Arlene Kushner | October 14, 2026
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Life is normally hectic, if not frenetic, in this part of the world. Those who live here become accustomed to this, may even joke about it. But these days have been extraordinary in this respect.
I want to begin by considering events of the last two weeks: we saw the astounding save by Israelis in the hijacked Flydubai plane and marked three years since the Jihadist massacre of October 7, 2023.
The save of the hijacked plane by ordinary Israelis who refused to sit down when they perceived danger carries a lesson of enormous import. Writer Linda Argalgi Sadacka has shared a thoughtful take on what transpired; she lives in America, but her roots trace back to Egypt, Lebanon and Syria.
“For most of the last 13 centuries, the rule for a Jew in the Arab world came down to two words: sit down. Under the dhimmi system, Jews were tolerated so long as they knew their place. They paid a special tax, stepped aside in the street and never raised a hand to defend themselves against a Muslim…
“This past week, high over the Saudi desert, aboard an airliner belonging to a Dubai airline, a plane load of Jews refused to sit down…
”Israelis grow up in a country where most adults have served in the military, children practice running to shelters, and the working assumption is that no one is coming to save you…
“Now consider the irony that much of the world would prefer to ignore: For years, the fashionable view in Western capitals and on Western campuses has been that Israelis are foreign bodies in the Middle East, colonial intruders who don’t belong there. Just days ago, the people supposedly most out of place in the region saved a Gulf airline’s plane, its crew and every other passenger aboard, in Arab skies…
“To its credit, Saudi Arabia let the plane land, cared for the passengers…But when the Israeli Air Force sought to fly in and bring its own citizens home, the Saudis said no…
“As a Jew from Arab lands, I recognize this pattern. It is the dhimmi in modern dress. Jews may be rescued. Jews may be hosted, treated kindly, even welcomed as business partners. What they may not do is arrive under their own flag, on their own aircraft, to take care of their own. The old rule survives in the fine print: Be grateful and stay seated.
“Here is what the diplomats will not say out loud: Normalization didn’t happen because the region woke up one morning and decided that it liked Jews. It happened because Israel became too strong, too capable and too useful to ignore. In the Middle East, respect follows strength, and the passengers who stormed that cockpit showed more of it in 30 seconds than a decade of peace conferences…” (Emphasis added)
https://www.jns.org/opinion/linda-argalgi-sadacka/the-jews-who-refused-to-sit-down
Sadacka’s blog brought to my mind reports regarding the response of some of the flight crew (stewards, etc.) to the Israelis on the Flydubai plane. “Sit down!” they demanded, “we will handle this.” At the time I speculated that these crew members, almost certainly Muslim Arabs, were offended by the thought of Israeli Jews taking over. This is akin to the dhimmi mentality Sadacka described. But now there are reports that some members of the flight crew may have been complicit with the terrorist – all the more reason why it was important for the Israelis to retain control! There will likely be more on this: the UAE has arrested two other Flydubai pilots who had contact with Flydubai terrorist Hamam al-Hammami.
“In the Middle East, respect follows strength…” It is a lesson we Israelis have learned, at long last. We have been too nice for too long. The corollary is that we must not trust others to provide our security.
Then, last week there was October 7, which marks the day on the Gregorian calendar when the massacre occurred three years ago. The entire week was devoted to remembrance of this horror, the worst inflicted on Jews since the Shoah.
The obscenities associated with the attack are marks of a consummate evil. We haven’t the right to turn away from this reality. Three years are gone, and yet many still carry the weight of that day and the days that followed. Their courage and their determination to choose life are awesome.
There are many accounts of what happened that day. One of the most powerful that I have yet encountered is a video just put out by Kan (Public Broadcasting) regarding what transpired in Soroka Medical Center, in Be’ersheva. Because of its proximity to the attacks in the Gaza perimeter, most of the wounded were brought to Soroka. In less than 24 hours, almost 700 wounded were brought in.
Footage from security cameras, located almost everywhere in the hospital, reflected the havoc – the confusion and suffering of the wounded, the anguish of family members who came seeking their loved ones, the heartfelt compassion of medical staff who, while beyond exhausted, did not stop giving.
The video is in Hebrew, with English subtitles. Various medical staff explain what was going on. Here we see Dr. Dan Schwarzfuchs, deputy director general of Soroka.
