Shea Levin — text status

Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer suggested the attempted Flydubai attack may have been intended to influence Israel’s upcoming election, saying Israel’s enemies “don’t want Prime Minister Netanyahu to win that election.” Mencer said those behind the plot may have calculated that the deaths of roughly 160 Israelis and others aboard the flight, and the resulting catastrophe, would have had a major political impact in Israel. He separately warned that once Israel determines who sent the pilot “to murder all of these passengers,” “they’ll hear from Israel.”