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In-Depth Issues:
Middle East Crude Oil Exports Back at Prewar Levels -
Giulia Petroni ( Wall Street Journal)
Middle East crude oil exports are back at prewar levels. Goldman Sachs estimates that crude exports from Persian Gulf producers reached 19 million barrels a day over the past week through Monday, driven by increased shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran's ability to choke off oil flowing through Hormuz is breaking down and the country has been unable to move its own crude through Hormuz since the U.S. reinstated its maritime blockade in July.
J.P. Morgan analysts said with flows through Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline recently restored, the 10-day average of crude exports from the Middle East has rebounded to 17.5 million barrels a day, or 98% of prewar levels.
Yet, stalled U.S.-Iran talks to end the war and persistent threats by Yemen's Houthis in the Red Sea are leaving the prospect of further disruptions hanging over the market, threatening to keep energy costs elevated.
Satellite data reviewed by Goldman show no seaborne Iranian exports of crude or refined products in September. Before the war, Iran exported 1.7 million barrels a day.
After Two Decades, U.S. Forces Leave Iraq - Erika Solomon ( New York Times)
U.S. forces formally withdrew from Iraq on Wednesday, ending a two-decade military presence.
After toppling Saddam Hussein in 2003, American forces left the country in 2011, returning three years later to lead the fight against the Islamic State.
Dutch Anti-Israel Measure Ends Up Targeting Druze, Palestinian Residents - Dean Brandstetter ( Israel Hayom)
On Sept. 22, the Dutch government banned the import, sale, and even personal possession of products originating in Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.
Dutch enforcement follows the EU's official postal code document. However, leaning on postal codes means including products from Arab, Druze, and Christian communities on the boycott list, as well as Israeli residents who live within the pre-1967 lines.
Included are dozens of neighborhoods in the capital, Jerusalem, including all the Arab residents of eastern Jerusalem.
Four Druze towns in the Golan Heights also made the blacklist, alongside the Alawite village of Ghajar, an Arab village straddling the Israel-Lebanon border.
Apples, olives and other agricultural produce from these areas now fall under the Dutch trade ban.
Iranian Airliner with Passengers Seized in Istanbul over Debt - Cagla Uren ( Euronews Turkish)
A Tehran-based Caspian Airlines Boeing 737 was seized at Istanbul Airport on Monday by court-ordered officers acting on a debt claim of 3 million euros, stranding passengers who had already boarded a flight bound for Iran.
The Palestinian Inquisition - Yoni Weinberg ( spiked-UK)
"Put me down as thinking it's a genocide," said actor Adam Brody. "Put me down as wanting a free Palestine." He offers no evidence for his choice. Just a position to record.
But how freely does anyone speak in an industry where giving the wrong answer can become a public ordeal? Just ask English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran.
I work in Hollywood as a screenwriter and I am currently developing a series that takes place during the Spanish Inquisition, whose history looks unfortunately familiar.
Someone makes an accusation and an inquisitor combs through your past.
Then you're either absolved or burnt at the stake, with the judgement delivered in public so everyone else knows what's expected of them.
The celebrity inquisition doesn't need everyone to believe what they say. It only needs everyone to know what happens if they don't say the right words.
Search the Recent History of Israel and the Middle East
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
- Netanyahu: Iran Renewing Progress on Nuclear Program - Tal Shalev
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed new Israeli intelligence indicating Iran is resuming progress on its nuclear program, during a visit to the country on Sunday, an Israeli source said. The information detailed new construction at the Pickaxe mountain site.
(CNN)
- UK Prime Minister: "Strong Indications" Iran Involved in RAF Fairford Incident - Chris Mason
"There are strong indications that Iran played a part in what happened over the weekend at RAF Fairford" air base, Prime Minister Andy Burnham told the BBC. The base has been used as a forward operating location by the U.S. Air Force for decades. "We will say more in due course but we can confirm our belief that we believe Iran to have played a part."
