The Israeli prime minister and his entire entourage were on-board a chartered El Al plane Thursday night after a two-day visit to a high-profile security conference, when a vehicle towing the aircraft on the runway crashed into it. A photo circulated to traveling journalists showed large scrapes in the underbelly of the aircraft.
Netanyahu and his wife were taken off the plane and ushered back to their hotel. Other aides, including Netanyahu’s national security adviser and his military secretary, spent the night on the aircraft, saying they did not want to go through the hassle of pre-boarding security checks again.
A replacement plane was dispatched from Israel to urgently return the prime minster before the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath at sundown.
The mishap happened as Netanyahu’s government is trying to purchase an official plane for the prime minister to use.
Tumultuous visit
It capped a tumultuous visit for Netanyahu, who was in Poland for a U.S.-sponsored security conference attended by several high-profile Arab officials from Gulf countries. Discussions focused on isolating Iran while building Arab-Israeli ties.
Netanyahu had hoped to use the gathering to showcase his budding ties with the Gulf Arabs. But a verbal gaffe and a video leaked by his office threatened to overshadow the event.
On the eve of the meeting, Netanyahu appeared to call on other participants to prepare for “war with Iran.” His office later said he had been mistranslated and only called on other countries to “combat” Iranian influence in the region.
Late Thursday, his office briefly leaked a video showing Bahrain’s foreign minister, and representatives of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates playing down the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and harshly criticizing Iran.
Netanyahu’s office said the video’s release was a “technical error” and quickly deleted it.
Israeli Ambassador to Poland denies Netanyahu holocaust comment
Later, Poland's foreign ministry on Friday summoned Israel's ambassador over reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu implicated Poles in the Holocaust.
The reports, which have since been denied by Israeli Ambassador Anna Azari, sparked controversy in Poland and even threatened to undermine a summit due next week in Israel between Netanyahu and four central European counterparts.
Warsaw has long been at pains to point out that Poland, which was occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II, could not have and did not collaborate in the Holocaust although individual Poles may have done so.
Before being summoned, Azari had denied a Jerusalem Post report quoting Netanyahu as saying that "Poles cooperated with the Germans" in the Holocaust. The Haaretz newspaper later also ran the story.
"I was present during the prime minister's briefing and he didn't say that the Polish nation collaborated with the Nazis, he only said that no person was sued for speaking about those Poles who did cooperate with them," Azari said in a Friday statement sent to Polish authorities.
Prior to Azari's statement, Polish President Andrzej Duda had even suggested that the Visegrad Group summit of four central European EU member and Israel due there next week could be reconsidered.
A Duda spokesman later confirmed that the meeting would go ahead, adding that the controversy had resulted from "harmful media manipulation".
Azari also said that Netanyahu was "looking forward to meeting with (Polish) Prime Minister (Mateusz) Morawiecki next week".
The flair of controversy in Polish-Israeli ties comes after last year's row over a Polish law that made it illegal to accuse the Polish nation or state of complicity in Nazi German crimes.
After protests from Israel and the US, Poland amended the law to remove the possibility of fines or a prison sentence.
Poland was occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II and lost six million citizens including three million Jews.
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