Will the flydubai attack save Netanyahu’s struggling campaign?

In the hours after Israelis learned that a planeful of their countrymen had achieved the near-impossible — saving some 180 lives by fighting off an attacker seemingly determined to crash a flydubai jet and enabling it, with some help, to land safely in Saudi Arabia — Benjamin Netanyahu’s social media lit up.

There he was, embracing one of the heroes of the fight, Yaniv Hayun. Another video showed him in one of his most natural states: speaking directly into the camera about the attack that had just endangered his citizens. Yet another, circulating online, displayed the premier sitting with Hayun as he described, improbably, subduing the attacker and helping bring the plane to safety based on knowledge gleaned from a TV show.

Now compare that to Netanyahu’s rivals. Gadi Eisenkot, his main foe, sufficed on Wednesday with a stylized Instagram photo and a caption valorizing the passengers’ heroism, steel nerves and care for one another. Yair Golan wrote a post on X with a similar message.

Naftali Bennett, after likewise praising the passengers on X, posted three clips of news interviews he did on Wednesday: one, on an Israeli network, attacking Netanyahu over the incident, and two others on foreign news channels in English, lauding the passengers’ actions. Bennett’s number two, Yair Lapid, fired off three tweets arguing with Netanyahu and his circle about the nature of a security warning the premier had recently given.

The salvation of the flydubai flight was, indeed, the stuff of cinema. It is a tremendous relief that a plane filled with Israeli families didn’t crash in the desert, in what would have been an unspeakably bloody attack and the second-deadliest civilian disaster in the nation’s history (after October 7, 2023). The fact that the crisis was averted is a testament to the resourcefulness and courage of the passengers, the crew and the wounded pilot.

It also appears to be a boon for the prime minister, who has been trailing in almost every poll less than four weeks before election day. Netanyahu, using the power of incumbency, retains a sharp instinct for media and how to leverage an act of heroism to his benefit, even if he had nothing to do with it directly.

But Netanyahu’s advantage goes beyond his talent for optics. His message to Israelis, for decades, has been that he can keep the country safe and strong in the face of chaos and a daunting array of threats. That image was shattered on October 7, when the worst security catastrophe in Israel’s history happened on his watch. Netanyahu has spent the past three years trying to restore his reputation and move the conversation on from the Hamas-led attack.

Netanyahu’s opponents, meanwhile, have sought to tie the flydubai incident to October 7, arguing that, just as Israel’s security establishment inexcusably left citizens to fend for themselves on that day, the plane’s passengers had to defend themselves now. But there’s a crucial difference between the October 7 attack and this one: On the flydubai plane, the attack was thwarted. Israelis carried the day.

Now, Netanyahu hopes to associate himself with that achievement, rather than the tremendous debacle of October 7. The plane’s rescue was not his doing, but by virtue of being prime minister, he’s the one who gets to take photos with the relieved passengers, who gets to address the nation in a grave baritone, who gets to announce new security measures.

Meanwhile, his rivals are left trying to use one of the few uplifting moments in recent Israeli history to take shots at the prime minister. And they aren’t the only ones playing political games. Never one to be outdone, Netanyahu and his circle appear to be trying to tie the flydubai incident to a vague warning of danger from “enemies” that he had given a day earlier. Lapid, whom Netanyahu briefed on the threats, insists that nothing like the plane attack was ever mentioned.

One may have thought that everyday Israelis rescuing themselves in the sky, in near-miraculous circumstances, would be a moment to put aside politics and celebrate their bravery. But anyone entertaining such a notion apparently does not know the Israel of 2026.

Aside from that political battle, the thwarted attack gives Netanyahu a powerful message shortly before the vote, one he has hammered home for much of his career: Things are still unsafe. Israel’s neighbors cannot be trusted. In these times, is it wise to vote for an untested coalition that may need to rely on the votes of Arab-led parties?

Of course, there are ways this incident could end up harming Netanyahu’s prospects. While the attack was a near-miss, it exposed critical security gaps and threats to Israelis’ safety in the air. And with the third anniversary of October 7 just a week away, opposition politicians may continue to stress that then, as now, the government tasked with keeping Israelis safe was nowhere to be found while regular citizens picked up the slack.

Most of all, voters have very short memories, especially in a month saturated with campaign rhetoric aired around the clock. The flydubai rescue will doubtless enter the annals of Israeli history, but as a campaign issue, it could soon be overtaken by a fresh scandal or debate. When the anniversary of October 7 arrives in less than a week, that will again take center stage in voters’ minds.

For now, however, the heroic exploits on flydubai Flight 1073 appear to have given Bibi a boost. And with the election on a razor’s edge, that could make the difference.