A new interview with Yaniv Hayoun, one of the passengers credited with helping to avert disaster aboard Flydubai flight FZ1073 gave new details about the moment he rushed the cockpit and what happened next.
Hayoun explained that he&#8217;d been seated in Row 11 with his wife and daughters, and everything had seemed normal until he heard a woman yelling at the front of the plane that there had been a &#8220;stabbing.&#8221; It was not clear from what she shouted who had been stabbed — but then the plane turned sharply and started shaking, at which point Hayoun realized that the situation is unfolding in the cockpit.
Yelling at the other passengers to &#8220;buckle up,&#8221; Hayoun said he rushed toward the cockpit and was almost to the door when the plane nosedived, tossing him around as the dive cut their altitude in by 40% in just 30 seconds.
&#8220;I kept trying my hardest to get up off the ground. At some point, I was finally able to, when the plane leveled off a little,&#8221; Hayoun said, adding that he believed the plane had stabilized because some automated system had engaged.
At the cockpit, a man who looked like a crew member had his hands on the outside of the door — but Hayoun could not tell if he was trying to get the door opened or hold it closed. ”I get to him, I move him away, he doesn&#8217;t resist. I open the cockpit door — it was a little difficult because the pilot was lying down on the floor behind it, the one who was attacked &#8230; I went in. The terrorist was crouching with his knees on the instruments between the two pilots&#8217; seats. There was no one in the pilots&#8217; seats. He was hitting the instrument panel, trying to break the equipment.&#8221;
Hayoun called back to other Israelis in the aisle to &#8220;come help&#8221; and attempted to pull the terrorist away fro the controls — and despite the terrorist fighting back, Hayoun was able to get him out of the cockpit. Several others waiting just outside took over and held the attacker.
Returning to the controls, Hayoun realized that the plane was still angled downward and that he could see the ground through the windshield. He grabbed the yoke and pulled upward, bringing up the nose of the aircraft.
Another man, who was not Israeli, came in and said he was a pilot: &#8220;Release the controls. I&#8217;ll take it.&#8221;
Hayoun said he planned to keep a close eye on the pilot because he didn&#8217;t know whether he could be trusted — but the still-resisting terrorist had required his attention. The passengers eventually subdued him, tying him up with headphone cables.
After helping to remove the wounded Indian pilot, Smit Machchhar, Hayoun remained in the cockpit with the replacement pilot and one other crew member — largely, he said, to ensure that they were taking action to land the plane safely.
He said that he did not understand much English, but he knew that the pilot was talking to ground control and requesting help for the injured pilot once they land.
Still, he said, other Israelis on the plane guarded the remaining members of the flight crew until they were safely on the ground out of fear that some of them could have been working with the terrorist co-pilot.
Hayoun said that once it was over, he did not worry about boarding another Flydubai flight from Saudi Arabia to Tel Aviv — and he said he would certainly fly again in the future.
&#8220;Even being in this situation once was like winning the lottery,&#8221; he said, arguing that the odds were against something similar happening on another flight with him onboard.

Screenshot

New Details Emerge About Hero Who Rushed Cockpit To Stop 9/11-Style Attack

aviation security

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hijacking

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terrorism

world

The narrowly averted disaster aboard Flydubai flight FZ1073 has sparked concerns that the Iranian regime may be looking to a new tactic to inflict terror around the world.
Former Israel Defense Forces colonel and intelligence officer Miri Eisin — who now heads Reichman University&#8217;s International Institute for Counter-Terrorism and once served as a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert — warned that a radicalized pilot could be a harbinger of things to come. Using a pilot for such a scheme, Eisin noted, guaranteed the attacker access to the cockpit — access that hijackers in the past have had to take by force.
&#8220;An individual doesn’t get the idea on his own to crash a plane full of people including himself. Somebody told him that if you do that you get your 72 virgins,&#8221; Eisin told <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/10/03/world-news/irans-terrifying-new-terror-tactic-may-be-turning-airline-pilots-into-9-11-style-attackers-former-idf-colonel-warns/">The New York Post</a>. &#8220;If you think back to past plane hijackings, including 9/11, the hijacker was never the pilot of the plane &#8230; This could be a new kind of suicide bomber.&#8221;
Eisin also said that, although the official investigation is still ongoing, she had believed from the beginning that it was possible Iran was behind the Flydubai attempt.
&#8220;This to me is very much something that could have come from Hezbollah or the IRGC Quds Force, this is the kind of things that they think of,” she said. &#8220;Just because someone’s a pilot doesn’t mean they can’t be radicalized, people from all walks of life could be radicalized. [Former Syrian dictator] Bashar al-Assad was a doctor, Josef Mengele was a doctor &#8230; And if you kill Israelis, the whole world applauds you.&#8221;
President Donald Trump has also suggested that Iran could be responsible for the near miss, but did not give details.
Using trained and radicalized pilots to carry out 9/11-style attacks speaks to a long-term terror strategy — one that was not missed by Oded Ailam, a former deputy head of global operations for Mossad.
&#8220;Recruiting and convincing a pilot to do something like that, it’s not the same as telling a 15-year-old to strap on a bomb and walk into a promenade and explode himself. This is a very sophisticated and long operation,&#8221; he said.
He went on to note that it was far more likely to see &#8220;lone wolf&#8221; style attacks from pilots who were radicalized by the people around them.
&#8220;He’s influenced by jihadists, by extremists in mosques, he’s influenced by prominent Iranians calling for death to Israel,&#8221; he said, &#8220;Terror combined with mental disturbances in the pilot, when you combine it together the outcome is horrific. There are a lot of people who are being radicalized who are airline pilots.&#8221;
Ailam suggested a technological solution — something that would allow crew members to access the cockpit in the event of a similar attack — might be the best way to prevent future instances.
An Israeli television report found that pilots from Iran, Syria, and Iraq, among other enemy states, have flown foreign airliners into and out of Israel in recent years. Those pilots, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/report-israel-rushing-to-check-whether-other-pilots-from-enemy-states-are-flying-the-israel-route-iranian-syrian-and-iraqi-pilots-have-done-so/">according</a> to the report, hold dual citizenship — likely carrying a second passport from a country that would not raise red flags.

