Book Review: 90 Minutes at Entebbe

05.07.06 | 33 Comments | Filed Under Uncategorized

There’s a reason people in India shop for books on the roadside; and it’s emphatically not because of the dirt-cheap prices. Chances are stacked high on the positive side of obtaining books like 90 Minutes at Entebbe. Where does one begin?

90 Minutes at Entebbe is a factual, to-the-last-nut-and-bolt account of Israel’s courageous 1976 rescue mission to free its citizens held as hostages by terrorists. Written by William Stevenson, this is both prophetic and ironical. Prophetic because the world’s response to terrorism if anything, is today fraught with cowardice, disguised variously as political correctness and at the other extreme, “respecting sensitivities.”

Stevenson, a journalist displays great understanding of the Israeli perspective in the book. He condemns the shoddy moral equivalence which has assumed alarming proportions in political discourses on terrorism. The words of Yerucham Amitai, a former Israeli Air Chief Staff are clear:

If Israel should ever fail to protect her own, she would cease to have meaning. We have been forced into aggressive defense and the stakes keep getting higher. In the end, we may have to choose between actions that might pull down the Temple of Humanity itself rather than surrender even a single member of the family to the executioners.

Survival in other circumstances is not survival at all. And all of us, whatever our race, won’t be worth a damn if we buy our lives at the cost of our conscience.

The book records every minute detail of the agony Israel suffered when Air France flight 139 was hijacked at Athens in late June 1976 and landed at the Entebbe airport in Uganda. The hijackers operated under the PLFP, an arm of the PLO and had unequivocal support of the Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin.

From trying to negotiate with Idi Amin to the final go-ahead for Operation Thunderbolt, the book reveals the machinations, attitudes and responses of people and nations threatened with terror. The standard response seems to be: it didn’t happen to us so let’s not be part of the mess. Yet, Israel went ahead and claimed responsibility for the rescue operation that both shocked and thrilled the entire world. Equally, it also sent out a clear message to terrorists: don’t mess with Israel. What is perhaps is most notable is the singling out of Jews from a total hostage count of 256. Hostages of all other nationalities/races except for about 100 Jews were released. This act of singling out the Jews chillingly reminded them of a similar singling exercise carried out a few decades earlier, still fresh in memory for many hostages. That in my opinion, constituted the decisive moment to call for action.

That the entire operation was conceived, planned and executed in less than 3 days speaks eloquently of the quality of Israel’s defense forces. The meticulousness of planning–setting up trial runs inside Israel, simulating the situation at Entebbe airport–complete with darkness, location of Lake Victoria, the old and new terminals, the works–right up to the last nut and bolt makes your head dazed. Indeed, the original time estimate for the actual military action–57 minutes was cut to 55 but was executed in 53 minutes. The total operation took 90 minutes, hence the book’s name. Israel lost two hostages and one soldier, Lt Col “Yonni” Netanyahu. Another hostage, a 75 year-old woman, Mrs.Dora Bloch went missing–she was taken for treatment and never returned.

William Stevenson has done painstaking research before writing this superb book: first person accounts of some hostages, interviews with high ranking government officials, and military folks. Just for the sake of it, Ariel Sharon was then a Brigadier General (memory fails me, I’m open to correction), Israel’s Prime Minister was Rabin.

90 Minutes also contains an afterword, the author’s personal remarks on the episode plus the abriged text of the Security Council discussion on the affair. Israel’s response in the said discussion is a manual on an uncompromising stand against terrorism. Indeed, as the author notes about the world’s shameless complicity in condemning Israel for what is essentially an act of self-defense:

What a dismal comment upon the international morality! Israel was not condemned! Values have been up-ended. Peace at any price is now the objective of a world forum born out of the Holocaust to preserve the humanities–not to sacrifice them for survival at any cost.

(Italics in original)

Although carefully-researched, the book suffers from a major drawback: presentation. Stevenson’s writing style is quite jarring and hard to follow. It can be pretty frustrating at some points especially the lack of clarity. Language is contrived and feels as if the author had his hands weighed down by a boulder. Yet this defect can be overlooked in the light of its overall message and given the importance of Operation Thunderbolt.

And did I forget to mention that it contains some exclusive photographs?

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