It emerged that one of the five men arrested had dialed the 999 emergency number before the arrests. Police said a quantity of gasoline but no explosive devices were found during searches of the three vans at the scene. (BBC News)
See also Netanyahu: Israel Gave UK Intelligence about RAF Fairford Plot - Fiona Hamilton
Israel provided British authorities with intelligence about an alleged Iranian-sponsored attack on RAF Fairford, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed. Asked about the "recent scare in Britain," Netanyahu told Fox News, "You talked about the thing in Britain. Do you want to hear how absurd things are there? And how far the anti-Israeli propaganda has gone?"
"We gave the Brits the intel, that there was going to be an attack, and it's an Iranian-sponsored attack, and pretty much the next day they slap sanctions on us. It's wild, the caving in; the collapse before the Islamist-Marxist alliance is very dangerous for the future of the West."
Investigators believe the five men arrested over terrorism and explosives offences outside the Gloucestershire air base were offered small amounts of money to act as proxies and disrupt the base's security.
(The Times-UK)
- U.S. Pressure Campaign Leaves Iranian Tankers Stranded in Asian Waters - Jon Emont
15 miles off the coast of Sri Lanka, 20 empty Iranian oil tankers are stranded, drifting with their engines idled as food, fuel and fresh water run short. They are the most visible consequence of the new pressure campaign by the U.S. to bring Iran to heel.
Dozens of Iranian or Iranian-linked tankers that had ferried sanctioned oil to China have been stuck near Sri Lanka and Malaysia since July, when the U.S. reimposed its blockade on Iran. In recent weeks, U.S. officials have pressured Sri Lanka into blocking local ships from provisioning the tankers and their crews. (Wall Street Journal)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
- How 4 Israelis Helped Save 174 aboard Flydubai Flight - Nina Fox
On a Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday carrying 174 passengers, including 27 children, most of them Israeli, the Omani co-pilot attacked the Indian captain.
Yaniv Hayun was one of four Israelis who intervened as the aircraft went into a steep dive. He said he believes the wounded captain managed to unlock the cockpit door before collapsing.
Once inside the cockpit, Hayun said he saw the Omani co-pilot between the seats. "He was trying to destroy the instruments to disable the aircraft. I grabbed the attacker, choked him and pulled him out. I called the Israelis and told them. We pinned him down."
"I went back into the cockpit. I watch "Mayday: Air Crash Investigation," so I pulled the controls and the plane began to level out. After that, a pilot who was traveling on the plane told me he was taking control."
Dentist Shota Musaev rushed forward to help fight the attacker, then turned his attention to the badly wounded captain. "The pilot was in very serious condition, with heavy bleeding from his head and hands....I managed to stop the bleeding....At that moment you don't think, you just act. There were four of us who took control of the entire situation, and if we hadn't, we wouldn't be talking to you." (Ynet News)
See also Video: Israeli Passenger Describes Critical Moments on Flydubai Flight (Israel Foreign Ministry-X)
See also Why Were Two Additional Pilots on the Flydubai Flight? - Zvika Klein
Two additional Flydubai pilots were on the flight because possible regional rerouting could extend the journey and push the original crew beyond permitted duty hours. Their presence was unrelated to any advance security warning.
That routine staffing decision became critical. (Jerusalem Post)
- Israelis Rescued from Northern Ethiopia after Days Trapped by Rebel Advance - Nava Freiberg
20 Israeli citizens who were stuck in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region amid a rebel advance in the area have been evacuated by helicopter after three days of "intensive efforts," the Israel Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
(Times of Israel)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
The Flydubai Flight
- Extraordinary Heroism and Near-Miraculous Circumstances Avert an Airplane Catastrophe - David Horovitz
166 Israelis and eight other passengers, 20-30 children among them, survived an attempt on Wednesday by a Flydubai copilot to crash their plane and kill them all. Their survival would appear to be near-miraculous.
There is no precedent for passengers on board thwarting a pilot's attempt to crash a commercial airliner.
Two off-duty pilots, who happened to be on board, managed a safe landing in Saudi Arabia.
On landing, the plane touched down with a chunk of its rudder missing, ascribed by experts to the forces exerted upon the plane as it plummeted to earth.