Flydubai passenger plane arrives in Tel Aviv

Flydubai Hijacker Sparks Concerns That Iran Has New Terror Tactic

hezbollah

iran

Omani co-pilot Hamam al-Hammami, 29, reportedly made a series of disturbing social media posts while studying aviation management remotely at the U.K.&#8217;s Buckinghamshire New University.
According to a <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/10/04/world-news/accused-flydubai-hijacker-celebrated-beating-women-sharia-law-on-social-media/">report</a> published Sunday by The New York Post, al-Hammami fired off a number of X posts that were misogynistic — and brutally so, often advocating for violence against women — as well as some that were clearly antisemitic.
In one exchange, first <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/10/03/flydubai-hijackers-hateful-rants-while-at-uk-university/">reported</a> by The Telegraph, al-Hammami told a woman, &#8220;God forbid I should be in his position, but if I were in his place, I’d stomp on your head, wipe the floor with you, make you an example to others, and then divorce you.&#8221;
In another post, replying to a post about a man beating a woman, he reportedly wrote, &#8220;Neither you nor she is going to slap someone lik​e this. I swear, if she so much as breathed around him, he’d stomp on her head. He isn’t some simp who waits until she brings some disaster into the home. He gave her a preemptive slap so she would redefine her boundaries, just as Russia slapped Ukraine to adjust its borders.&#8221;
The outlet also said he referred to a man who&#8217;d failed to beat his wife — for talking to another man — as a &#8220;coward and a scoundrel.&#8221;
In yet another post, he reportedly advised a man who&#8217;d caught his wife talking &#8220;badly&#8221; about him to her boss to file a complaint — but &#8220;first you have to stomp on her head, make her life miserable and make her taste the bitterness of what she did.&#8221;
The Telegraph reportedly reviewed more than 2,000 posts tied to an account  under the name &#8220;Pilot Hamam al-Hammami,&#8221; with a username of @PilotHamam. The account bio describes the user as a civilian pilot from Oman, and &#8220;gives biographical details matching Hammami, including that his mother was Syrian.&#8221;
Other posts, according to an Israeli official, expressed hatred for Jews: &#8220;His social media accounts [say] clearly that he has been radicalized into jihadist ideology. He talks about killing Jews.&#8221;
Al-Hammami had been pulled from flight duties at Oman&#8217;s national airline over concerns about his extremist views, The Wall Street Journal reported, yet Flydubai later hired him to fly its route to Israel. On Wednesday, he allegedly stabbed the flight&#8217;s captain, Indian national Smit Machchhar, on a flight bound for Tel Aviv, apparently intending to bring down a plane that Netanyahu said was carrying almost entirely Israeli passengers. He was stopped by Machchhar, who fought back despite his wounds, along with several passengers who stormed the cockpit and off-duty crew who took over the controls.

FlyDubai Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplane at Dubai airport in the United Arab Emirates

READ THEM: Flydubai Hijacker’s Disturbing Social Media Posts Celebrate Beating Women

READ THEM: Flydubai Hijacker's Disturbing Social Media Posts Celebrate Beating Women

