By
Nurit Greenger
This
afternoon, on a beautiful Californian sunny day, I spent over an hour in the darkness
of a movie screening room and watched to documentary movie about the short life
of Jonathan Netanyahu, known as Yoni; a life that was cut short on July 4th, 1976 while on a rescue mission in Entebbe, Uganda.
The room was even darker for the tears of sadness that filled my eyes during
the showing.
Follow
Me: The Yoni Netanyahu Story website/Trailer:
To remind the
readers, on June 27th 1976, an Air France plane with
248 passengers was hijacked by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation
of Palestine and the German Revolutionary Cells; The plane ended up being flown
to Entebbe, near Kampala, the capital of Uganda, in Africa. Shortly after
landing, all non-Israeli passengers, except one French citizen, were released
and the Jewish passengers were destined to be killed should the government of Israel
did not meet the hijackers' demands to release fellow prisoners she held. In the wake of the hijackers mortifying threats
if their demands were not met, the government of Israel decided to act and not to
submit to terrorists' demands. A rescue operation was planned in much rush and
a lot of pray for its success.
The IDF, acting on intelligence provided by the
Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, prepared the rescue mission details and
logistics and Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, a member of the "Unit,"
Israel's special forces commando
unit called Sayeret Matkak, was assigned as the operation's commander.
The operation took place on July 4th, 1976, at night. Israeli Hercules
type transport planes carried 100 commandos and equipment flew over 2,500 miles
(4,000 km) to Uganda to face the unknown and having much hope to be able to rescue
fellow Jews in danger. The operation lasted ninety minutes and 102 hostages
were rescued. Five Israeli commandos were wounded and the operation's commander
Yoni was killed. All the hijackers, three hostages and approximately 45 Ugandan
soldiers were killed, also thirty Soviet-built MiG-17s and MiG-21s of Uganda's
air force were destroyed.
The rescue was originally named Operation Thunderbolt, now known as Operation
Jonathan, in memory of the Unit's leader, Yonatan Netanyahu.
Thirty
six years have gone by and Yoni lives with us all. The question is why, when so
many other Israeli heroes have lost their lives doing what is right, which is defending
the Jewish nation in any way possible and needed.
One
reason is that Yoni's brother is Benjamin Netanyahu, who is Israel's prime
minister second time around; the other reason, that trumps the first one is
that, as the movie projects, Yoni was a special young man and with his death he
left us all wondering, had he lived, what would have become of him….?
The,
well done documentary tells Yoni's story from his early life until his body was
brought back from Entebbe. Yoni's two surviving brothers, "Bibi" and
Iddo, his wife from whom he was divorced, his girlfriend until he died and a slew
of friends tell the human story of Yoni.
What
I personally deduced from the film.
On
the outside, Yoni was extremely handsome and masculine. He projected sexappeal. He behaved like an Olympian athlete, always
pushing beyond the limit; one notch higher, faster or farther.
Born
a leader who believed that charisma is a character and leadership is a commitment,
Yoni lived with an internal war. As much as he wanted to serve his country and
lead, he also had humanistic dreams and by his death we all were deprived to
have witnessed his possible developments and accomplishments.
In
his military duty he showed courage and much guts. Yoni led by example with great
personal touch. The movie reminds me that then they had courage to rely on, the
"follow me" instinct, and today they have technology to rely on.
I
did not go to see the movie because I needed to know more about the Entebbe
Operation. Rather, because I believe that we must remember those who instill
pride and confidence in us, the pride and confidence we, as a nation, lost for
2000 years when we lived under oppression and suppression. Yoni brought pride
and confidence to all whom he touched. His story gave me a great sense of loss.
If
anything, with his death the Jewish nation lost a genuine patriot who loved his
homeland Israel and Israel was in his blood.
We
all need to catch the bug of the unconditional love for Israel Yoni was
infected with.
I
stand with all those who knew Yoni and his death left a deep hole of emptiness
in their hearts.
May
Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu's memory inspire us
all.
Egypt's
longtime banned Muslim Brotherhood—the parent organization of nearly
every subsequent Islamist movement, including al-Qaeda—has just won the
nation's presidency, in the name of its candidate, Muhammad Morsi. That
apathy reigns in the international community, when once such news would
have been deemed devastating, is due to the successful efforts of
subversive Muslim apologists in the West who portray the Brotherhood as
"moderate Islamists"—forgetting that such a formulation is oxymoronic,
since to be "Islamist," to be a supporter of draconian Sharia, is by
definition to be immoderate. Obama administration officials naturally
took it a step further, portraying the Brotherhood as "largely secular"
and "pluralistic."
