Victory Entebbe. It’s considered one of the most daring and heroic things Israel ever did. But today, the BBC released a report claiming that the entire hijacking and hostage situation was, sort of, staged. The following is excerpts from the article: Newly released documents contain a claim that the 1976 rescue of hostages, kidnapped on an Air France flight and held in Entebbe in Uganda, was not all it seemed. A UK government file on the crisis, released from the National Archives, contains a claim that Israel itself was behind the hijacking.
An unnamed contact told a British diplomat in Paris that the Israeli Secret Service, the Shin Bet, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) collaborated to seize the plane.
Israeli commandos brought the crisis to an end, storming the airport and overpowering the seven hijackers and about 80 Ugandan soldiers in a 36-minute battle.
Two Israeli civilian hostages died in the shooting, and a third died later in a Nairobi hospital. One officer commanding the raiders was killed by shooting from the airport tower.
Ugandan President Idi Amin claimed the troops killed 20 Ugandan servicemen as well as all the hijackers.
The hijackers demands included a list of countries that should release Palestinians or others fighting for the Palestinian cause.
In the document, written on 30 June 1976 when the crisis was still unresolved, DH Colvin of the Paris Embassy writes of his source: “According to his information, the hijack was the work of the PFLP, with help from the Israeli Secret Service, the Shin Beit.
“The operation was designed to torpedo the PLO’s standing in France and to prevent what they see as a growing rapprochement between the PLO and the Americans.”
He adds: “My contact said the PFLP had attracted all sorts of wild elements, some of whom had been planted by the Israelis.”
The documents also reveal that the British government debated whether or not to praise the Israeli raid after its completion.
It was decided in the days after the raid that it was not clear whether the Israeli offensive was justified under international law.
One document in the file reads: “The Israelis have been critical of the fact that the prime minister did not send a personal message of congratulations to Mr Rabin and that our public statement fell short of endorsement of the Israeli action at Entebbe.”
The file also contains correspondence from UK citizens to the government expressing concern that the government had not expressed support for the Israelis.
One letter reads: “I am writing to find out our policy towards terrorism. I find it deplorable that there was not a statement made congratulating Israel on the successful rescue.”
But in a document dated 9 July an official cautions against such a statement because there is likely to be “no internationally agreed view about the legality of the Israeli action”.
The document says the legality of it would depend on whether or not the Ugandans had helped the kidnappers.
In a draft document included in the file an official says it appears Idi Amin did collude with the hijackers.
It reads: “On balance it seems that there was a culpable degree of collusion between President Amin and the hijackers, and that the president’s attitude made it much easier for the hijackers to persist in their demands.”
The file does not make it clear how seriously the government took the claim that Israel also may have aided the hijackers.
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23 Responses
Well, after reading the entire article, it’s not as bad as it seems – the claim is from a single “unnamed contact [who] told a British diplomat in Paris;” of course, the report will likely trigger all sorts of conspiracy theories intended to unravel or minimize the absolute brilliance and heroism of the IDF.
Here’s a detail of historical interest: in order to gain entry to the airport grounds, the IDF created a decoy limo to appear as Idi Amin’s car; it was assumed, correctly, that Ugandan guards would permit the car to approach the security gate, at which point Israeli commandos could *dispatch* the Ugandan guards and move forward into the airport. Problem was, where the heck in Israel are you going to find a black Mercedes limo similar to Idi Amin’s? The IDF tracked one down in Tel Aviv, painted it to match Amin’s, and loaded it onto the Hercules cargo jet to fly to Uganda.
A final note: there is an organization called “Friends of the IDF.” It provides services to IDF solidiers, including on-base recreation centers (with ping-pong or similar activities), scholarships for solidiers, and special assistance for “lone soliders,” who are defined as either orphans r’l or olehs who came without family. The latest brochure that I received devoted a half-page to “Support the Spiritual Needs of Our Solidiers,” and offers opportunities to provide soldiers with tzitzis (olive green, of course, $15), a sefer Torah ($25,000), tefillin, and sifrei kodesh. Noting YW’s mention of the 2,000 Nachal Chareidi soldier, I though this information might be of interest to the group here. We are all pulled in many different directions by various mosdos and our own local insititutions, but imagine the impact if each YW reader sent something to this organization. To preempt anticiapted responses, this is not a government entity, but rather a tax deductible organization that attempts to provide comfort to soldiers.