antisemitism

hamam al hammami

One of the men named in the &#8220;Cornell 7&#8221; case is suing the prestigious university to have his academic record cleared and allegations against him withdrawn.
Referenced only as &#8220;John Doe&#8221; in the <a href="https://cnycentral.com/news/local/cornell-student-named-in-sex-assault-case-sues-to-have-his-allegations-removed">filing</a>, the man is a former fraternity member who has admitted to being present at the Chi Phi house on the night that the woman known as Jane Doe now says that she was raped — but he says that Cornell University violated its own policy during the investigation.
In court documents filed in Tompkins County, Doe alleges that the university ultimately &#8220;found him responsible&#8221; for an offense for which he was neither charged nor given a chance to defend himself — which he said was a violation of policy.
Cornell&#8217;s hearing panel found Doe not responsible for sexual assault or sexual exploitation — the only two offenses he was charged with — but they found him responsible for Attempted Sexual Exploitation, concluding that he entered the room where the alleged assault was taking place intending to watch. Doe says he built his entire defense, including statements, evidence, and testimony, around the two charges he actually faced, and never got the chance to answer the third.
Doe also alleges that one member of the hearing panel joined by Zoom while driving a car as testimony was being taken, and argues that the hearing was &#8220;irreparably compromised by the repeated inattention of [a] panel member.&#8221; Cornell&#8217;s appeal panel rejected that argument, finding the panelist was in the vehicle for only a minimal portion of the multi-day hearing, and denied his appeal in January.
He claimed in the documents that the university had effectively pulled a &#8220;bait and switch&#8221; by charging him with a separate offense after forcing him to defend himself against others.
The lawsuit says that after an initial investigation into the October 2024 incident, Cornell charged Doe under Policy 6.4, its Title IX policy, with one count of Sexual Assault and one count of Sexual Exploitation. The university claimed that in addition to viewing the alleged victim naked, Doe had &#8220;touched his nose to her naked torso while inhaling Ketamine off her body.&#8221;
Doe said that he submitted evidence — including a hair follicle test proving that he was negative for ketamine — along with a statement asserting that he had not used any illicit substances. He further denied having any physical contact with the alleged victim.
Doe has conceded that he was alerted to the situation at the Chi Phi house during a party via a Snapchat message, and when he went to see what was happening, he had seen Jane Doe &#8220;sitting on a bed and speaking with a member of the fraternity, Roe was fully covered with sheets and Doe asked them if they were okay, and after both said they were, Doe left the room.&#8221;
Doe&#8217;s suit overall claims that &#8220;Sexual Exploitation and Attempted Sexual Exploitation are distinct offenses because they are separately defined in Policy 6.4, and argues that &#8216;Cornell cannot simply add on lesser included offenses after the hearing is concluded.'&#8221;
Doe is asking the court to declare that Cornell misapplied its policies and acted arbitrarily, annul the panel&#8217;s decision, vacate all penalties against him, and expunge every reference to the charges from his academic record.

Cornell University, College Town, Ithaca, NY, stone entrance sign with red Geraniums

Student Sues To Have His Name, Allegations Dropped In ‘Cornell 7’ Case

campus sexual assault

cornell university

fraternity

lawsuit

title ix

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Indian pilot Smit Machchhar during a phone conversation on Saturday, hailing him as a &#8220;true hero,&#8221; not just to India and Israel, but to the whole world.
The two spoke by phone, and Netanyahu <a href="https://x.com/IsraeliPM/status/2106457393832112460/video/1">shared video</a> of his end of the conversation — Machchhar could be heard on the speaker — and he invited the pilot to come to Israel and light a flame during the nation&#8217;s next Independence Day celebration.
&#8220;I want to invite you and my dear friend, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to light a celebratory flame on our next Independence Day,&#8221; Netanyahu said. &#8220;You are a true hero of the brave peoples of India and Israel, and you are a hero of the entire world.&#8221;
After wishing Machchhar a &#8220;speedy recovery,&#8221; Netanyahu asked to hear some of the details of what had happened onboard Flydubai Flight FZ1073.
&#8220;It just was a normal flight, and the the co-pilot offered, I mean, he demand, not demanded, but he wanted to pray, which a lot of locals – they do pray, and which is not out of the ordinary,&#8221; Machchhar explained. &#8220;But while he was praying, out of respect, I was just looking at the front and not at the back. And suddenly, after I think I would say about four or five minutes, there was a big blow to the back of my head.&#8221;
Machchhar said that he had thought at first that something had gone wrong with the plane — but quickly came to understand that something much worse was taking place.
&#8220;My first thought was that there was a catastrophic damage to the aircraft, and something is not right. But then, after that, the blows kept coming, one after the other, and that&#8217;s when I realised that it&#8217;s not the aircraft; it&#8217;s the other guy who was in the cockpit with me,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I did try to stop him, but because of his initial blows, my vision was almost like nothing, and I was my I was completely blurred out, and at that point, the next thought I, the next feeling that I had was that the aircraft was sharply going down.&#8221;
Machchhar said that he had tried to get the cockpit door open, but that the copilot had quickly closed it again. By then, he&#8217;d been stabbed several times and was lying on the floor, but he told Netanyahu, &#8220;I had that one last fight left in me.&#8221;
&#8220;Call it personal or call it for people, but let&#8217;s say I did it. That if I don&#8217;t do it, I&#8217;m going to die,&#8221; he added. &#8220;And that&#8217;s when I pushed against everything. I gave everything that I had, and just went for the door and opened the door. And thankfully, people were waiting to pounce back, took over the control, and the rest is what you know.&#8221;
Among those on the other side of that door was Israeli citizen Yaniv Hayoun, who helped to subdue the co-pilot before grabbing the controls himself and pulling the plane out of its dangerous dive.

Visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Meets With Congressional Lawmakers On Capitol Hill

How Israel Plans To Honor The Hero Pilot Who Stopped Its ‘9/11’

benjamin netanyahu

narendra modi

While prosecutors mull whether to retry Lindsay Clancy for the murders of her three children, her attorney Kevin Reddington has returned to another client.
Kelsie Cote, 30, is accused of killing her grandmother, Doris Cote, in 2022 to inherit an estate worth more than $1 million. Her case was delayed for months while Reddington defended Clancy. After Clancy&#8217;s trial ended in a hung jury and mistrial, Reddington returned to Berkshire County Superior Court on Monday.
Monday&#8217;s hearing, as <a href="https://www.berkshireeagle.com/crime/after-months-of-delays-kevin-reddington-returns-to-berkshire-court-for-motion-in-doris-cote-murder-case/4920890">reported</a> by local outlet The Berkshire Eagle, was initially scheduled to review a motion to suppress statements Cote made to law enforcement officers after the killing, but because Reddington had not yet filed that motion, the court instead used the time to assess the status of the case. A new hearing on the motion to suppress Cote&#8217;s statements has been scheduled for November 30 and December 1, 2026.
Reddington argued that Cote&#8217;s statements should be suppressed because police did not advise her of her Miranda rights — specifically her right to remain silent while being interrogated by police.
Assistant District Attorney Marianne Shelvey asked the court to impound the defense, restricting public access. She argued that Reddington&#8217;s newfound notoriety would likely bring increased public interest to Cote&#8217;s case, which she said was &#8220;one of a serious and sensitive nature, and the public disclosure of the information contained in the documents may be harmful to the orderly and thorough prosecution of the case.&#8221;
Superior Court Judge Maureen Hogan granted the request.
Reddington has also told the court he intends to seek suppression of evidence police found while executing a search warrant, claiming they lacked probable cause to obtain it.
Doris Cote was found dead in her home on November 1, 2022, with blunt force and sharp force injuries.
Prosecutors allege that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/who-is-lindsay-clancys-attorney-defending-next">Kelsie Cote</a> had used her close relationship with her grandmother to convince the elderly woman to name her as the beneficiary of her estate — and then killed her to support her drug addiction. They have accused her of stabbing her grandmother with scissors and hitting her with a paperweight before dragging her through the house and staging the scene to make it appear as though she&#8217;d fallen down the stairs.
Cote, as The Daily Wire previously reported, initially <a href="https://www.berkshireeagle.com/breaking/kelsie-cote-north-adams--pleads-not-guilty-to-killing-her-grandmother-on-halloween/article_43d25dcc-5ea9-11ed-9836-1ba2e36516c8.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told authorities</a> that she discovered her grandmother’s body around 10 a.m. on November 1. Six hours later, she called her father for help — and he was the first to dial 911 when he arrived.
Investigators found injuries inconsistent with a fall, including sharp force injuries to the back of Doris Cote&#8217;s head and at least one cut on her thumb that appeared to be defensive in nature. They also found evidence suggesting that Doris had been killed in her office and dragged to the stairs.
Police found bloody towels and cleaning solution near where they believed Doris was killed — and Kelsie explained that she’d tried to clean up because she believed her grandmother was a “clean freak” and would be mad about the mess.
Berkshire District Attorney Timothy Shugrue told The Eagle that Cote had made several damning internet searches prior to her grandmother’s death — including one detailing the anatomy of the human skull. Bloody clothes — along with the scissors and paperweight Cote was accused of using to kill her grandmother — were reportedly found in the younger woman’s 2014 Chevrolet Malibu.
Cote&#8217;s trial is set for May 2027 and is expected to last two weeks.

US-CRIME-TRIAL-CLANCY

Lindsay Clancy’s Lawyer Returns To Another Gruesome Murder Case

Lindsay Clancy's Lawyer Moves On To Next Murder Trial. Here's What We Know.

berkshire county superior court

doris cote

kelsie cote

kevin reddington

lindsay clancy

War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Friday that the War Department — &#8220;at every level&#8221; — would hold a one-day stand-down from training operations so that every service member would have the opportunity to vote.
&#8220;I am directing all commanders and supervisors at all levels across this department to conduct a one-day stand-down during the month of October — beginning this year and continuing every election year,&#8221; Hegseth said, noting that this year&#8217;s stand-down would occur no later than October 15.
Hegseth explained that he believed — as most Americans do — that voting is important, and said that for too long, service members had encountered obstacles when they attempted to exercise that all-important right. Many, he noted, live far away from their home states and have to go through the process of locating and completing absentee ballots. Others might find that training schedules made it difficult for them to find a time to cast a vote, either in person or by mail.
The War Department&#8217;s solution is the one-day stand-down — wherein active-duty service members, unit commanders, and supervisors will put their routine duties on pause for a day in order to ensure that all service members have the chance to vote. Typically, stand-downs are used to conduct emergency training, make time for important and timely discussions, or address specific institutional issues.
Hegseth referenced one recent stand-down — directed by then-Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin shortly after former President Joe Biden was inaugurated — that was used to address the threat of &#8220;patriot extremism&#8221; after the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
&#8220;In February of 2021, under the Biden administration, then-Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin mandated an urgent training stand-down,&#8221; Hegseth recalled. &#8220;He paused training operations and exercises to address a vaguely defined but &#8216;urgent&#8217; extremism problem. I remember it, &#8216;patriot extremism.&#8217; Well, as I&#8217;ve stated before, this is a new and apolitical War Department.&#8221;
He went on to say that he had no intention of telling service members who they should vote for, saying that his only interest was in making sure that they had every opportunity to choose their own elected leadership.
&#8220;So take that day to fill out your absentee ballot, help your family members do the same, or go to the polling place yourself and exercise your right to vote,&#8221; Hegseth concluded. &#8220;It&#8217;s about time we prioritize that in this department, and we&#8217;re fixing it right here, right now.&#8221;

