#entebbe rescue

[eretzyisrael]

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BBC WS interviewer asks Entebbe rescuer about ‘reservations’, by Hadar Sela

One particularly noteworthy aspect of this interview is the attempt made to present the operation to rescue the hostages held at Entebbe (but not the actual hijacking) as “controversial”.

Webb [20:25] “The raid had been controversial and questions were asked in the UN about Israel’s response. […] In Israel the raid was still seen as a huge achievement…”

In fact the UN did not merely ‘ask questions’ –  as the JTA reported at the time, a UN Security Council session was convened.

“The four-day angry debate at the Council ended with a stalemate last night after the African states withdrew their resolution that called for the condemnation of Israel for violating Uganda’s sovereignty, and a rival British-American resolution condemning hijacking and international terrorism received only six votes, three short of the number necessary for adoption.

The Africans withdrew their proposed resolution – jointly sponsored by Libya, Tanzania and Benin –after it became clear that the one-sided resolution would not receive the minimum nine affirmative votes needed for adoption. In addition, had the resolution received the required votes. It would certainly have been vetoed by the U.S.”

Emily Webb however chose to echo the sponsors of that anti-Israel resolution when she asked the person who took part in a mission to rescue Jews held hostage by terrorists and threatened with death merely because of their ethnicity:

[09:59] Webb: “Did you have any reservations about the operations? I mean, knowing that you’d be violating Uganda’s territory by taking part in it, by going into the country without permission.”

Mr Sherman’s response to that peak BBC question was “not really”.

As we have seen in previous BBC attempts to report on that hijacking and rescue operation, not only does the corporation have considerable difficulty telling that story accurately and without politically motivated euphemisms but its 2007 conspiracy theory promoting article on that subject is still available online.

[eretzyisrael]

They Criticized the Entebbe Rescue, Too

The Soviet and Chinese governments denounced what they called “the Zionist aggression.” United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim charg

by Rafael Medoff

It may seem perplexing that anybody would criticize Israel’s rescue of four hostages from Gaza. But in 1976, there was criticism of Israel’s rescue of hostages from Entebbe, too. In June 1976, Palestinian Arab terrorists hijacked a French plane on its way to Israel and forced it to fly to the Entebbe airport in Uganda. There they released the non-Jewish passengers, and held the remaining 106 passengers and crew hostage, demanding the release of terrorists who were imprisoned in Israel. Ugandan dictator Idi Amin was deeply sympathetic to the terrorists, and Ugandan soldiers helped the hijackers guard the hostages. On July 4, Israeli commandos raided the airport and freed the hostages. All seven terrorists, and several dozen Ugandan soldiers, were killed. The only rescuer killed was the raid’s leader, Yonatan Netanyahu, brother of Israel’s current prime minister. Mrs. Dora Bloch, an elderly passenger who had been taken to a local hospital, was murdered there by Ugandan soldiers.Most of the world celebrated the rescue raid on Entebbe. But not everybody. The Organization of African Unity, consisting of several dozen African countries, accused Israel of “wanton aggression” and demanded reparations for damage to the airport. The Soviet and Chinese governments denounced what they called “the Zionist aggression.” United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim charged that Israel had committed a “serious violation of the sovereignty” of Uganda. A few years later, Waldheim’s past as a Nazi war criminal was exposed. (However, that did not prevent his election as president of Austria in 1986.) The Mexican government criticized Israel’s “flagrant violation” of Ugandan sovereignty, and declared its “firm rejection of the use of armed force by any state as a means of trying to solve conflicts.” The Mexican position was especially surprising because just months earlier, it had explicitly promised to refrain from anti-Israel policies. That promise was made in order to secure an end to the boycott of Mexico announced by Jewish organizations following its support of the infamous Zionism-is-racism resolution at the U.N. in 1975.The French government’s response to the Entebbe rescue was particularly troubling, given the fact that it was a French plane that was hijacked, and French crew members who were held hostage. The French Foreign Ministry issued a brief statement which expressed satisfaction at the rescue, but emphasized its condemnation of the casualties, almost all of whom were the terrorists or the soldiers who assisted them. A spokesperson for the Air France crew read a statement hailing President Amin for his “constant care to ensure our safety, our material comfort and even our health.” The statement appeared to have been dictated by French officials. The U.S. government publicly praised the Israeli rescue mission, but it also introduced an “even-handed” resolution at the U.N. Security Council. While condemning the hijacking, the resolution also affirmed “the need to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all States.” The resolution did not secure enough votes to pass, so it was withdrawn. At the same time — according to declassified documents — Secretary of State Henry Kissinger informed Israel’s ambassador in Washington that because the Israelis had used US equipment in the raid, “we will have to put a temporary freeze on military shipments.” Ambassador Simcha Dinitz replied: “You are kidding me.” Kissinger was not kidding. “

[eretzyisrael]

Who Were the Entebbe Hijackers? The Full Story, by Jonathan Spyer

The Entebbe Raid of July 4, 1976, is remembered as a high point of counter-terror warfare in general, and of the Israeli contribution to that field in particular. The raid involved astonishing audacity, precise and pinpoint intelligence, great courage and professional military skills of the highest order. It remains a subject of study at military institutes across the world.

Less attention has been paid to the precise nature of the enemy that the IDF's Sayeret Matkal and other forces confronted that night at the Ugandan airport. This deserves to be rectified.

The force that carried out the hijacking of Air France Flight 139 en route from Tel Aviv to Paris on June 27, 1976 represented the sharpened edge of an intricate structure. Included within this nexus were major Palestinian militant groups, German radical leftist organizations and behind them, the logistical and material support of the USSR and a number of allied Arab states.

The terrorist team that carried out the hijacking was officially aligned with an organization calling itself the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations (PFLP-EO). This lengthy set of initials obscures as much as it reveals.

The four-person team consisted of two Palestinian Arab men and, famously, two Germans, a man and a woman. The Palestinians, Jayel al-Arja and Fayez Abdul-Rahim al Jaber, were senior PFLP operatives. The Germans, Wilfried Bose and Brigitte Kuhlmann, were members of a far-Left paramilitary network in Germany known as the Revolutionary Cells.

The four were joined by six more PFLP operatives on the ground at Entebbe. The four hijackers and three of the six who joined them on the ground were killed on the night of July 4.

The presence of two Germans among the hijackers killed by the IDF in Operation Thunderbolt at Entebbe Airport is one of the best-known elements of this entire episode. The background to how these individuals – a bookshop owner and a former educator, residents of Frankfurt am Main – came to be present at the airport is less familiar.

Delving into the organizational background and the biographies of the Entebbe hijackers offers a fascinating window on the tortured politics of post-war Europe and of the Cold War, the nascent Palestinian national movement and perhaps also the unresolved pathologies of Germany towards the Jews.