The Israeli special-forces raid to rescue the passengers at Uganda’s Entebbe airport, after their flight had been hijacked by German and Palestinian terrorists, has gone down in history as one of the IDF’s most legendary operations. But unlike nearly every mission by Israel’s elite military units, there was no formal debriefing afterwards where participants discussed what could be learned from the experience. Thus the crucial question of what might have been done differently to have prevented to sole Israeli fatality—the death of the raid’s leader Yonatan Netanyahu (the brother of the future prime minister)—was left unresolved. A new book includes the testimonies of 33 veterans who took part in the mission, revealing new much new information. Mitch Ginsburg, who translated the book into English, describes what he learned:
There was a span of perhaps no longer than 60 seconds in which most of the operation was decided. The crux could almost be caught in a painting, so brief and condensed were the events. It was then that the force was stalled behind [Major Muki] Betser, then that Netanyahu was shot, then that a single soldier, Staff Sergeant Amir Ofer, sprinted alone towards the [airport] doors, charging through a seventeen-bullet blast of glass-shattering automatic fire. And then that his commander, Lieutenant Amnon Peled, sensing the immediate peril to his soldier, surged ahead, and killed the two German terrorists by the door just as they were in the act of swiveling their rifles toward Ofer’s back. For several long seconds, Ofer and Peled were the only soldiers in the room—a 25-meter-wide hall, filled with over 100 hostages and several armed terrorists.
This is the margin of error. It is so very slim. And this book, written by former soldiers who today are farmers and builders and high-tech entrepreneurs, is unruly at times, layering testimony over testimony. But in my opinion, it ultimately triumphs in detailing the way tragedy and elation can coincide, the way victory is often just a hair’s breadth from defeat, and the way historical fact is illuminated, rather than veiled, by myriad points of view.
Read more on Jewish Book Council: https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/pb-daily/a-rashomon-of-the-raid