Describing the moments when the plane was diving out of control, passenger Daniel said, "It felt like, that's it. It's over. September 11 is happening again." (Times of Israel)
- Miracle on Flight FZ1073 - Amit Segal and Ari Tatarka
For the first time in over 20 years, someone has tried to hijack a plane bound for Israel. Miraculously, the attacker, an Omani pilot, was overpowered before he could complete his mission. The co-pilot had repeatedly stabbed the captain, then seized the controls and pointed the plane toward the ground, dropping almost 20,000 feet in just over a minute, until several crew members and passengers forced their way through the cockpit door and subdued him.
Between 1968 and 1976, Palestinian groups attempted or carried out 16 hijackings, and roughly as many attacks on other aviation targets, hitting El Al offices and passengers at the airports in Athens, Brussels, Istanbul and Rome.
After the 1972 massacre at Lod Airport, in which 26 people were killed, Israel turned its international airport into a fortress, with metal detectors, X-ray machines, surveillance cameras, a pressure chamber for checked luggage, a vehicle checkpoint at the entrance, and armed guards. Israeli standards soon became the global norm, and terrorists came to realize that the risk involved in hijacking planes was greater than the chances of success.
It was the courage of everyday Israelis that foiled Wednesday's threat. With the captain barely hanging on to life, a broken steering system and a damaged wing, it was only by the bravery of a handful of passengers and crew that almost 180 lives were saved. (It's Noon in Israel)
- Don't Mess with Israeli Airline Passengers - Jake Wallis Simons
There is no emergency more terrifying than a hijack in mid-air. What took place on Flydubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday provided yet another example of that blunt courage for which Israelis are famed. The bedrock beneath is the Israeli instinct to take responsibility for one another, to feel a bond of duty to their countrymen, to grab the reins of a runaway wagon without waiting for somebody else to step in.
The third anniversary of Oct. 7 is next week. On that Saturday, ordinary people reacted to the emergency by grabbing whatever weapon was at hand and running towards the killing fields. The point is a high-trust society in which citizens feel a sense of kinship with one another. Israel has that in spades, which is one of the reasons why, even now, it is one of the happiest countries in the world.
The Flydubai flight saw ordinary people doing what must be done because the task has fallen to them. That is where heroism lies. (Telegraph-UK)
- Passengers Defeat a Would-Be Hijacker - Editorial
Israeli passengers and Emirati crew members fought off a hijacking attempt of a flight from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to Tel Aviv on Wednesday. On their way home to Israel at last, survivors of the hijacking could be seen on video breaking into an old Jewish song: "The entire world is a very narrow bridge - and the main thing is to have no fear at all." (Wall Street Journal)
Observations:
- On that insane flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv, the murderous bigotry of the extremist came head to head with the Jewish people's love of life. Mercifully, the latter won. The Jews were victorious. Once again, they thwarted their enemies.
- The footage from that Flydubai flight is terrifying. The plane plummeted 17,000 feet in just two minutes. Imagine the horror of that. Then came the brilliant, brave fightback. The passengers weren't ready to die. According to one passenger, "three to five guys" stormed the cockpit and subdued the attacker. This was by all accounts an act of resistance against the culture of death.
- Whether it was an act of suicidal lunacy or of jihadist hate, the fact remains that Israelis fought back against barbarism in the skies and landed a beautiful blow for humanity over hatred.
- If this was an attempt to kill Israelis, can we really be surprised? Hatred for Israel is out of control. Israelophobia unites the plummy keffiyeh-wearer of the leafy campus and the conspiratorial cab driver in Kabul. It's the great moral blight of our times. In such a fevered climate, assaults on Israelis, and on the Jews of the West too, are naturally going to spike.
- If this does turn out to have been an attempted mass murder of Israelis, I expect the response to the heroism we saw will be muted. Heaven forfend we praise Israelis! Aren't Israelis meant to just suck up suspected jihadist attacks on their way of life and never fight back? That's effectively been a rallying cry since the pogrom of 7 October.
- Do you side with the swirling anti-human hatred for the Jewish state, or with the Jews' determination to survive against all the odds? I know whose side I'm on.
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