- On June 27th, 1976, Palestinian and German terrorists
hijacked Air Francs Flight 139
on its way from Tel Aviv to Paris.
The terrorists landed the plane
and it's 248 passengers in Entebbe, Uganda
where they were joined by Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin's men.
Racing against the clock, Israel executed a daring
and legendary top secret mission, Operation Thunderbolt.
But was it the smooth operation that is often described?
Who were the heroes of the story?
What did they contribute, and how do we remember them?
(upbeat music)
Okay, now, before we continue,
if you haven't watched our first episode
on Operation Thunderbolt, you should check that out
and then come back here.
But let's take a few steps back to June 27th,
the day Air France Flight 139 was hijacked.
After landing in Entebbe, the hijackers demanded the release
of 53 terrorists, 40 of whom were in Israeli prisons,
along with a ransom of $5 million,
which is $22 million in today's value.
The hijackers also separated Israeli and Jewish passengers
from the others.
They soon released the other hostages,
keeping the 94 remaining Jews and Israelis prisoner.
The flight crew of 12 opted to remain
with the Jewish hostages, as well.
Israel was given three days,
and then the terrorists would begin to kill the hostages.
Back in Israel, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
and his cabinet had to decide
whether to give in to their demands.
Now, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres are two leaders
of the same party, but for a majority of their careers,
they actually despise each other.
So not surprisingly, they clashed
over how to approach the hostage situation.
Rabin, methodical and deliberate, decided
that if the IDF could not come up
with a viable military option,
he would have to negotiate
with the terrorists to save lives.
But Shimon Peres, then minister if defense,
argued passionately that agreeing to their demands
would only encourage future terrorist attacks
and would be a dangerous break
in Israel's longstanding approach
to dealing with terrorism.
Rabin, who viewed Peres as an opportunistic schemer,
had little patience for what he saw
as Peres putting on a show.
So he cut him off, telling him to get off his soapbox
so that they could consider all options on the table.
Peres was persistent though, arguing,
"If we give into the hijackers' demands,
"everyone will understand us, but no one will respect us.
"If, on the other hand, we conduct a military operation
"to free the hostages, it is possible
"that no one will understand us,
"but everyone will respect us."
But as they approached the deadline,
the IDF has not come up with a feasible military option.
So Rabin decided to negotiate.
Then Israel got an unexpected break.
During negotiations, the terrorists agreed
to delay the deadline.
During this time, Rabin ordered Peres
and Chief of Staff Motta Gur to continue
to work out a military plan.
Peres assembled a brainstorming team
and encouraged them to consider even the most outlandish
and farfetched options.
Motta Gur, who was at first skeptical of the team,
called them the Fantasy Council.
Ultimately Peres and his team did come up
with a military option.
Rabin examined the daring rescue plan
with his trained military eye
and gave the green light to Operation Thunderbolt.
Fortunately, the operation was a stunning success,
freeing 102 of the 106 hostages on foreign soil
in less than an hour.
Sadly, however, by the end of the affair,
four hostages had lost their lives
along with operation commander, Yoni Netanyahu,
who we'll get to in a minute.
Today, over 40 years later,
there are still questions about the roles
the various leaders played.
What went through the minds of the men sitting
in the cabinet room?
In moments of national crisis,
how are tough decisions like these made?
Rabin and Peres clearly
had very different leadership styles.
Rabin saw himself as the one ultimately responsible
for the fate of the passengers,
and his leadership reflected this.
He insisted on determining the risks
and statistical probability of success
before launching a daring raid.
He strongly preferred a military solution
but would not approve one that didn't measure up
to his high standards.
By turning down the grandeur and frankly,
more attractive option of a daring rescue mission
and instead agreeing to negotiate with the terrorists,
Rabin risked presenting himself
as a weak-willed leader.
But he was willing to forego his reputation
if it meant saving Israeli lives.
And when the IDF came up with a plan
that Rabin did approve of,
he was ready to take the fall,
even preparing a resignation letter
in the event that the operation were to fail.
Others felt that Shimon Peres's leadership
played the most pivotal role,
including Shimon Peres himself.
After all, he had pushed the military option from the start,
and he had assembled the brainstorming Fantasy Council
that came up with the rescue plan.
In Entebbe Diary, Peres argued
that his stubborn insistence on a military option
forced Rabin to change his mind.
He was perhaps more idealistic and visionary,
but in a way, he had that luxury,
not being the one ultimately accountable.
Rabin, on the other hand,
resented what he considered Peres's opportunism,
and in his own memoir, he basically accused him
of being all talk.
But back to the rescue operation.
How did it actually play out?
Well, on July 3rd, Israeli commandos traveled eight hours
and 2,500 miles towards Entebbe.
Their route took them along the Red Sea,
skirting enemy countries.
They flew dangerously low to avoid radar detection,
at times, only 35 feet off the ground,
and landed in Entebbe under the cover of darkness.