I urge you to see this video, and to forward it to as many others as possible.
https://www.kan.org.il/content/dig/digital/p-11412/s7/1106347/
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Yet, with this all, I remain convinced that in the end we will be OK. More than OK. Analyst and writer David M. Weinberg shares a similar take:
“The heroism in the skies above Saudi Arabia stands as a metaphor for three years of war. Israelis are mature and resilient – not enfeebled, immobilized, or confused. They are reenergized patriotically, determined to defeat all enemies and rebuild Israel more magnificently than ever. They will not brook global contempt…
“…through it all [the remembrance of Oct 7], the overwhelming sentiment I heard and felt was patriotism, not depletion; resilience, not resignation; defiance, not defeat.” (Emphasis added)
https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/israel-is-clear-eyed-not-traumatized-by-october-7/
This, my friends, is how we retain balance in the whirlwind of our lives: we have a strong and proud sense of who we are and understand where we are going. We live with purpose.
This does not mean the hard times are all past. Now we find ourselves in the midst of another week that remains fraught with uncertainties and chaos. I touch here upon some of the major issues facing us, with more to follow in coming posts.
As anti-Semitism in the world has morphed to dimensions that take the breath away, it is being argued in some quarters that it is futile to try to change the minds of anti-Semites. Their hatred is not founded in facts and offering them a rationale for seeing Israel in positive terms is an exercise in futility: their minds are made up. Be proud, goes the argument. Don’t be defensive. Focus on the positive about Israel, while highlighting weaknesses in the groups and nations that promote those constant charges against us.
To a degree I concur with this approach. We waste valuable time if we are too focused on proving the anti-Semites’ charges false. And yet, it is necessary to ensure that the facts are out there for those who might be convinced.
I share here a very short and very effective video in which Ron Dermer mocks the charges of genocide by providing a handful of key facts. See it, use it.
https://worldisraelnews.com/watch-genocide-accusation-is-an-absurdity-charges-ron-dermer/
Our government is taking a more stringent stance these days against nations and individuals who are promoting anti-Israel positions. This is a necessary step, especially as we now contending with growing anti-Israel policies in western nations.
Key cases in point are Britain and France. The Muslim influence in these countries is so great these days that stringently anti-Israel policies and practices are being embraced. No, let me rephrase this: there are some who now consider these countries to be Muslim for all intents and purposes, if not officially.
On September 8, British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced sanctions were to be imposed on products from Israeli settlements in “the occupied West Bank.” He said he was acting to “keep the possibility of a two-state solution alive”.
Gideon Sa’ar, our Minister of Foreign Affairs, responded quickly, announcing that the British consulate in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of eastern Jerusalem would be shuttered.
Let it be understood: the consul-general who sat in this consulate did not report to the British Embassy in Tel Aviv, as would be the norm. He reported directly to the British Foreign Office. This consulate functioned as an embassy to the PA – serving people in eastern Jerusalem, Judea & Samaria and Gaza.
When shuttering the consulate, Sa’ar made it clear that the Israeli public overwhelming supports the communities of Judea & Samaria and opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state. The sign identifying the building as the consulate was removed and 20 diplomats associated with the consulate, including the consul-general, departed Israel.
“We established a clear principle: It is not possible to act against Israel without Israel taking appropriate measures in response,” declared Sa’ar. In that spirit he enacted additional measures:
Perhaps the most important measure was the termination of British activity to train Palestinian Authority forces in Judea and Samaria.
Subsequently, negotiations were held between Israel and Britain that resulted in a compromise with regard to the consulate. The building in Sheikh Jarrah – which is now be called “UK Mission, Jerusalem” – is owned by Britain. They will be permitted to keep it open with seven diplomats (compared to the 27 in the consulate) and, according to Israel, will have “a very limited scope of operation.” Its focus will still be service to Palestinian Arabs, and we must hope that the scope remains “very limited”.
While action taken by Sa’ar was real and hopefully delivered a message, there is no question about the fact that the “compromise” represented a partial backing down. Sa’ar explained that it was worthwhile, in the broader context, to retain a working relationship with Britain, including with regard to intelligence sharing. In this case he may be right.
Then we turn to France, which is far more problematic than Britain. More than a year ago, Sa’ar had recommended to Prime Minister Netanyahu that the French consulate in Jerusalem (located in western Jerusalem very near the Old City in eastern Jerusalem) be shuttered. But the French Foreign Ministry warned that the move “would be particularly damaging to our bilateral relationship and would provoke a strong reaction,” and Netanyahu did nothing. It is past time for action here.
There are strong similarities between the situation of the British consulate, now shuttered, and the French consulate: this consulate answers directly to the Foreign Ministry in Paris and serves as an embassy to the PA. But actions associated with it are far more egregious:
According to an Israel Hayom report, it hosted the launch of a biography of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist Leila Khaled; Khaled hijacked TWA Flight 840 in 1969.
