Netanyahu: Israel Has Prevented Terrorist Plane Hijackings in Europe

This week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told foreign diplomats that the Jewish state had prevented terror attacks using hijacked aircraft in Europe.

“We have, through our intelligence services, provided information that has stopped several dozen major terrorist attacks, many of them in European countries,” Netanyahu said in remarks Tuesday, speaking with foreign diplomats in the Israeli capital of Jerusalem.

The prime minister clarified, “Some of these could have been mass attacks, of the worst kind that you have experienced on the soil of Europe and even worse, because they involve civil aviation. Israel has prevented that, and thereby helped save many European lives.”

These remarks suggest that Israel has prevented terror plane hijackings of the kind the United States experienced on September 11, 2001.

Netanyahu did not clarify the details about these attacks, according to The Times of Israel. The paper also reported that the Prime Minister’s Office did not elaborate when the paper reached out for comment.

The prime minister made the remarks at a meeting of Israel-based ambassadors to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). He claimed Israel contributes to the security of each member of the alliance, in fighting both Sunni and Shiite strands of radical Islam. The Jewish state is also on the front lines against the Islamic State (ISIS).

“ISIS is being destroyed in Iraq and Syria, but it is trying to establish an alternative territorial base in the Sinai. Israel is contributing to preventing that in myriad ways,” Netanyahu reported. “In general, I would say that Israel is the most powerful indigenous force in the Middle East that fights radical Islam.”

Last June, The New York Times reported that Israel had carried out a pivotal hack against ISIS. It appears the Jewish state has achieved more victories since.

Multiple ISIS attacks have ravaged European cities in the past year, but if Netanyahu is correct, they could have been a great deal worse. Anti-Israel remarks and sentiment in Europe seem particularly ugly in this light.