Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose brother led the assault team in the daring rescue in
Entebbe, Uganda in 1976 and was the only Israeli soldier killed there, will on Monday participate in a ceremony at the site to mark the 40th anniversary of the rescue mission.
The visit marks the first time an Israeli prime minister will visit Uganda since the hijacking crisis, and will the first such visit to sub-Saharan Africa in 30 years, reports
The Washington Post.
Netanyahu's brother, Lt. Col. Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu's role in the rescue mission, initially called "Operation Thunderbird," was eventually renamed Operation Yonatan in his honor.
The crisis unfolded in the summer of 1976, when on June 27, Palestinian and German terrorists conspired to hijack an Air France flight from Tel Aviv to Paris, holding 248 passengers from several nations, along with the 12-member French crew, at the airport in Entebbe.
Under Ugandan dictator Idi Amin Dada's help, they were held hostage in a terminal at the airport until the daring Israeli commando rescue on July 4.
The raid not only changed how governments respond to incidents of terrorism, but inspired the prime minister's political career, reports The Post.
After his brother was killed, Netanyahu organized a conference on organized terrorism in his honor, and Moshe Arens, Israel's ambassador to the United States, asked him to be more involved in explaining Israel.
"That is how I got into politics," Netanyahu said in a recent live chat on Facebook.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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