US-ISRAEL-IRAN-WAR-HEGSETH

Pete Hegseth Rolls Out Plan To Ensure ‘Every Warrior’ Can Vote

Pete Hegseth Announces New Plan To Make Sure 'Every Warrior' Can Vote

lloyd austin

military voting

pete hegseth

politics

war department

Officials in the United Kingdom arrested a dual U.K.-Iranian national Thursday in connection with a suspected terror plot involving an air base used by American warplanes carrying out strikes against Iran.
Counterterrorism police said the 25-year-old man was arrested in Westminster, London, &#8220;on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts&#8221; as part of the investigation into Sunday&#8217;s incident near the Royal Air Force (RAF) Fairford air base, The New York Post reported. The alleged attack was directed at RAF Fairford — ostensibly because the United States is using that location to launch attacks against Iran.
The suspected terror plot was uncovered by a local resident who noticed something amiss, and five British men were arrested on Sunday and later released on bail without being charged. Counterterrorism officials said at the time they were investigating the possibility that a foreign state was involved.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Wednesday that investigators had found indications of Iranian involvement.
&#8220;There are strong indications that Iran played a part in what happened over the weekend at RAF Fairford,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We can confirm our belief that we believe Iran to have played a part.&#8221;
He also said British officials were working closely with their American counterparts and defended the decision to release the five suspects on bail.
&#8220;When it says ‘released,’ that isn’t as people might think. It’s obviously with the strictest possible bail conditions,&#8221; he added.
Fairford, <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/09/30/world-news/iran-is-behind-terror-plot-at-us-bomber-base-in-in-uk-british-leader-says/">according to The Pos</a>t, is the air base of choice from which to launch U.S. missions against Iran, mainly because it has an extended runway — which stretches out for two miles — that has been reinforced so that it can handle the weight of B-1 and B-52 bombers.
Thus far, Iranian officials have strongly denied any involvement in the planned attack — which was reportedly foiled when a local farmer called authorities after observing Middle Eastern men running away from utility vans that did not have proper phone numbers on them.
Another report from <a href="https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/suspect-foiled-raf-fairford-bomb-plot-by-ringing-police-himself-m9gqlzz9v">The Times of London</a> suggested that one of the suspects had called police, leading to the initial five arrests. None of the suspects have yet been publicly identified.