In 2018, Romain Franck, a French national who worked as a driver for the consulate, was arrested for using a diplomatic vehicle to smuggle 70 pistols and two automatic rifles from Gaza into Judea and Samaria. See a good deal more:
The actions of this consulate are consistent with the policies of Emmanuel Macron, president of France. As security expert Meir Ben Shabbat recently put it: “Emmanuel Macron…tried to out-Palestinian the Palestinians in order to appease the French street, only to find himself grappling with migrant unrest.”
He formally recognized Palestine as a state at the UN last year and lobbied for establishment of the state inside of Israel’s borders, “militarized, ethnically cleansed, with its capital centered…in Jerusalem.”
This past week a number of Israeli organizations in the nationalist camp – the Regavim Movement, the Sovereignty Movement, My Israel, Ad Kan, Artzenu and the Kohelet Policy Forum – asked Netanyahu to carry out Sa’ar’s recommendation and close the consulate. Said Meir Deutsch, CEO of Regavim:
“There is no place in the State of Israel, and certainly not in its capital, for foreign governments actively working to undermine it.”
The issue of the establishment of a Palestinian state is one with which we still must contend. In spite of all the reasons that this must not be permitted to happen, and the fact that the Palestinian Arabs do not remotely merit a state, the notion is brought forth again and again. This has a great deal more to do with weakening Israel than anything else.
It is a subject to which I return for more extensive consideration. Here I provide one citation, from Basel Abu Shahab, secretary of the Fatah movement in the Burj al-Shemali refugee camp in Lebanon:
“We know the trap we have set for Israel by demanding a two-state solution. [Israel] has reason to fear us…In my view, the establishment of a Palestinian state would mean the disappearance of the Israeli entity and the end of global Zionism.” (Emphasis added)
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-911419
We have yet to contend with taking out Hamas in Gaza, as well.
I again cite Meir Ben-Shabbat: “The October 7 attack gave the Palestinians something they had never had before: A sense of capability – to destroy Israel. As long as they believe another such attack on Israel is possible, they will never stop dreaming of it and preparing for the right moment. That is why Israel must achieve every objective it has set for itself and completely dismantle Hamas.”
https://www.israelhayom.com/2026/10/13/for-hamas-october-7-was-just-the-beginning/
We are prepared to do this, understand we must. But a roadblock that I see is the Trump administration, which is putting out announcements about doing major building in Gaza soon. This is not supposed to happen until Gaza is demilitarized. We are likely to lock horns with Jared Kushner, who has it that all is well and under control in Gaza.
Israel’s election is less than two weeks away, on October 27. For this reason, in addition to all the others, the atmosphere is fraught with a certain tension.
Netanyahu is warning that a weakened Hamas might attempt to attack us before the elections. A major attack would generate turmoil. But being prepared is more than half the battle (yes, I recognize the irony of these words). Today we are well prepared.
https://www.jns.org/news/israel-news/netanyahu-hamas-will-try-to-attack-before-elections
And last here, with far more to come: Winds of war are in the air. I am not speaking with regard to Hamas, but Iran. I have chosen not to track in detail the on-going tensions between the US (i.e., Trump) and Iran. It has all been too erractic and amorphous. The prevailing wisdom, however, has been that Trump is stalling until after the US midterm elections.
Reports did surface recently indicating that in the last two weeks Trump pressured Israel to attack Iran alone. Apparently Trump’s logic was that US fighting would play badly for the midterm elections, but that Netanyahu would gain in the Israeli elections if he were to order an attack on Iran. At any rate, our prime minister declined. Imagine going to the polls with a war going on. His ability to say no is critical.
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-911224
Again citing prevailing wisdom, it is understood that if Trump does order an attack, Israel will join; we are not expecting the US to go it alone and would be pleased to augment attacks to increase effectiveness.
We here in Israel will cope. It is difficult, but we deal with it. There is broad recognition that Iran is working on its ballistic missiles and looking to establish nuclear weaponry. And so there is no choice.
The sense that all of this is imminent has increased in the last few days because of reports that approximately 3,000 U.S. military personnel have been deployed in Israel. This includes air defense teams, pilots and supporting technicians, logistics crews, headquarters staff and others. And the US is preparing an additional deployment – all, we are being told, with the possibility of escalation in mind. Israel is the preferred location for stationing troops as it is the site Iran is reluctant to hit. A third aircraft carrier has been deployed to the Middle East, as well.
https://www.jns.org/analysis/united-states-looking-at-all-possibilities-on-iran
Please, pray for the safety of Israel and the strength of our leaders.
©Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by independent journalist Arlene Kushner. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.
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