Entebbe International Airport

And of course, that's really the origin of your training and what you, what you did in the end much later.

Um, for the Israelis, you know, the, the sort of perfect operation, um, of this counterterrorism was the Entebbe operation in 1976 when, um, when, uh, some PLF- PFLP terrorists, Germans, um, and Palestinians seized an airplane, an Air France airplane, but full of Israelis, and they flew it to Uganda, to Entebbe Airport in Uganda, which is in Central Africa.

And, um, they were g- they, they divided up the passengers, Jews and non-Jews, and the Israelis decided to take an incredible risk.

And the, the, the Israeli leadership then was Yitzhak Rabin, who later made peace with the Palestinians in 1993 at the Oslo Accords, and his defense minister was Shimon Peres, who later also was prime minister and made peace at Oslo.

Yeah, Netanyahu, uh, which was Netanyahu's brother.

Mm-hmm.

And it's pretty interesting, 'cause just this, just this month now, um, they've, the Ugandans have put up a statue of, of Colonel Netanyahu in Entebbe Airport.

Have you seen that?

...

in, uh, yeah, Entebbe Airport.

So they land there, and the Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin-

Mm-hmm

The hostage crisis had become explicitly about Jews.

On July 4th, Israeli commandos flew thousands of kilometers into Uganda and stormed the terminal at Entebbe Airport.

The hostages were rescued and flown home.

Yonatan Netanyahu, brother of Benjamin Netanyahu and commander of the assault force, was killed in the operation.

That plane was forced to change course.

It first flew to Libya and then to Entebbe Airport in Uganda.

Now fast-forward, uh, unclear what the plan was this time around, or there is still the possibility, uh, that this pilot was having a mental health crisis.

At the same time, though, obviously given his background, also, uh, reports that apparently he was described by colleagues as a, uh, religious radical, uh, who wouldn't even, uh, touch a woman or speak to women, that it appears, you know, his goal here was taking down a plane with, you know, more than 100 Israelis aboard.

Beitseim is not simply a willingness to use force.

In 1976, Israeli and Jewish hostages were held at Entebbe Airport in Uganda.

The rescue plan required commandos to fly across Africa, defeat hijackers and Ugandan forces, free the hostages, and bring them home.

On July 3rd, Rabin's government approved the military plan.

And then of course the solid is ice.

We took off from Entebbe Airport in Uganda and we took off straight over Lake Victoria, which is the source of the Nile.

And now we landed in Harare in Zimbabwe.

There was a delay there because of some mechanical problem with the plane and now we have taken off on our way to Osaka in Zambia.

I thoroughly love traveling in Africa.

I had ordered a wheelchair because my knees were giving some trouble as well as it's convenient when you are flying.

So, when we landed from Mumbai, we landed in Entebbe Airport in Uganda.

The stewardess insisted on carrying my bag.