They brought with them a black Mercedes limo,
the kind used by Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin,
along with two Land Rovers.
Posing as Idi Amin's presidential motor convoy,
they drove into the Entebbe Airport
where the hostages were being held.
Following Commander Yoni Netanyahu's famous charge,
follow me, the commandos stormed the terminal,
killing all the hijackers and freeing all but four
of the 106 hostages in less than one hour.
Yoni Netanyahu, the charismatic, dashing,
Harvard educated poster child, was killed in the attack
and eventually became a national hero.
His second in command, Major Muki Betser took over.
The hostages were rescued and flown back to Israel,
landing on July 4th, 1976, America's bicentennial,
adding to the mythical symbolism of the rescue.
With the mission accomplished, the story
of Operation Thunderbolt began to take shape,
and this story took on another dimension,
outshining the Rabin and Peres rivalry.
Not everyone agreed on how the story
of the operation itself should be told.
Competing narratives by Major Muki Betser
and by the family of Yoni Netanyahu struggled for primacy
over how the national myth would develop.
The more popular story is that Yoni Netanyahu
led a flawless, clockwork operation
and sacrificed his life in doing so,
and this story has had actual political ramifications.
Yoni's martyrdom was a major factor
in bringing the Netanyahu name to center stage
and helped pave the eventual career path
of his younger brother Benjamin Netanyahu.
But Muki Betser, who was involved in the planning
from the very start and who took command
after Yoni was shot, tells another story.
In his modestly titled autobiography,
Secret Soldier: The True Life Story
of Israel's Greatest Commando,
he claims that unlike Yoni,
he had been instrumental in planning the operation
from the start, and not only that,
but according to Muki,
the stealth rescue operation almost went awry.
In his version, the plan was to drive all the way up
to the terminal in their Mercedes and Land Rover decoys
and ignore the Ugandan soldiers,
but as the Mercedes approached the terminal,
Yoni saw a Ugandan guard raise his weapon,
and despite Muki's pleas,
he went against the plan and opened fire.
This created chaos, ruined the element of surprise,
almost bungled the entire operation and cost Yoni his life
before the Israelis even stormed the terminal.
According to Muki, the rescue succeeded
despite this mix up because the hijackers were clueless
and it never occurred to them that the IDF had shown up.
However, according to the majority
of the commandos who took part in the raid,
opening fire on the sentries was, in fact, part of the plan.
According to the Netanyahu family's version of the events,
it was Muki who almost bungled the plan
when he unexpectedly hesitated on his way to the terminal,
later claiming that his gun had jammed.
Because of this, Yoni led the charge
and was shot by the terrorists from inside the terminal.
Of these two rivaling narratives,
the official military account and the newspapers
have generally accepted Muki's version,
but interestingly, it is the Netanyahus' version
that has taken hold of the world's imagination
and become part of Israeli's national consciousness.
It put Yoni, the elite fighter slash Israeli golden child,
in Israel's pantheon of martyrs and heroes
and rightfully so, but why did this version take hold?
Well, for one, the Netanyahus promoted their account
of the raid in several best selling books.
They published his letters under the title,
Self-Portrait of a Hero, philosophical reflections
which have inspired a whole generation
of Israelis and Jews around the world.
In the book's preface, Pulitzer Prize winning author,
Herman Wouk describe Yoni as a "philosopher-soldier
"of terrific endurance, a hard-fibered,
"charismatic young leader, a magnificent fighting man."
All of these things contributed
to a larger than life image that has taken hold,
and a big budget movie about the rescue operation
that generations of Israelis and Jewish summer camp kids
have been raised on didn't exactly hurt.
When questioned by an army buddy of Muki Betser
about some inaccuracies in the film,
the pioneering film director, Menahem Golan reassured him
by saying, "I'm going to create for you guys
"an Entebbe you could never have dreamed of."
The tale of the rescue restored a sense of shared destiny
and fate among all Jews around the world.
It brought left and right together
in sharing their pride, knowing that Jews,
no matter where they were in the world,
now had a country to protect them.
It was also the West's first major victory
in its fight against terrorism
and one that essentially put a stop to hijacking
as a chosen method of terrorists.
So while it may be tempting to choose a side,
Muki versus Yoni, Peres versus Rabin,
the reality is that it took all of these fearless leaders
working together to accomplish one
of the most daring missions of the 20th century.
Ultimately, the story of Entebbe is a complex one.
Although the broad contours of the story are fairly clear,
some of the finer details are complicated,
messy, even contested,
but that's the case with history in general,
which is always a wrestling match
between multiple narratives and points of view.
Trying to synthesize it all into one uniform story
is rarely productive and only results
in a more one dimensional story
when the truth is more sophisticated and, honestly,
a lot more interesting.
Thanks for watching.
See you guys next week.
(upbeat music)