Good Shabbos,
TGRK
And I am selling the Brooklyn bridge!
Why am I not surprised at this piece of information. Let this misinformation join the holocaust deniers.
and the Shin Bet was behind 9/11….
According to this anti-Israel, pro-Arab newspaper, aren’t these the same Israelis who were behind the “Sept. 11” attack on the WTC?
I think these guys are the same ones who claim that the Israelis masterminded 9/11!
I want 2 remind everyone that after intebbee R Schach ztl said a firey schmooz in ponovitch about how this was all “kochi v’otzem yadi” & how it wasn’t so pashut in halacha, to endanger the lives of the soldiers who went on the rescue, in order 2 save those who were hijacked…
Feif UN,
Got news for you. BBC reports anything that will make Israel look bad even if it reeks trash! They are one of the most anitsemitic news agencies around.
AS USUAL WHAT DO WE EXPECT FROM AN ORGANIZATION THAT HATES JEWS?
If Jews are being killed,they hush. When Jews defend themselves,they scream “abuse!”.
Just imagine in 30 years from now the BBC will claim that everything DEBKA wrote about iraq, afgahnistan, lebanon etc. was true!
How will they explain that saddam ym”sh returned from kiev to his little whole in the ground?
9/11 was also staged, just another conspiracy theory.
While this isn’t exactly a reliable source, and the BBC’s source may well have been a terrorist trying to shift the blame, this sounds quite similar to what the Zionists were accused of doing during the Holocaust.
Holocaust denial all over again! Considering the quagmire, the British armed forces find themselves in today in Iraq, Afganistan, etc., and the way they caved in to insurgents threats against Prince Harry, by recinding his deployment to Iraq. Could this be a case of jealosy??
Its amazing that the BBC is using this “information” and presenting it as real news.
in re shmeel:
I left E”Y in July, 1976, 2 days after Entebbe. Within days, I went to visit Rav Hutner, zt”l. He enquired about what the Gedolai E”Y were saying about Entebbe, When I responded that I had heard that Rav Schach zt”l had come out against the operation and that Rab Berel Soloveitchik zt”l had referred to the rescue as an operation which led to the murder of Jews, Rav Hutner, citing his personal experiences as a hijack victim, voiced explicit disagreement with these positions.
BBC = British Bull Carp (please unscramble last word at risk of the insult of your finer sentiments)
I’m wondering now… perhaps Jonny Pollard was really the mastermind…
I wonder what Barry Chamish (author of Save Israel & Who Realy Killed Yitzhak Rabin?) has to say about this. If it actually was a conspiracy i’m sure he would’ve wrote about it.
Filthy Liars! They behaved the same way during the British Mandate of Palestine!
I DON’T BELIEVE THE BBC ABOUT ANYTHING. I DON’T BELIEVE THE STANDARD 9/11 STORY EITHER. I DONT THINK THE MOSSAD DID IT ,BUT THERE ARE ALOT OF UNANSWERED QUESTIONS ABOUT WHAT ACTUALLY HIT THE PENTAGON.
z – there are no unanswered questions about what hit the pentagon! forget what soros and moore and the rest of the move-on crowd put out with their doctored vidoes. are you still wondering what hit the towers and what crashed in Pennsylvania?
one more thing – if you vote for hilary or for obama or for any of those left wing lunatics – you are voting for moore and soros and all of the nuts that support move-on!
I dont support hillary or any democrat at all. I don’t support move on.org either.If anything I’m a republican. I do know what hit the twin towers. What I don’t know is what hit the pentagon. If the U.S. govenment would release any of the video footage taken from the near-by gas stations and hotels showing a plane hitting the pentagon then I would gladly believe the official story. Until then I have trouble believing it. There was a big whole at the back end of the pentagon that no plane could have made.
When there is no news, make some up-as long as it is anti-Israel
The “big hole at the back end of the pentagon” is still alot smaller than the hole on ground zero in NYC, which you agree was an airplane