Avenge and Revenge

4th Decemeber, 2008

I saw one news article which I am reproducing below

"Israel buries victims, vows revenge :

Amid heart-rending scenes, thousands of tearful Israeli mourners dressed in black and chanting hymns today bid an emotional farewell to the six Jews who were killed in the deadly Mumbai terror strikes. President Shimon Peres, Defence Minister Ehud Barak and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu joined about 10,000 people who crowded outside the sect's headquarters in Kfar Chabad near Tel Aviv. Indian ambassador to Israel Navtej Sarna and members of the Indian community were present to share the grief. Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, a Chabad official from New York, delivered a moving eulogy for the young Rabbi and his wife and said "We will answer the terrorists." He pledged to rebuild the Mumbai centre and name it after the Holtzbergs"

I was moved by the bonding where some Israeli citizens killed in some far off places agitate the whole nation and their funeral is attended by President & Defense Minister. When Israel says it will avenge, it will. It will go against the whole world and defend its citizens and its honour. Many might have forgotten the extent to which it can go to save its fellow citizens. Given below is operation Entebbe which will reminder all about what is determination of a nation.

Operation Entebbe, also known as the Entebbe Raid or Operation Thunderbolt, was a counter- terrorism hostage-rescue mission carried out by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on the night of 3 July and early morning of 4 July 1976. In the wake of the hijacking of Air France Flight 139 and the hijackers' threats to kill the hostages if their prisoner release demands were not met, a plan was drawn up to airlift the hostages to safety. These plans took into account the likelihood of armed resistance from Ugandan military troops.
On 27 June 1976,Air France Flight 139, an Airbus A300, originating from Tel Aviv, Israel, carrying 238 passengers and a crew of 12, took off from Athens, heading for Paris. Soon after the 12:30 p.m. takeoff, the flight was hijacked by two Palestinians and two Germans from the German "Revolutionary Cells (RZ)". The flight was diverted it to Benghazi, Libya. There it was held on the ground for seven hours for refueling, during which time a female British hostage was released on medical ground. The plane left Benghazi, and at 3:15 it arrived at Entebbe Airport in Uganda.
At Entebbe, the four hijackers were joined by three others, supported by the pro-Palestinian forces of Uganda's President, Idi Amin. The hijackers demanded the release of 40 Palestinians held in Israel and 13 other detainees imprisoned in Kenya, France, Switzerland, and West Germany; if these demands were not met, they threatened to begin killing hostages on 1 July 1976.
The hijackers deliberately sorted the hostages into Jew and others. The hijackers held the passengers hostage for a week in the transit hall of Entebbe Airport. Some hostages were released and the hijackers threatened to kill the remaining if Israel did not comply with their demands. Subsequently the hijackers announced that the airline crew and non-Jewish passengers would be released and put on another Air France plane that had been brought to Entebbe for that purpose, the flight captain Michel Bacos told the hijackers that all passengers, including the remaining ones, were his responsibility, and that he would not leave them behind. Bacos' entire crew followed suit. A total of 83 Israeli and/or Jewish hostages remained, as well as 20 others, most of whom included the crew of the Air France plane.
On the 1 July deadline the Israeli government offered to negotiate with the hijackers in order to extend the deadline to 4 July. Idi Amin asked the hijackers to extend the deadline until 4 July, so he could take a diplomatic trip to Port Louis, Mauritius in order to officially hand over the chairmanship of The Organization of African Unity to Sir Ramgoolam. This extension of the hostage deadline would prove crucial in allowing Israeli forces enough time to get to Entebbe.
On 3 July, the Israeli cabinet approved a rescue mission, Operation Entebbe, under the command of Major General Yekutiel Kuti Adam, After days of collecting intelligence and planning , four Israeli Air Force C-130 Hercules transport aircraft flew secretly to Entebbe Airport, by cover of night, without aid of Entebbe ground control. They were followed by two Boeing 707 jets. The first Boeing contained medical facilities and landed at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya. The commander of the operation, General Yekutiel Adam, was on board the second Boeing that circled over Entebbe Airport during the raid.
The Israeli ground task force numbered approximately 100 personnel and comprised the following:
The Ground Command & Control Element
The Assault or "Takeover" Element
The Blocking / Reinforcement or "Engagement" Element
The Israeli forces landed at Entebbe an hour before midnight, with their cargo bay doors already open. A black Mercedes with accompanying Land Rovers was taken along to give the impression that the Israeli troops driving from the landed aircraft to the terminal building were an escort for a returning Idi Amin or other high-ranking official.
The Mercedes and its escort vehicles were quickly driven by the Israeli assault team members to the airport terminal in the same fashion as Amin. However, along the way, two Ugandan sentries, who were aware that Idi Amin had recently purchased a white Mercedes to replace his black one, ordered this procession of vehicles to stop. Both of these sentries were immediately shot dead by the Israeli commandos. Fearing premature alerting of associates to the hijackers, the Israeli assault team was quickly sent into action.
The hostages were in the main hall of the airport building, directly adjacent to the runway. The Israelis sprang from their vehicles and burst into the terminal yelling, "Get down! Get down!" in both Hebrew and English. A 19-year-old French Jew named Jean-Jacques Maimoni stood up, He was killed by the Israeli commandos, who mistook him for a hijacker. Two more hostages were also killed in the crossfire. At one point, an Israeli commando called out in Hebrew, "Where are the rest of them?", apparently referring to the hijackers. The hostages pointed to a connecting door of the airport's main hall, into which the Israeli commandos threw several hand grenades. They then entered the room and shot dead the three remaining hijackers, thus completing their assault.
Meanwhile, the other three C-130 Hercules had landed and unloaded armored personnel carriers, which were to be used for defense during the anticipated hour of refueling, for the destruction of grounded Ugandan jet fighters so as to prevent them from pursuing the Israelis after their departure from Entebbe Airport, and for intelligence-gathering.
After the raid, the Israeli assault team returned to their aircraft and began loading the hostages on board. Ugandan soldiers shot at them in the process. The Israeli commandos returned fire, finished the loading, and then left Entebbe Airport.
The entire assault lasted less than 30 minutes and all seven hijackers were killed. Only one Israeli commando who died during the operation. At least five other Israeli commandos were wounded. Out of the 103 hostages, three were killed and approximately 10 were wounded. A total of 45 Ugandan soldiers were killed during the raid, and about 11 Ugandan Army Air Force MiG- 17 fighter planes were destroyed on the ground at Entebbe Airport. The rescued hostages were flown to Israel via Nairobi, Kenya shortly after the fighting.
Dora Bloch, a 75-year-old hostage taken to Mulago Hospital in Kampala, was killed by the Ugandan government, as were some of her doctors and nurses .
Aftermath
The government of Uganda later convened a session of the United Nations Security Council to seek official condemnation of the Israeli raid, as a violation of Ugandan sovereignty. The Security Council ultimately declined to pass any resolution on the matter. In his address to the Council, the Israeli ambassador Chaim Herzog said:
We come with a simple message to the Council: we are proud of what we have done because we have demonstrated to the world that a small country, in Israel's circumstances, with which the members of this Council are by now all too familiar, the dignity of man, human life and human freedom constitute the highest values. We are proud not only because we have saved the lives of over a hundred innocent people—men, women and children—but because of the significance of our act for the cause of human freedom.

One day I want a similar speech from Indian Ambassador to UN.