4 | JULY 18 • 2024
J
N
opinion
Why the Entebbe Rescue
Almost Didn’t Happen
A
s expected, on July
4, 1976, the United
States celebrated its
bicentennial with a flurry of
patriotic pride and hype. The
surprise was
that the day
also brought
one of the most
miraculous
events in Jewish
history: Israel’s
rescue of 102
hostages being
held over 2,500 miles away at an
airport in Entebbe, Uganda.
A week earlier, on June 27,
terrorists from the Popular
Front for the Liberation of
Palestine and a radical West
German group hijacked an Air
France airliner full of Israeli
passengers and redirected
it to the Entebbe Airport.
The hijackers warned that if
their demands — including
the release of several dozen
prisoners being held in Israel
and elsewhere — were not
met, they would begin killing
hostages.
Israel dispatched multiple
aircraft with 100 commandos
for a rescue mission that
astonished the world. Three
hostages died during the rescue,
and only one Israeli soldier
was killed: mission leader Yoni
Netanyahu.
Fast forward 48 years, and
Yoni’s younger brother is now
the prime minister, with Israel
grappling with a longer-lasting
and much more extensive
hostage crisis. Not only were
hundreds of people taken from
Israel on Oct. 7, but this time
the hostages were abducted
from their homes and military
bases on Israeli soil, in a
broader attack that killed 1,200
people. With the exception
of more than 100 hostages —
mostly women and children
— released through deals,
most have spent nearly nine
months in captivity, with little
information known about their
whereabouts or well being.
The legacy of the raid
on Entebbe is complicated:
It endures as an inspiring
embodiment of Israeli boldness
and ingenuity — but one that
set a near-impossible bar for
success and has proven to be
the exception to the rule in
securing the release of hostages.
Multiple times since then,
Israel has agreed to prisoner
releases, and at a much worse
exchange rate than the Entebbe
hijackers were demanding. Back
in 2011, Benjamin Netanyahu
agreed to free 1,027 Palestinian
prisoners in exchange for one
soldier, Gilad Shalit, who spent
five years in Hamas captivity in
Gaza.
During the current war,
Israel has staged three rescue
missions, leading to the release
of a combined seven hostages.
However fleeting, the
operations produced collective
moments of relief and joy in
Israel and among many Jewish
communities around the world.
But far more of the captives
came home after the deal struck
on Nov. 22, 2023, when Israel
and Hamas agreed to the release
of hundreds of Palestinian
prisoners during a ceasefire that
was extended to a week. Almost
all of the 109 hostages released
by Hamas were freed by the end
of November, during that truce.
Israel has reportedly agreed
in principle to release hundreds
more Palestinians, including
100 serving life sentences for
killing Israelis, as part of a
wider multi-phased deal to get
back what Israel says are 116
remaining hostages plus four
whose captivity predates the
war. More than 40 of those are
thought to be dead.
PRESSURE MOUNTS
Meanwhile a national debate
has raged, with hostage families
and their supporters waging a
sustained protest movement
to pressure the government to
agree to a deal, even if it means
accepting a ceasefire that falls
short of dismantling Hamas.
Former Israeli war cabinet
minister Benny Gantz seemed
to endorse this view after
pulling out of the government
a few weeks ago, which was
followed with several reports of
military officials increasingly
making the case that securing a
deal to free the hostages should
now take precedence.
At this point, no one is
talking about an Entebbe-style
operation to save the bulk of the
remaining hostages, who are
thought to be held in separate
locations across Gaza. What’s
often lost in the nostalgic
euphoria and mystique that still
surrounds the historic rescue
mission is just how close it
came to never happening —
Ami Eden
JTA.org
Air France passengers rescued by Israeli commandos at the airport in
Entebbe, Uganda wave to the waiting crowd while leaving the belly of
a Hercules plane at Ben-Gurion Airport, Israel, July 4, 1976.
MOSHE MILNDER GOVERNMENT PRESS OFFICE
PURELY COMMENTARY
continued on page 6
And how Israel is still wrestling with the
same tough questions 48 years later.