What the FlyDubai heroes reveal about the Israeli society
A plumber, a dentist, a finance executive and an underwriter: What the FlyDubai heroes reveal about Israel.
In the hours after the terrifying events aboard a FlyDubai flight bound for Tel Aviv, many people pointed to the same explanation for the Israelis who rushed to help: military service. Israelis are trained to act under pressure. They are used to taking responsibility when something goes wrong.
That is true. But the stories of the passengers who helped stop the attack point to something else about Israeli society, too.
Among them were Yaniv Hayun, a plumber; Dr. Shota Musaev, a dentist; Assaf Rajuan, who owns an insurance and finance business; and Zvika Manes, the CEO of an underwriting company. They came from different professions and different places in the social and economic landscape. When the crisis came, those distinctions did not matter. They acted together.
Israel has rich people and poor people, privilege and hardship, deep and persistent economic gaps. We should not pretend otherwise. But Israeli life also brings people from different backgrounds into shared institutions and shared spaces in ways that can be less common elsewhere.
Private schooling exists, but it is not the default experience for most Israeli children. In many schools, children whose parents have very different incomes sit in the same classrooms. They meet in youth movements, on sports teams and in their neighborhoods. There are real divisions in Israel, including between religious and secular communities and between Jewish and Arab citizens. There are also schools and communities that are far from socially mixed. Still, for many Israelis, growing up means encountering people whose lives look very different from their own.
For many Jewish Israelis, the deepest bond is a sense that we belong to one people, one family. It is not a religious test. Secular and religious Jews share it in different ways. Non-Jewish citizens are part of Israel’s story, too, and many feel a strong sense of belonging and pride in being Israeli. These bonds of peoplehood and shared civic belonging help hold this diverse society together.
The IDF adds another powerful shared experience for the majority of Jewish Israelis who serve. A soldier’s family wealth does not determine who will be their commander. People from modest backgrounds may lead soldiers who grew up with money, connections or fame. What matters in that moment is whether you can do the job, earn trust and take responsibility.
That experience does not erase inequality. It does create a common language and a habit of relying on people you might not otherwise have met. It also offers a reminder that when material success matters less, people have more room to form genuine relationships. When money is not the measure of a person’s worth or the basis of every interaction, trust can be built more easily.
We saw that on the FlyDubai flight. As the plane plunged and the cockpit filled with blood, people with different jobs and different skills moved toward the same danger. Hayun helped pull the attacker away and stabilize the aircraft. Rajuan and Manes helped restrain him. Musaev joined the effort to subdue the attacker, then treated the wounded captain. Their actions were part of a much larger effort: the injured captain, Smit Machchhar, managed to open the cockpit door, and crew members and other pilots helped bring the aircraft under control.
It would be wrong to turn these men into symbols and forget the fear, confusion and individual courage of everyone on board. It would also be wrong to suggest that Israel has somehow solved the problem of social divisions. But there is something worth noticing in the way these passengers worked together. A plumber, a dentist, a finance executive and an underwriter did not stop to ask who had the more prestigious job, the larger salary or the stronger connections. They saw a plane full of people in danger. They trusted one another and did what they could. In that moment, human responsibility mattered more than status, and trust mattered more than money.
The military teaches Israelis to respond to emergencies. The shared texture of Israeli life may help explain why, in that moment, strangers from different worlds could become a team. And the relationships formed across those differences may be strongest when people are not primarily measuring one another by wealth, prestige or material success.
