Customer Reviews

90 minutes at Entebbe

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This is the incredible story of one of the most heroic rescues of modern times, an incident that has become a virtual legend without equal in the archives of anti-terrorist operations.

There can be few readers who are not already familiar with the spectacular rescue by Israeli forces at Entebbe Airport, Uganda during July 1976. A rescue that has been committed to both film, documentary and the written page.

This captivating book by William Stevenson records in minute detail the hour by hour events throughout the period of this critical event, beginning with the actual in-flight hijacking of Air France Flight 139 en route from Athens to Paris, carrying over 262 passengers and crew.

A hijacking endorsed and supported by the then President of the Republic of Uganda, Idi Amin. Possibly the first time that any modern nation and it's leader actually became the protector and spokesman for terrorists and political blackmailers. The writer taking time to document the `behind the scenes' sponsorship and relationship between the hijackers, Uganda, Libya and Palestinian terrorist groups towards this methodically planned and carefully executed act of air piracy by Palestinian terrorists.

The book continues at a rapid pace and is difficult to put down. It may appear dated but it's relevancy to our day is unquestionable.

From the outset, the book shows in alarming clarity the political climate of the time in that no country other than Israel was prepared to do little other than negotiate with the terrorists. What is meant by this is that no other country was prepared to take on the responsibility of a rescue mission of any description. (One is left to ponder how much the heroic actions of the Israeli armed forces during this incident have had on the change in Worldwide perception of dealing with hijackings and terrorist attacks of this nature which had previously served to bully and hold to ransom democracies across the globe.)

The book illustrates that with the sudden early release of some 47 passengers, coinciding with the separation of the Israeli/Jewish hostages from the others, the obvious agenda of the terrorist mission became only too apparent. Israel and Israelis were the target.

This excellent book reconstructs the critical events throughout this incident, including the terrorists' demands, ultimatums and deadlines towards the bartering of the innocent passengers for convicted terrorists being held in custody. The individual make-up of the terrorist group is also examined, as are the political and military reactions of those on the Israeli side, together with the military preparations for the rescue mission.

This is a rivetting read of how, just hours before the deadline for the execution of the hostages expired, Israeli commandos travelled silently over 2,500 miles from Israel to Entebbe, landed in darkness at the airport, fought with Ugandan troops & the terrorists and rescued some 103 hostages taking them back to the safety of the Jewish state.

On this scale, as an operation of pure heroism this surely must stand alone. As a military task it was considerable, almost miraculous. To travel such a distance across International boundaries to carry out such an action is surely without precedent. One can only stand back in admiration for those rescuers described in this book.

The writer describes how sadly, the Israeli operational leader Colonel Yehonatan Netanyahu, was killed during the rescue. Known among his friends, family and compatriots as `Yoni', the heroism of this leader of the young Jewish state is legendary. Words alone are difficult to find & perhaps inadequate to pay tribute to `Yoni' and his men. As an ex-serviceman myself, I can only say that everyone that I have served with holds them in the highest reverence and honour. (Most readers will be aware that Yoni's brother, Benjamin Netanyahu, later became Israeli Prime Minister.)

This indeed is an essential addition to anyone's library on Middle East history. In a time when security and safety during air travel is again at the forefront of everyone's minds following the September 11th atrocities, this is a stirring reminder of how the heroism of ordinary people will not, and indeed cannot, submit to the demands of those who would hold the innocent to ransom amid threats of violence. Highly recommended.

I read this book in 1981. It was captivating. I knew some of the characters and places mentioned in the book (associated to Kenya). I was very young when it happend and when I read the book. I was in Kenya and not far from the action itself. The book I read had title related to Operation Thunder bolt-The Entebbe Raid. I am currently searching for this book. Kenya helped a lot in the rescue since the Hacules`s refuel in Kenya before the last trip to Entebbe. There was fear for retaliation for the help, but Kenyans helped anyway. Sure as death, retaliation came in form of a bomb in a Nairobi Hotel. What a world we live in!

This book was easy to read, yet detailed and captivating. i doubt there is a better account of the hijacking to be found. for a short book its quite detailed and enjoyable. who says that old books cant be good?

I read this book in 1980 after reading about this daring raid at Entebbe,Uganda in a book titled 'Moassad- Israel's secret service'. I don't remember much of the details except that reading this book was like watching a movie(perhaps even more than that!). My interest in this book stems from the fact that it is the fourth day of hijacking of Indian Airlines by suspected militants(the plane right now is in Kandhakar, Afganistan after its ordeal at Amritsar, Lahore and Dubai). Details in this book perhaps might be a lesson to the powers that be in India.

