Dubai Official: Forget Islamic State, Israel Downed Russian Jet Over Sinai

TEL AVIV – Although the Islamic State terror group has already taken credit for downing a Russian passenger plane over the Sinai Peninsula, such a claim has not convinced many within the Arab world who see events through the lens of an ongoing Jewish conspiracy.

The Head  of General Security for the Emirate of Dubai , Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim, claims that the Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, is behind the downing of the Russian passenger jet.

“There is a strong possibility that Israel’s intelligence has been involved in the terrorist bombing which brought down the Russian Airbus A321 in Egypt in October,” Khalfan said via Twitter on Sunday, according to a translation by Iran’s state-run Fars News, which also publishes its fair share of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

The St. Petersburg-destined plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Sharm El-Sheikh airport in the Sinai, killing all 200+ passengers on board. Since then, both Russian and Egyptian officials have determined that the cause for the crash was likely an explosive device hidden in the cargo area of the plane. Other nations have come to similar conclusions.

The United Arab Emirates official is immensely popular on the social media platform, with some 1.17 million Twitter followers.

He previously served as the Chief of Dubai Police and as the Emirate’s Head of Financial and Administrative Affairs.

Tamam allegedly adopted anti-Jewish policies during his reign over the Dubai police agency. He said “that anyone who looks or sounds like a citizen of Israel will be blocked from entering the country, even if a suspected individual produces a passport of a different state,” according to a 2010 report.

“It is easy for us to identify [Israelis], through their face or when they speak any other language. We used to respect them when they would come holding European passports; we regarded them as Europeans and never treated them badly. But from now on, anyone we suspect to have a dual citizenship, they will be treated with great suspicion,” he added, according to a Russian media outlet, which described his initiatives as “Third Reich policies.”

Tamim has also called for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the assassination of a top Hamas official.

But at the same time, Tamim views the Muslim Brotherhood as an even greater threat to his region than the Jews, a position that he has been criticized for in the Gulf States. He became deeply unpopular, dubbed by many as a “Zionist collaborator,” after he said that he would warn Israeli authorities should he receive intelligence of an imminent terror attack against the Jewish state.