BRITAIN-POLICE-EXPLOSIVES

Iranian National Arrested In Terror Plot At U.S. Bomber Base

Iranian National Arrested In Terror Plot Targeting American Warplanes

counterterrorism

raf fairford

united kingdom

War Secretary Pete Hegseth immediately set tongues wagging with his Wednesday announcement establishing the Office of Religious Affairs to support service members and the chaplains who guide and counsel them.
What Hegseth said was fairly simple: Because 95% of American service members claim to be religious, the War Department should support those service members by providing resources and direct access to the leadership put in place to guide them.
&#8220;No staff filters. No bureaucratic dilution. A direct line to the secretary,&#8221; Hegseth explained. &#8220;This is not going to be a paper-pushing shop; it&#8217;s going to have real teeth. It&#8217;ll protect budgets, demand infrastructure and strengthen religious support. The experts — our chaplains — will finally have an advocate at the highest levels. Policy and resources will serve the mission, not smother the mission.&#8221;
&#8220;Political correctness and secular humanism got a vote — chaplains did not,&#8221; he said of military religious policy in recent years. &#8220;Budgets were cut. Resourcing and manpower needs were ignored. Base chapels fell apart.&#8221;
&#8220;We’re placing spiritual health at the same level as physical health,&#8221; he added. &#8220;The department is putting on the full armor of God because while we wage physical war, we all know the real battle is spiritual. God is good. Evil is not. America’s military must know the difference.&#8221;
Hegseth, himself a Christian, did not utter a single word suggesting that the chaplains would be steered in the direction of any specific religion. And traditionally, although they may be ordained according to their own personal faith traditions — primarily Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism — military chaplains are tasked with providing counsel and care for all service members regardless of their personal faiths.
But the usual suspects, as usual, heard what they thought Hegseth meant instead of what he actually said — and immediately accused him of violating the Establishment Clause written into the First Amendment of the United States Constitution: &#8220;Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof &#8230;&#8221;
&#8220;Can someone get this man a copy of the Constitution. Lots of pocket versions available,&#8221; former &#8220;Meet the Press&#8221; host Chuck Todd <a href="https://x.com/chucktodd/status/2105397053274701941">advised</a>.
<a href="https://x.com/JaredHuffman/status/2105445216111255635">Rep. Jared Huffman</a> (D-CA) accused Hegseth of laying the first bricks in the road to &#8220;Gilead,&#8221; referencing &#8220;The Handmaid&#8217;s Tale.&#8221;
&#8220;First Amendment: &#8216;Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.&#8217; Hegseth: &#8216;Today, at my direction, I&#8217;m establishing the Office of Religious Affairs.&#8217; It&#8217;s no accident that he used the word &#8216;establish&#8217; here. Hegseth is a full-throttle Christian nationalist who hates separation of church and state. He chips away at it all the time — through his monthly Christian church service at the Pentagon auditorium, his endless proselytizing, by removing religious minority faith codes from the Chaplaincy program, etc., etc. The road to Gilead is paved with dystopic crap like this,&#8221; he complained.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Jewish Democrat, trotted out Hegseth&#8217;s plan as justification for her support for U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed — who has voiced support for <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/el-sayed-defense-sharia-law-stance-sparks-online-eruption-christians-conservatives-hes-done">allowing Sharia law</a> in the United States.
&#8220;When people ask me how I, as a Jew, can support @AbdulElSayed, it’s bc nothing is more dangerous to religious minorities in the U.S. than the creation of a state religion. Mike Rogers will confirm judges hellbent on destroying any separation of church &amp; state. Abdul will not,&#8221; she said in <a href="https://x.com/dananessel/status/2105408170537431057">an X post</a>, ignoring his position on Sharia.
Unclench, you disingenuous creeps.
First, the Establishment Clause bars Congress from passing a law establishing a state religion and imposing its practice on citizens. As the war secretary is not Congress and has no control whatsoever over the legislative body, what the First Amendment bars Congress from doing has absolutely no bearing on what the war secretary establishes within his own department.
Second, Hegseth gave no indication that he intended to establish an official religion to which all members of the War Department would adhere.
And finally, what Hegseth is doing to restore religious support within the military is a much-needed step in the right direction. He has pushed the military to move away from generic, secular &#8220;spiritual wellness&#8221; — and toward supporting individual war-fighters and their families in their religious needs — and unsurprisingly, that is inspiring panic in the woke critics who were all too happy to see the United States military turned into a social experiment.
The same people who are having kittens over the Office of Religious Affairs probably still have their knickers twisted over the fact that he fired <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hegseth-fires-army-chief-of-chaplains-during-holy-week">Maj. Gen. William Green Jr.</a>, former Chief of the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps — and it all may be connected.
Although no official cause was given when Green was fired in April, Hegseth had previously voiced disapproval of one of Green&#8217;s pet projects: the Army Spiritual Fitness Guide, published in 2025.
The 112-page guide — and accompanying Battle Book — has since been removed from the U.S. Army&#8217;s website. Commissioned under former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the guide featured “secular-inclusive” principles aimed at encouraging resilience and strength. It was written as part of the Army’s Holistic Health and Fitness program (H2F).
The guide was published in August 2025, and by December, Hegseth had ordered the War Department to scrap it entirely.
&#8220;It mentions God one time. That’s it. It mentions feelings 11 times. It even mentions playfulness, whatever that is, nine times,” Hegseth said at the time, complaining that in the military, &#8220;chaplains have been minimized, viewed by many as therapists instead of ministers.&#8221;
The establishment of the Office of Religious Affairs is just the next step in Hegseth&#8217;s effort to restore the chaplains&#8217; intended role — and it comes not a moment too soon.
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Secretary Hegseth Delivers State Of The Force Address At Quantico

Relax, The Pentagon’s New Office Of Religious Affairs Doesn’t Violate The Constitution

establishment clause

military chaplain

office of religious affairs

pentagon

Yaniv Hion, the Israeli citizen credited with helping stop Wednesday&#8217;s attempted terror attack on a plane bound for Tel Aviv, said that he had learned what to do from a television show.
Hion, while recounting what had happened aboard Flydubai Flight FZ1073, told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he knew what to do to pull the plane out of its dangerous dive because he watched &#8220;<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386950/">Air Crash Investigation</a>&#8221; — a show that features dramatized retellings of disasters and near disasters aboard aircraft.
Hion first described the chaos as the plane began to dive and said that when he and several crew members attempted to get into the cockpit, it was only because the wounded pilot had been able to open the door from the inside that they were able to reach the terrorist who had stabbed him.
The Omani co-pilot, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/flydubai-terrorist-identified-as-radical-muslim-with-bizarre-practice-in-front-of-women">identified</a> as a radical Muslim who refused to shake hands with women, was attempting to destroy the flight controls and disable the plane when the cockpit was breached — but Hion and the others were able to pull him from the cockpit and subdue him.
&#8220;We pinned him down to keep him secure and then I jumped into [the cockpit] and pulled the controls,&#8221; he said.
That was when Hion explained that he had pulled backward sharply to right the aircraft and pull it out of the dive. When Netanyahu asked how he had known what to do in that moment, Hion said simply: &#8220;I watch &#8216;Air Crash Investigations,&#8217; Mr. Prime Minister.&#8221;
Experts have since suggested that the plane was a mere 40 seconds from disaster when Hion pulled back on those controls.
Hion also said during their meeting that he was a flight instructor, adding that someone else had taken over after he initially grabbed the controls and leveled out the plane: &#8220;I’m a flight instructor. That’s another thing I teach. And the plane started leveling out a little more. Then the pilot told me he was taking control from there.”
&#8220;Air Crash Investigation&#8221; is a Canadian show that has been running for 25 seasons, and is described on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) as a &#8220;dramatized reconstruction of real-life air disasters, along with interviews with aviation experts and eyewitnesses.&#8221;
&#8220;This TV series depicts major real-life air disasters. Each episode features a detailed dramatized reconstruction of the incident based on cockpit voice-recorders and air-traffic-control transcripts, as well as eyewitness accounts, interviews with aviation experts, including interviews with investigators who dealt with the disaster, and sometimes even actual footage,&#8221; another description read.
Netanyahu credited <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hero-reveals-to-netanyahu-how-he-went-from-choking-terrorist-to-flying-plane">Hion&#8217;s quick actions</a> — as well as those of the pilot who opened the door, the other civilians who were able to take down the terrorist, and the off-duty pilots who brought the plane down safely — with preventing a major disaster.