Here it is!
This is the narrative of the greatest anti-terrorist action of the 1970s!

In June of 1976, Air France flight 139 from Athens, was hijacked by a combined terrorist action. This collaboration was composed of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the ultra-leftist/anti-Zionist, Revolutionary Cell from Germany. The aircraft was landed in Uganda, and the terrorists were sheltered by the depraved dictator Idi Amin Dada.

While international politicos blathered on in their typical inneffectual manner, Isreal deployed paratroops on a valiant rescue mission that came to be known as Operation Thunderbolt. 103 hostages, 83 of whom were Isreali citizens, were rescued and returned home safely.

Sadly, their were two people who did not survive this event:
-75 year old Dora Block was murdered in the hospital by Idi Amin's agents.
-Lieutenant-Colonel Yonni Netanyahu, who commanded the mission.

This review is dedicated to them.

This book is detailed on the strategy and operations behind the one of the most heroic rescue operations in history- and as such is an exciting read on espionage and counter-terrorism. But it also helps to illustrate that what Operation Thunderbolt was all about is that Israel does have the most powerful reasons for it's existence. Without Israel the hostages at Entebbe would have died or become hostages in a terror war aimed at destroying all that is good on the face of the earth. The hostages were Jews-incarcerated by the German and Arab terrorists only because they were Jews.

There was certainly something obscene 31 years after the Holocaust about Germans shouting orders at Jewish hostages and waving guns over their heads, while engaging in 'selektzia' - selection of the prisoners of terror, with all those with Israeli names ordered into a different section of the building.
The Arab terrorists of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine were were led by a German man and woman from the Marxist German terrorist group the Baader Meinhof Gang. Their behaviour reminded at least one hostage, himself bearing tattooed numbers from a concentration camp of Nazis.

The terrorists who hijacked the Air France Flight 139 were executing a meticulously conceived plan by an international terrorist network controlled by the Soviet Union and directed by terrorist regimes such as that of Libyan mass murderer Muammar Gaddafi. The terrorist operation was endorsed by the then President of Uganda, Idi Amin Dada, who hosted the terrorists and their operation and gave it every assistance. After the massacre of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics, Idi Amin had sent a message to the United Nations expressing his joy and appreciation of the murders, adding praise for Hitler's extermination of six million Jews.

The author points out a warning that is more pertinent today than ever. "If terrorism succeeds against Israel, then it is only a matter of time before every democracy faces the same threat on a global scale". As American statesman Daniel Moynihan said at the time of Operation Thunderbolt "Israel has become the metaphor for democracy as much as the utterly as much as the utterly unprincipled attacks by terrorists on Israeli civilians has become a metaphor for the general assault on democracy and decency which is the sustaining ethos of totalitarianism in our time".
Words which are even more true today than at the time they were spoken. Following the rescue operation at Entebbe, Israel was excoriated by the Communist and Arab bloc and Uganda for what was labelled bizarrely as an 'attack on the Third World", completely ignoring the fact that Amin's Uganda had been the aggressor by facilitating the criminal piracy and hostage-taking.
And yet the world made a lot more sense in 1976. most of the free world knew Israel was quite justified in rescuing her own innocent civilians
If such an operation had taken place today, the anti-Israel vultures of the world led by Islamic and Leftist opinion makers would have made sure of a world fit of hysteria and hatred against Israel, such as those that take place whenever Israel takes steps to protects it's population from genocidal Islamic aggression.
An Israeli mother, one of the hostages together with her family asked one of the German hijackers a question as pertinent to pro-Palestinian agitators and terror-instigators as ever today : "Let's suppose that you and the 'Front' and all the other enemies of Israel in the Arab countries and elsewhere succeed in destroying Israel, heaven forbid, and the surviving Jews will be dispersed all over the world again-what will you do? Hijack planes to help the Jewish people return to their homeland, or do you only do that for the Palestinians?"
RIP to the brave hero of the Operation who died while performing this heroic rescue of his people , Yonatan Netanyahu and to Dora Bloch, an elderly surviving Israeli hostage butchered by the Ugandans , after she was accidentally left behind.

As a story this was better than average and indeed since it is a true story it adds all the more to the story. But there is a eye opener in this story too: The plight of the unfairly villified.

