Roy Exum: Mr. Netanyahu, Part II

  • Monday, March 23, 2015
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

The “boo birds” were out in abundance on Sunday’s talk shows and Senator John McCain, who earned his right to speak for all of us in the six years he was imprisoned and repeatedly tortured in the infamous “Hanoi Hilton,” said it best when he admitted he is "convinced" President Barack Obama is allowing his over-inflated personal ego to interfere with a reasonable dialogue with Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"The President should get over it. Get over your temper tantrum, Mr.

President," the Arizona lawmaker said in an interview on CNN. "It's time that we work together with our Israeli friends and try to stem this tide of ISIS and Iranian movement throughout the region, which is threatening the very fabric of the region," he said. "The President has his priorities so screwed up that it's unbelievable!"

Whew! While it is plain to see The President is of a different mind than most of the American people on Israel, there is more to the back-story than you might imagine. I wrote of my adoration for Netanyahu and Israel yesterday and, while I normally dislike sequels – too many people miss the first one – allow me to share the driving force of Mr. Netanyahu’s core.

Yes, he is a decorated Israeli commando and, yes, he took a bullet in a dramatic rescue of a hijacked airliner in 1972, but what I believe drives “Bibi,” unto this very day, is what happened on a July 4th four years later. An Air France jetliner, an Airbus A300 with 246 passengers and 12 crew members, was hijacked on a flight from Athens to Paris by four members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and ended up landing in the slimiest country in the world at the time, Uganda.

A crazed and depraved monster of a person, Uganda president Idi Amin, welcomed the thugs with open arms at the Entebbe Airport, and soon there was a $5 million ransom (in U.S. dollars only) for the plane, a demand to release 53 Palestine and pro-Palestine prisoners (40 were in Israeli jails) and the very real threat that executions would begin within days.

In a response that has created at least three major films, books, and related accounts of what happened, “Operation Thunderbolt” was birthed by Israel and the rescue involved transporting 100 razor-sharp commandos a distance of 2,500 miles. After all diplomatic efforts proved futile and the thugs had released all of the non-Jewish passengers, four Israeli C-130 Hercules transport planes left Israel and, flying below 100 feet to avoid Egyptian, Sudanese and Saudi Arabian radar, headed for Kenya.

Albeit with reluctance, Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta agreed to allow the strike party to refuel in Nairobi at the urging of Minister of Agriculture Bruce MacKenzie, a move that would later cause MacKenzie to be assassinated, a Jewish-owned hotel in Nairobi to be bombed, and hundreds of Kenyans living in Uganda to be ravaged and murdered in cold blood.

The first plan called for the 29-man assault team, led by Benjamin Netanyahu’s older brother, Jonathan (Yonatan), a Lt. Colonel, to parachute with rubber rafts into Lake Victoria, but when the rescuers learned about Victoria’s crocodiles, the planes landed instead at Entebbe undetected with cargo doors already open.

A black Mercedes, exactly like Amin’s, was followed by several Land Rovers packed with Sayeret Matkal commandos zipped towards the terminal – where the hostages were being held. But almost immediately there was a problem.

The Israeli rescuers bought a black Mercedes, unaware that the despicable Amin had just switched to a white one, but when two sentries appeared alarmed, both were summarily shot. Bursting into the terminal, the Sayeret Matkal screamed, “Get down! Stay down! We are Israeli soldiers!” but only in the Hebrew and English languages

In a nighttime operation that lasted a total of 53 minutes – the actual assault was more like 30 minutes -- 102 of 106 hostages were rescued. Three were killed in the crossfire while another was sick in a hospital and later murdered. Ten of the hostages suffered non-life threatening injuries but were quickly treated by the medical personnel accompanying the raid and, within hours, were safely in Israel.

All seven hijackers were killed, along with 33-to-45 Ugandan soldiers and, to assure they were not followed, the Israeli commandos took it upon themselves to completely destroy 11 Uganda Air Force MiG-17 fighter planes anchored on the Entebbe tarmac before they left.

Only one Israeli commando was killed, thought to be by sniper fire, this after he had gotten the hostages into the aircraft and just before the rescue party would head for home. He was Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, age 30.

After his death his brother ‘Bibi’ has stated on numerous occasions that his hard-line stance against terrorists is “because of my brother.” Now you know why the perseverance and the rigid stance of Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu should be reflected in all of us.

The brilliant writer Herman Wouk said of Bibi’s brother: “He was a taciturn philosopher-soldier of terrific endurance, a hard-fibered, charismatic young leader, a magnificent fighting man. On the Golan Heights, in the Yom Kippur War, the unit he led was part of the force that held back a sea of Soviet tanks manned by Syrians, in a celebrated stand; and after Entebbe, "Yoni" became in Israel almost a symbol of the nation itself. Today his name is spoken there with somber reverence.”

And Shimon Peres, Israel’s Minister of Defense on the day the 30-year-old “Yoni” died, spoke at his funeral high on Mount Herzl, and told an overflow crowd, “a bullet had torn the young heart of one of Israel's finest sons, one of its most courageous warriors, one of its most promising commanders – the magnificent Yonatan Netanyahu."

It is the mettle from which giants are made and we must honor it.

royexum@aol.com

"Yoni" Netanyahu, the hero of Israel's Raid on Entebbe, was the brother of current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Both attended Cheltenham High School in Wyncote, Pa., when their father was a professor emeritus
at Cornell and it was there "Yoni" enjoyed a friendship with classmate Reggie Jackson, the Hall of Fame baseball star.
"Yoni" Netanyahu, the hero of Israel's Raid on Entebbe, was the brother of current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Both attended Cheltenham High School in Wyncote, Pa., when their father was a professor emeritus at Cornell and it was there "Yoni" enjoyed a friendship with classmate Reggie Jackson, the Hall of Fame baseball star.
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