An attempted hijacking of a passenger jet bound for Tel Aviv was stopped mid-flight in what a Daily Wire column describes as a near-certain catastrophe, and the outlet is using the episode to draw a sharp line between two ways of responding to terrorism.
According to the Daily Wire account, the flight originated in Dubai and was headed to Tel Aviv when the Omani co-pilot attacked the Indian pilot, stabbing him and attempting to seize control of the cockpit. The outlet notes that the co-pilot’s nationality raised its own unresolved questions, since Oman does not have the diplomatic agreement with Israel that would ordinarily permit a flight crewed by its nationals into Tel Aviv. That issue, the column says, remains under investigation.
The Daily Wire credits the pilot as the first hero of the episode: though being stabbed, he reportedly managed to reach the cockpit door and force it open far enough to alert people outside that something was wrong. At the front of the cabin, a group of Israeli passengers rushed forward and pulled the co-pilot out of the cockpit. The outlet states the attacker appeared to be trying to destroy the plane’s equipment with the apparent aim of crashing it β either into the ground or into an Israeli target in a 9/11-style attack.
One passenger β described by the Daily Wire as a plumber who had learned about flight controls from watching the program Air Disasters β took hold of the co-pilot and managed to pull the aircraft out of a freefall, stabilizing it enough for a backup crew aboard to level it out. Meanwhile, an Israeli medical professional on board treated the wounded pilot and, according to the outlet, kept him from bleeding to death during the flight. The plane had entered a tailspin, and part of the rudder tore away under speeds the aircraft was not built to withstand.
The Daily Wire frames the survival of everyone aboard as close to miraculous, listing the improbabilities: the pilot opening the cockpit door moments before collapsing, the would-be rescuers happening to be seated at the front of the plane, and trained pilots being on board to take the controls. The outlet also criticizes Saudi Arabia for refusing to allow Israeli air force or commercial aircraft to land in Israel to bring the passengers home after the plane touched down in Saudi Arabia, calling that decision “vile.”
Two Models for Responding to Terror
The column sets up what it calls the two available models for answering terrorism. The first is Israel’s approach after the October 7 Hamas massacre β going in, killing every terrorist you can find, and securing your future. The second is the Spanish model: after al-Qaeda bombed commuter trains in Madrid in March 2004, killing roughly 190 people, the Socialist Party won power and immediately withdrew Spain from supporting the United States in the Iraq War.
From the Daily Wire’s perspective, those two paths amount to standing tall and doing what is necessary to preserve your civilization, or surrendering in the face of terrorism. The outlet argues the radical Islamic world is actively seeking the latter outcome, and that the passengers and crew of the flight refused to give it to them.
The column singles out British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband for calling the attack an “incident,” noting that he did not use the words “terrorist attack” or “hijacking” and spoke as though a mechanical failure had occurred rather than a co-pilot stabbing a pilot and then trying to crash the aircraft into the desert. The Daily Wire presents that language as emblematic of a broader Western reluctance to name and confront the threat.
According to the outlet, the episode lands just days after an attempted Iranian-backed attack on an air force base in Great Britain, and it argues the two events together illustrate a widening split in the West over whether to fight radical Islamist enemies or surrender to them.
A Political Fight Behind the Security Fight
The Daily Wire credits the Trump administration with doing something different from any administration in the columnist’s lifetime by standing up to what the outlet calls the Iranian terror regime. It points to statements from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the column says has openly signaled a desire to see Democrats elected in the United States. In the outlet’s reading, Iran is saying out loud what it wants: a Western surrender, and it believes the Democratic Party is most likely to deliver it.
The column urges Americans to “wake up,” pointing to the IRGC’s messaging as a direct appeal about how they should vote. It references Iran’s crackdown on protests in January, which the outlet says left 50,000 people shot in the streets, along with what it describes as the regime’s treatment of women and its attacks on countries across the region.
In the Daily Wire’s framing, Iran’s goal is to replicate against the entire West what al-Qaeda achieved in Spain in 2004: pursue terrorist attacks, raise the stakes, create more chaos, drive up oil prices, and bet that the West will cave. The outlet attributes that bet to a reading of the Islamic world as a shame culture β one that believes that if the West is humiliated or loses face, it will retreat.
The alternative the column endorses is the one it says Israelis demonstrated aboard that flight, and the one it argues only one American political party is interested in pursuing: standing up, standing tall, growing a spine, and doing what is necessary to preserve the country and its civilization. Whatever else Americans take from the past several days, the Daily Wire’s argument is that the choice between fighting and surrendering has now been placed squarely in front of them.
Source: www.dailywire.com β https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-the-hijacking-was-only-a-warning