Israeli Plumber Who Helped Stop Flydubai Terrorist Credits TV Show For Preparing Him

Israeli Plumber Who Helped Stop Flydubai Terrorist Says He Learned To Fly From TV Show

aviation

While New York City&#8217;s Mayor — self-described democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani — spent the week touting his plan to fight antisemitism, his wife Rama Duwaji was rubbing elbows with Islamists who have celebrated terrorists and called for Israel&#8217;s destruction.
Duwaji, as reported by several sources, spent the week as an &#8220;artist-in-residence&#8221; at a ritzy Islamic wellness retreat housed in a repurposed 18th-century Portuguese castle near Porto. The Women Sanctuary, founded by &#8220;Paris-based creative&#8221; Rym Nur, promotes &#8220;sisterhood and spiritual connection&#8221; and charges attendees $5,216 for five nights in a private room.
<blockquote>At the heart of our sanctuary lies the journey back to the fitrah. In the Islamic tradition, the fitrah is the original essence placed within every human by God, a pure, innate disposition drawn toward truth, goodness, and an intimate awareness of the Divine.</blockquote>
The pop-up retreats, which feature Islam heavily, are often held in locations throughout southern Europe that were once ruled by the pre-Crusades Arab caliphates. <a href="https://thewomensanctuary.com/previous-retretats">Statements</a> from the Women Sanctuary suggest the group favors a <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/09/30/us-news/organizers-of-islamic-wellness-retreat-attended-by-nyc-first-lady-rama-duwaji-called-for-destruction-of-israel-in-hateful-social-media-posts/">return to the caliphates</a>. One such statement, regarding a recent retreat held in Mallorca, read, &#8220;We gathered to reclaim our history.&#8221;
The group&#8217;s social media posts offer a stark contrast to its promises of spiritual renewal.
Nur refers to the retreats as an &#8220;ode to Allah&#8221; and, as The Washington Free Beacon <a href="https://freebeacon.com/america/nycs-first-lady-is-in-residence-at-israel-hating-islamic-wellness-retreat-in-portuguese-castle-organizers-called-for-abolishing-israel-cleansing-it-of-je/">reported</a>, the Women Sanctuary has published posts calling for the abolition of Israel as a Jewish state.
&#8220;Abolish the colonial apartheid state of Israel. Free Palestine,&#8221; one post read, in part. Other social media posts include the antisemitic phrase &#8220;from the river to the sea&#8221; — or call on Allah to &#8220;cleanse Palestine&#8221; of &#8220;oppressors.&#8221;
&#8220;May the winds of freedom sweep across Palestine, ushering in the complete and rightful restoration of the land&#8217;s true stewards,&#8221; another post read.
The group also praised Palestinian extremist Ahed Tamimi while promoting her book at the Women Sanctuary just weeks after the October 7 massacre: &#8220;Ahed Tamimi showed the world more than once what it looks like when you refuse to consent to your own obliteration.&#8221;
Around the same time, the Israeli military claimed that Tamimi <a href="https://apnews.com/article/palestinians-israel-ahed-tamimi-west-bank-raids-8833619f1924676a9b7dbd053b2fa3ba">posted</a> on Instagram, &#8220;We are waiting for you in all the West Bank cities from Hebron to Jenin — we will slaughter you and you will say that what Hitler did to you was a joke, we will drink your blood and eat your skulls, come on, we are waiting for you.&#8221;
Tamimi was arrested on suspicion of inciting terrorism over the post. Her mother said the account had been &#8220;hacked.&#8221; Tamimi was later freed as part of a deal that returned some of the hostages taken by Hamas terrorists to Israel.
Duwaji, who previously faced backlash for &#8220;liking&#8221; posts that celebrated the October 7 massacre, is listed as a member of the Women Sanctuary team. The Free Beacon reported that her listing appeared under the name &#8220;Karl Holland.&#8221;
According to the Free Beacon, New York City&#8217;s Houston-born first lady calls herself a &#8220;Syrian illustrator and animator&#8221; and was believed to be doing calligraphy at the event.
Duwaji also attended the <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/09/30/us-news/organizers-of-islamic-wellness-retreat-attended-by-nyc-first-lady-rama-duwaji-called-for-destruction-of-israel-in-hateful-social-media-posts/">Mallorca retreat</a> in July, drawing criticism for missing the July 4 America 250 celebrations.
Meanwhile, the mayor rolled out his plan to <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/09/29/us-news/zohran-mamdanis-plan-to-fight-antisemitism-ignores-zionism-refuses-to-define-anti-jewish-hate/">fight growing antisemitism</a> in New York City — but critics say it falls far short of what is truly needed.
&#8220;I sat with the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism in July and told them what Jewish teachers and families need: a definition of the hate, an honest reckoning with anti-Zionism, and real security for synagogues and schools,&#8221; Moshe Spern, the president of United Jewish Teachers, told the New York Post. &#8220;What the mayor announced today does none of that.&#8221;

