The co-pilot of the plane to Tel Aviv would be a "lone wolf" who intended to crash it

BarcelonaThe Israeli government has suggested from the very first moment a supposed role of Iran in the incident that last Wednesday forced a change in the route of a plane covering the journey between Dubai and Tel Aviv. The authorities are investigating it as an attempted attack. Without evidence, Benjamin Netanyahu suggested a day after the events that Tehran could be behind it, and the Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, asserted that it was a "jihadist terrorist attack attempt". This Monday, however, the thesis of an Iranian involvement is losing strength: reports from Israel and the United States cited by media such as the BBC point out that the attacker was a "lone wolf".

According to these investigations, the co-pilot accused of attempting to hijack the plane, from the company Flydubai, intended to crash the aircraft into Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv or into a skyscraper in the Israeli capital. Early last Wednesday morning, when the aircraft was approaching the border of Saudi Arabia with Jordan, the co-pilot, Hamam al-Hammami, assaulted the pilot of the aircraft, Smit Machchhar, and tried to take control of the plane, which finally landed in Tabuk, in Saudi Arabia, where Machchhar was admitted to receive treatment for his serious injuries.

Israeli media explain, citing sources familiar with the investigation, that having stabbed Machchhar, Al-Hammami, an Omani national, intended to continue the flight to Israeli airspace. Once there, he planned to wait to receive landing authorizations to, then, crash the aircraft. This is the version he allegedly explained to the investigators himself. In his confession, he also claimed that he had intended to hijack and crash a previous flight, but changed his mind because he knew a person on board.

The insinuations from Benjamin Netanyahu's government regarding a possible link to Iran come in a context of maximum tension between the two states, and in a pre-election environment in which the Israeli prime minister is widely questioned due to the multiple military fronts open –among which is that of Tehran, now frozen but not resolved–, which are exhausting the population. Netanyahu is looking to revalidate the presidency in a meeting with the polls at the end of the month that is key to his political survival, which he reaches also questioned by reports that point out he may have ignored the warnings from the United Arab Emirates that warned of the 2023 Hamas attacks ten days before they occurred.

A new setback for Netanyahu

Although at first the incident seemed like it could play in Netanyahu's favor, paving the way for him in the face of a supposed external attack with political intent, the latest developments are turning against him. This Monday it also became known that Israel received a list of the plane's crew members before it took off. It is especially relevant for two reasons. On one hand, because the Omani co-pilot had been rejected by the company Oman Air after the country's authorities claimed he had "extremist ideas". On the other hand, because pilots from countries with which Tehran does not maintain diplomatic relations, as is the case with Oman, are banned from entering Israel.

For these reasons, voices are growing that demand an independent commission of inquiry into what went wrong in this case. But Netanyahu rejects it, and this Sunday he announced that it will be the director of the National Security Council, Shmuel Ben Ezra, who will oversee the investigations. This is a position that the executive power itself appoints. For this reason, the opposition qualifies it as a "farce" and sees a clear parallel with the investigation into the Hamas attacks, for which Netanyahu is also blocking an independent examination.