

By Ariela Karmel

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30 September 2026, 4:58 pm

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Ariela Karmel is a political correspondent at The Times of Israel. She previously reported for Calcalist and Haaretz. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern and African History from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid accuses an unnamed diplomatic source, whom he strongly implies is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of lying to Hebrew media about what Lapid was told during a security briefing yesterday, as the two sides clash over whether this morning’s flydubai incident bears out warnings issued by Netanyahu a day earlier.

Netanyahu warned yesterday of possible attacks ahead of the October 27 election, prompting Lapid to demand a security briefing. Afterward, Lapid said he had been presented with no specific new threat. Government allies have since pointed to this morning’s incident as vindicating Netanyahu’s warning, while Lapid insists nothing resembling it was raised during the briefing.

After an unnamed diplomatic source told Channel 12 that, “contrary to Lapid’s claims, the military secretariat informed him yesterday of a significant increase in terrorist activity abroad, on a scale not seen in years,” the opposition leader responds that the warning cited by the source has existed for more than two years and had nothing to do with “planes or anything resembling what happened this morning.”

“The irresponsible ‘diplomatic source’ – wonder who that could be – is lying again,” Lapid writes on X, heavily suggesting that the source is Netanyahu.

“This is the method of this source and his office – another lie and another lie and another lie until everyone gets confused,” Lapid continues, accusing “him” of making “a pathetic attempt to hitch a ride on the heroism of Israelis who prevented a disaster that he – once again – was unprepared for.”

The flight made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia after what Israeli officials suspect was an attempt to seize and crash the plane, with witnesses saying a group of Israeli passengers stormed the cockpit, subdued the alleged attacker and stabilized the aircraft.

Opposition figures have accused the government of exploiting the event for political capital and drawn comparisons to the October 7, 2023, invasion, when civilians and local security teams were forced to confront Hamas-led attackers amid the state’s broader security failures, and have argued that here, too, ordinary citizens were left to handle a catastrophe the state failed to prevent.