Pinchas Weapon, Bible and Airplane
BY MOSHE KATZ
CEO
ISRAELI KRAV INTERNATIONAL

October 1, 2026, Israel

וַיְדַבֵּר ה' אֶל מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר. פִּינְחָס בֶּן אֶלְעָזָר בֶּן אַהֲרֹן הַכֹּהֵן הֵשִׁיב אֶת חֲמָתִי מֵעַל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּקַנְאוֹ אֶת קִנְאָתִי בְּתוֹכָם וְלֹא כִלִּיתִי אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּקִנְאָתִי. לָכֵן אֱמֹר הִנְנִי נֹתֵן לוֹ אֶת בְּרִיתִי שָׁלוֹם. וְהָיְתָה לּוֹ וּלְזַרְעוֹ אַחֲרָיו בְּרִית כְּהֻנַּת עוֹלָם תַּחַת אֲשֶׁר קִנֵּא לֵאלֹהָיו וַיְכַפֵּר עַל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל.

An event that happened yesterday, an event that happened about 3,500 years ago, same people, same types of action. I always say; some believe in the Bible, some dismiss it, but a story that has survived 3,500 years cannot be easily dismissed. What you and I say will be forgotten tomorrow, thus an event that took place so long ago and is still being discussed must be relevant to our daily lives. Years ago, a man name Pinchas rose up among the group and saved the day with violent action that brought peace, yesterday, the same happened on the Flydubai flight.

And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the tent of meeting. And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from the midst of the congregation, and took a spear in his hand. And he went after the man of Israel into the chamber, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stopped from the children of Israel.

And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying:'Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned My wrath away from the children of Israel, in that he was very jealous for My sake among them, so that I consumed not the children of Israel in My jealousy. Wherefore say: Behold, I give unto him My covenant of peace; (Book of Numbers, Chapter 25)

The above passage from the Torah/Bible is one of the strangest for modern people to understand. Let us review what this was about and then we shall connect it with the dramatic heroic defensive acts that took place yesterday aboard the Flydubai flight to Israel.

The story is about the battle between Midian and Israel. Midian tried every tactic possible to defeat the army of Israel, but failed, and then they tried women, and it was working. Send in beautiful women, seduce the Israelite warriors, cause them to transgress the law, and viola, Victory is ours!

Now Pinchas, known in English as Phinehas, son of Elazar, son of Aharon the Cohen, High Priest, saw this abomination and could not tolerate it. The Talmud discusses this act, it is the act of a zealot. Pinchas did not seek the advice or approval of Moshe/Moses. He acted alone, a vigilante. Pinchas rises in front of Moshe his teacher, the ultimate religious and legal authority of the Children of Israel, and without waiting for word or approval from Moshe carries out a different punishment than that mandated by Moshe. Pinchas impales the couple. Pinchas bypasses the slowly turning wheels of justice and performs his zealous elimination of Zimri and Kazbi.

The matter is discussed in the Talmud (Tractate Sanhedrin) and the law is that if one achieves the spiritual level of a "Kanai", a Zealot, and he stirred by intense religious feelings and emotions, he may circumvent the legal hiearcy and take actions on this own. In Hebrew this is called, Kanoim pogim bo, the Zealots may strike him. קנאים פוגעים בו

Now this is a tough one for many modern, Western people, to digest or understand, but this is the reality of the Middle East and always has been. There is a time for action, there is a time when one individual must stand up and act now to avert a tragedy. Pinchas stopped the plague that God had brought upon the Nation of Israel, and for this act of violence God awarded him and his descendants forever the title of Cohen, and a covenant of everlasting peace. To this very day, each and every Cohen, the descendants of Pinchas the son of Elazar the son of Aaron, must bless the people of Israel with the Aharonic blessing. I am one of those descendants.

The Cohen clan is considered to be a people that bring peace to the world, but also a people that can become zealots when need be. Peaceful teachers and yet powerful warriors, that is our legacy. But this behavior is not only for the Cohen Clan, it has become the legacy of our entire people.

We witnessed this yesterday.

I wrote an entire book about this, Israel, A Nation of Warriors. The Nation of Israel was a great warrior nation fighting every great power on earth, rebellion, being defeated, and coming back again. After three devastating wars with the great power of Rome Judea/Israel was finally subdued, over 2,000 years of forced exile from our homeland, that spirit died down. But over the past hundred years it has risen again, the old warrior of Judea and Zion is alive and well. Biblical acts of heroism have been equaled and surpassed. Biblical prophesies have come true, to the letter. Joshua 23:10 states, "One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the Lord your God, he it is that fighteth for you, as he hath promised you." We have seen this in every war.

After the disaster of the morning of October 7th, Israel rose up as one nation, as a Lion Warrior and defeated the enemy, to the chagrin of the world. Israel took on Iran, a nation more than 75 times greater in size, and Israel prevailed, controlling the skies of Iran and flying freely, hitting targets all over Iran and deep in the ground. As the prophecy stated so long ago, a handful of Israeli warriors push back thousands of enemy fighters. And now we come to the events of yesterday.

An enemy of our people decided to take over the plane by stabbing the pilot. His goal was most likely a 9/11 type suicide mission crashing into skyscrapers in Tel Aviv. But several modern day Pinchas's arose, they stormed the cockpit and like the days of old they attacked and by this attack they brought peace to all the passengers who erupted in joyful songs of thanksgiving. Our secret weapon? our mindset, our Krav Maga Israelite warrior mindset, our Pinchas mindset. Israelis do not wait for approval. Israelis are not "obedient subjects", we are raised to question everything, the Talmud is 500 years of questions, challenges, no rabbi is beyond the challange of any student. as the film Yental stated, "We judge our students more by their questions than by their answers."

In times of intense stress most people sit paralyzed in fear, or they wait for some "official" source to rescue them, very few people feel the instinct to get up and take initiate, most wait passively. Not so the Israeli!

Several men got up and burst into the cockpit taking on a violent man with a knife, a medic tended to the injured pilot who too fought back valiantly, a passenger while fighting off the attaker gained control of the aircraft controls and pulled the plane back up as it was seconds away from crashing into the ground killing all on board. He had learned this from watching a TV show. A nation of warriors has been reborn.

IKI Krav Maga - This is how we train at IKI Krav Maga, mind, body and the spirit of the Biblical warrior. We do not sit passively and wait to be rescued. We train on the ground, in and around cars, and in and around aircraft. We have an entire series just on airline self-defense, for passengers, for pilots and for flight attendants.

An event that happened about 3,500 years ago, an event that happened yesterday, same people, same courage.

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Moshe Katz, 8th dan Black Belt, Israeli Krav Maga. Certified by Wingate Institute. Member Black Belt Hall of Fame, USA and Europe. Author of numerous books, public speaker, trainer of police and security forces.

Understand the Israeli Fighting Mentality - Israel a Nation of Warriors by Moshe Katz

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