Celebrity Sightings In New York – January 01, 2026

Zohran’s Wife Jets Off To Ritzy Islamic Wellness Retreat In ‘Ode To Allah’

Zohran's Wife Jets Off To Ritzy Islamic Wellness Retreat In 'Ode To Allah'

new york city

rama duwaji

zohran mamdani

Democrats appear to be ready and willing to pull out all the stops to prevent Republicans from notching even a single win ahead of the November midterm elections — even if that means pulling the plug on bills that previously enjoyed bipartisan support.
One such bill is the <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/6119834-senate-data-center-bill-ratepayer-protection-act/">Ratepayer Protection Act</a> — which passed the House by overwhelming margins (417-3) with majority support from both major parties only to stall in the Senate on Wednesday. Sponsored in the House by Reps. Gabe Evans (R-CO)) and Kathy Castor (D-FL), it had the support of a few Senate Democrats — Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) — but not enough to overcome the filibuster. Democrats blocked the measure in a procedural vote, 57-43.
The bill, designed to address concerns about new data center construction, would require states to consider adopting standards that would force the tech companies building those data centers to shoulder the utility costs connected to their operation. Democrats who voted against the bill argued it is &#8220;toothless&#8221; because it does not require states to adopt those standards.
&#8220;Americans are demanding real guardrails on AI and data centers, but all the Republicans offer is a toothless messaging bill. The bill is a fraud. I can sum up the shortcomings of the Republican data center bill with one word: optional. The bill is optional,&#8221; Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said on Tuesday.
&#8220;They’re cooked. I think Donald Trump is going to tweet five more times that he loves data centers. And that is the official position of their party,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) told <a href="https://www.semafor.com/newsletter/09/30/2026/semafor-washington-dc-theyre-cooked?utm_source=newslettershare&amp;utm_medium=principals&amp;utm_campaign=flagshipnumbered1#b">Semafor</a>. “This is panic.&#8221;
Senate Democrats also blocked the Stop Insider Trading Act on Wednesday — which passed the House with the support of 13 Democrats — in part over the inclusion of a measure regarding voter ID.
<span class="iNqyIf" style="font-size: 16px;" data-sfc-cp="" data-sfc-root="ep" data-complete="true" data-copy-service-computed-style="font-family: &quot;Google Sans&quot;, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 0px rgb(10, 10, 10);">H.R. 7008 would prohibit members of Congress — as well as their spouses and dependents — from buying new individual stocks, and would require them to give seven to 14 days&#8217; notice prior to selling any stocks they already owned. In addition, it would lay out financial penalties for any violations of the rules.
Every Democrat in the Senate voted against the measure (53-47) — largely because of the included language requiring voter identification — even though a majority of Americans support both banning congressional stock trading and requiring voters to show identification.
A 2023 University of Maryland <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/schumer-tanks-popular-insider-trading-ban-dem-effort-derail-gops-voter-id-push">study</a> found that 86% support banning members of Congress from trading stocks while in office.
Schumer blamed Republicans for adding the voter ID provision, arguing that it had been an intentional move to prevent the stock trading ban from passing.
&#8220;They don&#8217;t want this bill to become law. So they put a poison pill in that they knew would tank it,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It&#8217;s really trickery. Skullduggery. If Republican senators really cared about stopping stock trading by members, they wouldn&#8217;t have loaded it up with a poison pill voter ID bill, which Senate Democrats have defeated already twice.&#8221;
But Americans <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2026/02/voter-id-is-overwhelmingly-popular-with-literally-everyone-except-democrat-politicians/">largely support</a> voter ID laws, too. A 2023 Pew Research Center poll indicated that 83% of Americans — including 71% of Democrats — support laws requiring voters to show identification at the polls.
&#8220;The bottom line is this: Voter ID is NOT controversial in this country. A photo ID to vote is NOT controversial in this country. It is not controversial by party and it is not controversial by race. The vast majority of Americans agree,&#8221; CNN data analyst Harry Enten said.
&#8220;NBC Nightly News&#8221; anchor Tom Llamas pointed out the fact that it wasn&#8217;t the voters who opposed identification requirements — it was just Democrats in elected office who did: &#8220;Voter ID rules do have wide public support, but the vast majority of Democrats on Capitol Hill oppose them.&#8221;

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Virginia Kruta