Times of Israel..
04 July '13..
Operation Yonatan, Israel’s dramatic rescue of 103 Israeli and European hostages took place on July 4,1976 at Entebbe, Uganda.
As a college student in the US, I vividly remember watching events unfold as most of the rest of the nation was focused on the celebration of America’s bi-centennial.
Jews around the world held their breath as the terrorist incident ended with a relatively minimal loss of life. As in the 1967 Six Day War, pride and admiration for the daring and courage of Israel’s decision-makers and generals was the order of the day.
For years after 1976, public official commemoration ceremonies marked the anniversary of the operation.
But in 2013, like the past several years, it appears that the only remembrance will be for Yoni Netanyahu, commander of the operation and the only Israeli soldier killed at Entebbe. The Netanyahu family and a few officials make the annual pilgrimage to the grave of Yoni, older brother of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
Back in July 2001, during the height of the intifada that followed the Camp David talks, things were different, and an official state commemoration of the 25th anniversary took place at the Binyanei Hauma Convention Center in Jerusalem.
In a masterful, moving event that was at once entertaining and educational, the state of Israel marked the passage of a quarter of a century since the dramatic hostage rescue.
In the week leading up to the anniversary, Israel’s media focused on the unprecedented operation that took dozens of soldiers from Israel’s elite brigades on a daring and dangerous mission thousands of miles away.
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