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Israel PM Netanyahu Tells Soldier Families We Want Peace But Ready For War
By
Joel Leyden Jerusalem
---- April 28, 2009 ...... Part of the following was communicated
by the Israel Prime Minister’s Media Adviser to the Israel
News Agency. The Prime Minister lost his New York born brother Yoni in the IDF rescue raid on Entebbe. In June 1975, Yoni left his armored brigade to become commander of the elite IDF unit Sayeret Matkal. During his year of command there, he was in charge of many operations. Of these, all but one remain secret –the raid on Entebbe, where he met his death. On June 27 an Air France airliner, whose flight originated in Israel, was hijacked over Europe by Arab and German gunmen. The plane eventually landed in Entebbe, Uganda, where President Idi Amin was waiting for the terrorists and received them with open arms. The hostages were kept captive at the Old Terminal of the Entebbe International Airport, held under guard by the terrorists and by a contingent of Ugandan soldiers. The terrorists warned, that if their demands to release from jail more than fifty terrorists were not met, the hostages would be killed.
On July 1, Yoni received orders to plan and prepare his unit for the mission to Entebbe. His unit’s part in the raid was to take over the Old Terminal complex – namely to kill the terrorists, free the hostages, fight the Ugandan soldiers stationed there, and prevent any Ugandan reinforcements from reaching the area while the hostages and other troops were being flown out. Yoni quickly sat down with a few of his officers and drew up a preliminary plan. Within hours a fake “terminal” was built from canvas, and the unit started preparing and rehearsing for the raid. As new information came in, Yoni made some revisions in his plan. During the following hectic day of further planning and preparations, Yoni met with Israel Defense Minister Shimon Peres, who summoned him to his office for a tete-a-tete meeting to ask him what he thought were the chances of success. Yoni answered with a firm affirmative, and explained why he thought so. By the following night, this elite IDF unit was ready for a “grand rehearsal”, which was conducted before the Chief of Staff. Following this, the Chief of Staff held a talk – primarily with Yoni, but also with some other officers of the Israeli force – in order to hear what they thought were the chances of success. At the end of the talk, the Chief of Staff informed them that he had decided to give the go-ahead. At noon the following day, Saturday July 3, the Israeli government under Yitzhak Rabin met in special session. After hearing the Chief of Staff’s presentation, the ministers engaged in a long debate and finally, by unanimous vote, approved the mission. The Israeli
force of four Hercules transport planes took off from Sharm El
Sheikh, at the southern tip of the Sinai Desert, heading for Africa.
The Unit’s force was flown in three of these planes, with
the lead plane carrying Yoni and his initial assault party of
29 men. At the stroke of midnight, Ugandan time, on July 4, 1976,
the first plane landed at Entebbe airport. Yoni and his men, driving
in a Mercedes and two Landrovers, which were meant to simulate
a Ugandan force, got off the plane and proceeded to the Old Terminal,
where the hostages were held. Contact was soon made with Ugandan
soldiers. A brief battle developed with the Ugandans and the terrorists,
following which the terrorists in the building were killed and
the hostages freed. During the battle, Yoni was hit in the chest,
as he ran forward, and lay critically wounded outside the main
hall where the hostages were held. The efforts of the medical team to revive Yoni were of no avail, and he died at the entrance to the evacuation plane, as the hostages were being herded inside. Yoni was the only man of the rescue force to die. (Three out of the 106 hostages were killed during the exchange of fire and a fourth was later murdered by Idi Amin’s men.) Yoni’s body was placed inside the plane, which then took off to safety in Kenya. From there it proceeded to Israel. Only a few of the hostages may have realized that the fallen soldier lying at the front of their plane was the commander of the force responsible for saving them. Yoni was buried
on Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem Israel alongside the grave of David
Elazar, Chief of Staff during the Yom Kippur War. Thousands attended
Yoni’s funeral. Yoni’s name, until then virtually unknown
beyond the army, became famous throughout Israel overnight. His
deeds, and his thoughts and reflections – brought to light
in his posthumous and bestselling book of letters – remain
a source of inspiration for many in his country and around the
globe.
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