Posted February 28 2008
Leader of Entebbe Airport Rescue Dead at 70
February 2008 has been a month that has seen a lot of ups and downs in Israel and the broader pro-Israel community. We’ve marked the 5th anniversary of the death of Israel’s first astronaut; we’ve seen - possibly - the seeds sown for a very hush-hush 2nd “Disengagement” beginning with the small town of Kochav HaShachar; a suicide bomber killed one woman and wounded 38 others in Dimona, while a second suicide bomber was killed before being able to detonate his belt; Sderot, which has been under rocket fire for months, had its power knocked out in a Kassam attack; a Hizbullah official was killed in a car bomb, which resulted in Hezballah threatening Israel; and of course, on the political scene, US Representative, Israel advocate and Holocaust survivor, Tom Lantos, passed away at the age of 80.
Now, even after we’ve struggled to wrap our minds around all of that, we must take a moment to acknowledge and reflect upon the passing of a true hero. Leutenant General Dan Shomron, the commanding officer who planned and led the legendary rescue operation in 1976, in which Israeli troops freed 103 hostages at Entebbe Airport in Uganda, died Tuesday in Israel at age 70. According to the Associated Press, sources at Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv confirmed his death as the result of a stroke suffered three weeks ago. The Jerusalem Post reported that he died at Beit Lowenstein Rehabilitation Center in Raanana.
Lt. Gen. Shomron, in an interview published in Israeli newspaper Maariv in 2006, reflected with humility - and good humor - on the operation and his status as a hero in Israeli culture. “I…felt some kind of envy from the military and it was not comfortable for me. Around the world, until today, they look at me like something from a different world, a super super-hero, something not natural. I don’t like that feeling of being an advertisement,” he said, while acknowledging, “I like in particular the movie (“Raid on Entebbe”, 1977) in which Charles Bronson portrayed me.”
The “raid,” if it must be called that, was a very risky rescue operation, which did not succeed without casualties. Three Israeli hostages and one commando, now-legendary Yoni Netanyahu, brother of former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, were killed in Operation Yonatan, posthumously named in Netanyahu’s memory.
The events leading up to the July 3-4, 1976, raid began on June 27, 1976, when a team of two Palestinian and two German terrorists hijacked Air France flight 139, carrying 248 passengers and 12 crew from Athens (originating in Tel Aviv) bound for Paris. The hijackers diverted the flight to Benghazi, Libya, for refueling, where they released one hostage, a pregnant woman who claimed to be having a miscarriage, before taking off again and arriving at Entebbe Airport in Uganda. Three additional terrorists joined the hijackers, with the support of Ugandan president Idi Amin, and the group demanded the release of 40 Palestinian terrorists and 13 other prisoners, threatening to begin killing the hostages if the demands were not met by July 1, 1976.
In a selection process frighteningly reminiscent of the Nazis and the Holocaust, the hijackers singled out the Jewish and Israeli hostages, and released most of the others. A total of 83 Israelis/Jews were kept hostage, along with 20 others, mostly flight crew. After successfully negotiating an extension of the deadline to July 4, 1976, the Israeli government approved a rescue mission. Originally dubbed Operation Entebbe, the mission was commanded by Major General Yekutiel Adam, with Brigadier General Dan Shomron appointed the ground commander. After several Israeli support aircraft, including medical facilities, were secretly flown to Entebbe and nearby Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, an Israeli Air Force Boeing 707, its cargo bay doors already open, landed at Entebbe Airport, carrying a black, spray-painted Mercedes Benz, equipped with a Ugandan flag, accompanied by Land Rovers, intended to give the impression that Idi Amin or some other high ranking Ugandan official was coming to lend his support to the terrorists.
In the ensuing assault, which lasted less than half an hour, all seven hijackers were killed, as well as 45 Ugandan soldiers. Three Israeli hostages were killed, and 10 were wounded. Yoni Netanyahu was killed, and 5 other Israeli commandos were wounded. According to Henry Kyemba, Uganda’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice at the time, who gave testimony to the Uganda Human Rights Commission in 1987, Dora Bloch, a 75 year old hostage taken to Mulago Hospital in Kampala, was killed by two Ugandan army officers on Amin’s orders.
The operation was immediately hailed by the Israeli public and government as a success, and it gained legendary acclaim. At one point the Ugandan government tried to seek condemnation from the United Nations Security Council for violating sovereign Ugandan territory, but to no avail. As a result, the commandos, and in particular the commanding officers, were celebrated in Israel and by Jews around the world as heroes, with Yoni Netanyahu and Dan Shomron attaining legendary and iconic status. No less than three dramatized films were produced about the raid. Shomron, for his part, was later selected as the chief of the general staff in 1987, a position he held until his retirement in 1991.
Lieutenant General Dan Shomron was born on Kibbutz Ashdot Yaakov in the Jordan Valley on August 5, 1937. He commanded on the Egyptian front in the Six-Day War in June 1967, and received the Medal of Distinguished Service. He is recognized as the first paratrooper to reach the Suez Canal. In 1974 he was made commander of Infantry and Paratroopers, in which command he led the ground troops in Operation Entebbe. In 1978 he was put in charge of dismantling Israeli army bases and settlements in the Sinai Penninsula, in accordance with the Camp David Accords with Egypt. In 1983 he established and commanded the Ground Forces Command. From 1987 until his retirement from military service, Shomron served as chief of Israel’s general staff, and later served as chairman of Israel Military Industries. In October 2006 Shomron was appointed to investigate Israel’s military performance in the conflict with Hizbullah geurrillas in Southern Lebanon that summer. In his report, he would come to criticize IDF commanders for poor organization.
Dan Shomron is survived by his wife and two children.
Asked in the 2006 Maariv interview to relate his most vivid memory of the events on July 3-4, 1976, Shomron said, “When the hostages board the evacuation plane, are helped up, each one checking his family that everyone is present. That was a strong moment that I can’t forget.”
YeHiyeh Zichrono Baruch.
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2 Comments currently posted. 
Dave Weinberg says:
I wanna talk about Tom Lantoss » Blog Archive » Fast Thursday links says:
[...] http://jewneric.com/leader-of-entebbe-airport-rescue-dead-at-70/2008/02/28/…; a Hizbullah official was killed in a car bomb, which resulted in Hizbullah threatening Israel; and of course, on the political scene, US Representative, Israel advocate and Holocaust survivor, Tom Lantos, passed away at the age of … [...]
“Dan Shomron was a brave-hearted warrior who left his stamp on the fighting spirit of the Israeli army, with some of the most daring operations in its history,” Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in a statement. “His death is a loss to the whole of Israeli society.” [from the Washington Post]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/26/AR2008022603198_2.html?nav=hcmodule