What Really Happened at Entebbe?

The Israeli special-forces raid to rescue the passengers at Uganda’s Entebbe airport, after their flight had been hijacked by German and Palestinian terrorists, has gone down in history as one of the IDF’s most legendary operations. But unlike nearly every mission by Israel’s elite military units, there was no formal debriefing afterwards where participants discussed what could be learned from the experience. Thus the crucial question of what might have been done differently to have prevented to sole Israeli fatality—the death of the raid’s leader Yonatan Netanyahu (the brother of the future prime minister)—was left unresolved. A new book includes the testimonies of 33 veterans who took part in the mission, revealing new much new information. Mitch Ginsburg, who translated the book into English, describes what he learned: