Jerusalem: The Israeli Foreign Ministry has said that the world saw Israelis, Emiratis and Indians showing extraordinary courage and standing together against terror during the attack on a Flydubai flight bound for Tel Aviv earlier this week.
“The terror attack on the Flydubai flight to Tel Aviv was more than an attack on Israelis. It was an attack on Israel–UAE relations and everything the Abraham Accords represent. Instead, the world saw Israelis, Emiratis and Indians showing extraordinary courage and standing together against terror. Terror will not derail the progress transforming our region,” the Ministry said on Sunday in a post on social media platform X.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has invited Flydubai pilot Captain Smit Machchhar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to light a celebratory flame at Israel’s next Independence Day ceremony, describing the Indian pilot who foiled a mid-air attack as a “hero of India, Israel and the entire world”, during a telephone conversation with him earlier.
“Captain, I want to invite you and my dear friend, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to light a celebratory flame on our next Independence Day. You are a true hero of the brave peoples of India and Israel, and you’re a hero of the entire world,” Netanyahu told Captain Machchhar.
“I wish you a very speedy and complete recovery,” he added.
The Israeli Prime Minister said the honour was usually reserved for his country’s own citizens.
“It’s our highest honour that we give on our Independence Day. It’s usually reserved for Israeli citizens. But I think here in this case, all the citizens of Israel will embrace you (Captain Smit Machchhar). They do now and they will then too,” he added.
Netanyahu, who was told by the pilot how the attack unfolded in the cockpit, said he was amazed by his conduct.
“I’m amazed at your courage, at your coolness of judgment under impossible conditions,” the Israeli Prime Minister said, adding that what the Captain did was remarkable and that it bordered on the miraculous.
He said the pilot had saved more than the lives of those on board.
“You saved so many souls. I think you saved something bigger. You saved the spirit of the world to realise that a brave pilot and brave passengers can overcome this evil, however threatening, however violent. It’s something that is being justly hailed around the world,” Netanyahu said.
(IANS)