The story of this highjacking is reasonalby well related. Some better oganizing of the events as they were told was possible, but considering it was a work of research, the events were related well enough.

But the thing that became so clear was just how alone and unfairly villified the Jewish people are. The logic behind some of thier enemies actions and words are just worlds apart from rational thought and it is so strange how twisted some people can allow thier opinions to be when it comes to irrational racisim.

I hear the logic of Isreals reasoning for thier actions being used by people all around the world in defence of their similar actions, but when it comes to allowing Israel the freedom to do likewise, it seems the whole world looks for reasons to negate the same actions they themselves would do in the same situation.

This was also an intreaging look behind the mind of the nefarious Idi Amin. This is also an alarming book when viewed in todays world, filled with more and more terrorism, and the mindset behind it and the sheer population of the peoples of this mindset. This book, in this light, far and away justifies Israels actions in this case and in similar cases and they serve as examples to the world. This is a must read in understanding the plight of the terrorized and how to deal with it. And a great story to boot.

As America began celebrating 200 years of independence on 4th July 1976, an Israeli rescue team escaped from Uganda with more than 100 hostages that were held by Idi Amin and a group of international terrorists. This book tells the story of the Air France airliner that was hijacked in Athens and ended up in Entebbe, Uganda. Operation Thunderbolt marked a turning point in the free world's response to terrorist blackmail. The rescue of the hostages was a massive victory over the ruthless cunning and blackmail of the terrorists.

The narrative, partly based on notes taken by passengers, takes the reader from Athens to Benghazi airport in Libya and from there to Uganda. It also narrates what was happening in Israel during those days and provides information on the Palestinian terrorist group the PFLP plus profiles of its leaders.

Stevenson relates how the Israelis debated about negotiations but immediately started preparing for a rescue mission. A particularly chilling moment occurred when Jewish/Israeli hostages were separated from the other passengers who were released soon after, except the brave French pilot who refused. Then it was all systems go and the aircraft from Israel had a smooth flight. The Operation at Entebbe airport was over in 90 minutes with minimum loss of life.

The 2nd Appendix contains a record of the UN Security Council Debate on the matter, with an eloquent speech by Chaim Herzog, then Israeli ambassador to the UN. The book concludes with 3 transcripts of telephone conversations between Colonel Baruch Bar-Levi and the dictator Amin.

The first Appendix is a personal note in which Stevenson discusses terrorism at length, observing with foresight that it would only be a matter of time before the threat against Israel would confront every democracy on the same scale. He also considers the dismal state of international morality in the form of the United Nations at that time.

Since then, things have taken a turn for the worse. The history of the anti-Israel and anti-Western forces at work in the UN is well documented in books like Tower of Babble by Dore Gold, Nations United: How the United Nations Undermines Israel and the West by Alex Grobman and The UN Gang: A Memoir of Incompetence, Corruption, Espionage, Anti-Semitism and Islamic Extremism at the UN Secretariat by Pedro Sanjuan. In 1976, Stevenson warned against the scourge that would lead to atrocities like 9/11, Bali, Madrid and London.

Despite the lengthening shadows foreseen here, the book left me with a sense of hope. The last diary entry of one of the hostages reads like this: "The Lord's redemption comes like the twinkling of an eye." When the shooting began, a soldier speaking Hebrew appeared before her. She explained afterwards: "I felt goose pimples. I would not die, but live to tell the deeds of the Lord."

As the cult of Israel-hatred continues to spread, God is gathering his people from the four corners of the globe. Other magnificent books of hope and courage include Operation Solomon - the story of the rescue of Ethiopian Jews in 1991 - by Stephen Spector, and Exodus Cry: Sounding a Prophetic Call to Strategic Prayer for Israel and the Jewish People Worldwide by Jim W Goll, about the ingathering from the North.

This book is about the Israeli air force putting together a mission unlike any other. The Israeli air force is forced to go into Uganda where more than a hundred Israeli civilians are held captive. This book details every single practice drill and plan they had in mind to bring all those people back. A superb and swift rescue effort which saved a lot of lives. This book is more on the strategy side and has a lot of interesting tidbits. I would recommend this book to everybody. Enjoyable and inspiring at the same time.

The Entebbe rescue is such an incredible subject, that it's almost impossible to write a bad book about it. However, the author of this book succeeded in doing just that. Despite the fact that it is a pain to read because of the style, the book is still worth reading because the incident itself is so incredible.