Two score since Entebbe and Bicentennial

By ALAN SMASON, CCJN Editor

July 4, 1976 may have been the most planned day in American history. For months in advance preparations were made locally, regionally and nationally to make the celebration of the nation’s independence from Great Britain 200 years earlier a momentous event. Tall ships filled New York Harbor as part of Operation Sail and President Gerald Ford waved from the deck of the first supercarrier, the U.S.S. Forrestal, named for America’s first secretary of defense.

The ill-fated Twin Towers are seen in the background as the Statue of Liberty is illuminated by fireworks on July 4, 1976. (Photo by Wikimedia)

Dazzling pyrotechnic displays in Washington, Boston, Philadelphia and New York were the fitting tributes to America’s prowess on the world scene as the nation tried its best to forget the aftermath of the Viet Nam War.

While the colors of red, white and blue waved proudly on the shores of North America, the white and blue banners of the State of Israel were also waving as celebrations of the daring raid at the Entebbe Airport by Israeli commandos became known and spilled out into the streets.

Operation Thunderbolt, later renamed Operation Yonatan in honor of its fallen leader, Yonatan “Yoni” Netanyahu, was a 2,500-mile gambit by Prime Minister Yizhak Rabin to rescue 105 Israeli and Jewish hostages being held by Palestinian terrorists and members of Idi Amin’s top Ugandan troops. Planes flying at altitudes of less than 1,000 feet above ground bearing trained members of the Sayaret Matkal special forces were dispatched. On the first, Mercedes-Benz limousines meant to resemble Amin’s own escort vehicles were driven off ramps so as to surprise the outside troops. The other planes landed just short of a huge hole in the runway that would have spelled disaster for the daring Israeli commandos and the hostages inside.

As fate would have it, the planning and the luck were both on the Israelis side. Israelis acquired the architectural plans for the airport and its airfields.

With the exception of three Israeli hostages killed by friendly fire at the airport and one elderly hospital-ridden hostage executed on Amin’s orders after the raid, everyone else was miraculously spared, some 102 in all. The only Israeli military casualty suffered during the entire 53-minute ordeal was Netanyahu, the older brother of Israel’s current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Entebbe raid commandos in a Mercedes-Benz rigged to look like Idi Amin’s limousine. (Photo by Wikimedia)

Just as John Kennedy was thrust into the national arena of American politics following the death of his older brother Joseph during World War II, so, too, was Benjamin Netanyahu set upon a political trajectory after the death of his older brother.

Like America’s post-Viet Nam War fugue, Israel was still reeling from the loss of pride from its nearly disastrous Yom Kippur War, when the country was caught off guard and suffered staggering losses in its early days. The Entebbe raid in all of its miraculous ways, gave Israelis a chance to be proud and defiant again in the face of a terrorist world.

Some 40 years later, Americans have suffered through a series of terrorist challenges that began with the Oklahoma City bombing, a domestic terrorist event, and continued with the coordinated 9/11 attacks in 2001. The recent shootings in San Bernadino and in Orlando have given us notice that these kinds of domestic and foreign threats will continue. In Israel a security wall has been erected and several wars have been fought with the Gazans and the Hamas terrorist organization that now occupies the land Israel gave of its own accord in the hopes of seeking peace.

Today we do not have the same kinds of celebrations on both sides of the globe that we enjoyed in 1976. But we can still mark this day with reverence and joy, if perhaps with a note of caution.

These 40 years later the two songs that still resonate together on this special day are “God Bless America” and “Am Yisrael Chai.”