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.