Former Shin Bet employee on the real reasons behind the Flydubai plane incident. Interview

Former Shin Bet employee Alex Kushnir told Vesti studio that the attempted hijacking of a Flydubai plane was a result of negligence and a systemic security failure. He drew a parallel with the October 7 disaster, accused officials of lacking accountability, and called for a reform of Israel's governance system.

Former Shin Bet employee and former Knesset member Alex Kushnir, in an interview with Vesti studio, stated that the incident involving an attempted hijacking of a Flydubai plane by a passenger from Oman was a result of systemic negligence. According to him, the head of the security department at the Ministry of Transport is a "freelancer with numerous side jobs" paid by foreign airlines, with no incentive to check crew lists. Kushnir emphasized that the threat could have been identified through open-source intelligence (OSINT), but nothing was done. Kushnir drew a direct parallel between the aviation failure and the October 7 disaster, stating that in both cases the system failed due to an "unshakeable concept." He noted that in a normal country, officials would resign after such an incident, but in Israel, the culture of accountability after October 7 has "finally died." Kushnir also reported that together with Professor Eugene Kandel and Ron Tzur, he founded an institute proposing a reform of Israeli governance, and urged citizens to judge politicians by results, not eloquence.