When I was about seven or eight years old, my dad brought this package late at night. I was supposed to be in bed by 8 pm, but he told me I could stay up. He made sure I never talk about what he was about to show me and never tell anybody about it. Then he pressed the Play bottom on the VHS and the movie started. It was Operation Thunderbolt Movie. For those who do not know about it, back in 1976 Palestinian Terrorists high jacked an Air France plane on its rout to Israel and kidnapped its Israeli Passengers. Israeli Commando from Sayeret Unit of Matkhal conducted a daring rescue operation all the way in the heart of Africa in Uganda. They rescued all the hostages with exception of three who died in the gun battle that erupted, killed all the terrorists, destroyed half of Uganda’s Air force, and they safely returned to Israel. It was an operation that shocked the world. The movie has a lot of great points and scene regarding U.N.’s role in the situation that stood by mutely when Jewish Hostages were taken and how the world totally ignored the problem. It was the Israeli Commandos who walked up to the plate and got the job done. In this mission, Yoni Netanyahu was the only IDF casualty. He was also the designer and commander of this magnificent rescue mission. There is so much to write about that mission, but I just don’t have the time to do it at this point.
This movie had a huge effect on me. There was something about this movie that made me really proud to be a Jew in a country that I had to chant “death to Israel” every day. There were two scenes that I never forgot and stuck by me, they were the first scene when soldiers were in the plane singing Hine Matov song before they reach their destination. The second scene is when the plane has landed and the hostages are let out of the plane. The song brought me to tears at that age and I always remember the feeling I had at such young age. Amazingly I found the two scenes on YouTube and I have decided to share them with you guys. Enjoy:
5 comments:
Ben,
Very nice piece on the Operation in Uganda. My own mother was so touched by the Operation Thunderbolt that she gave my brother, the hebrew name Yoni. She named him after Yoni Netanyahu, brother of Bibi [Benjamin Netanyahu].
War is not the answer, however for a population that has been harassed, abused, murdered and such it is our only resort. Hopefully one day there will be peace in Israel and peaceful coexistence with our neighbors.
Take care,
Shawn
Hey, a genuine question: Does this make you proud to a Jew too?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7451691.stm
this is quite a touching post..
gotta love Yehoram Gaon.
This is the response for the guy who posed that question. To answer your question, it requires a bit of analysis.
1. The first question to ask is, who asked this question. It is very simple, his name is Jamshid and he is from one of the terrorist sympthesizer and Iranian agent blogs. Jamshid is a Persian name and he is definitely Muslim.
2. Now that we have identified you who asked this “genuine” question, let’s take it up a notch. The clip that you have posted Mr. Jamshid shows a Palestinian getting beat up by an extremist sect of Israeli society. You are implying that I should be ashamed of my religion and my country because of an action done by extremist minority in Israel? You hold yourself to be an intellectual and always cry that a society or group of people should not be treated the same due to act of a minority (who by the way are not popular) and yet you are posing such stupid question. In that scenario, let’s turn the table and ask you couple of question: are you ashamed of being Muslim? Are you ashamed of being an Iranian? If you are not, have you seen the video clips of be-heading, cutting hands, public executions, public hangings, horrific treatment of women in Iran, execution of students, tortured and dead bodies of student activists in Iran, and many other videos that is circulating on the net? If you are not ashamed of your country and religion yet, let me pose you another question: are you ashamed of Islam and Iran when in Evin Jail, before they execute female student activists, they first raped her and then poured Clorox on her vagina to make her suffer and then they took her to execution room? Are you still not ashamed? Now you are in uproar and asking me to be ashamed of my religion because of a beating video that by comparison is nothing like the video clips of your religion and country?
3. The video of a Palestinian is nothing compares to the videos that is coming out of Iran and yet I never heard a peek from you and people like you. This is video of the rescue operation makes me proud to be a Jew because of people like you who stood quietly when these innocent hostages were about to be executed. Yet, Israeli commandos stepped and did the unthinkable. It was a rescue operation, an operation to save lives and bring home our people. Unlike the videos of Hamas that is all about murdering the Jews and anti-Semitic chants. Now you are trying to divert the attention from that terrorist act of a group of people who supported the corrupt and fraudulent Palestinian Cause with Mass Murdering intentions to an act of violence of a minority. The amazing part is Settlement movement in Israel does not have popular support and they are not very popular, yet Palestinian acts of terrorism are applauded as act of heroism. That is the fundamental difference in this case.
4. Here is the conclusion: of course you should not be ashamed of Iran and Islam in the same manner I am not going to be ashamed of Israel and Judaism and the fact that I am Jewish. Why? Very simple: these are minorities and they do not reflect the whole ideology that Judaism and Israel is dedicating to the world. Although Iranian government is trying to export their revolution and ideology to the neighboring countries, but that’s a separate argument.
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