Omer Bar-Lev, thank you for planning this special session, and thank you also to all my colleagues who spoke here today. I was very moved. The Entebbe rescue operation had enormous ramifications, one of which I learned at Entebbe when I was invited there several years ago for a special ceremony hosted by Ugandan President Museveni.
During the ceremony they hung a sign on the control tower to honor the memories of Yoni and the hostages who were killed in Entebbe. The ceremony was a Ugandan military ceremony and they have a special ceremony to honor the fallen, to honor fallen soldiers. It was very moving.
After the ceremony I candidly told the President, "Look, I want you to know that in my opinion it is no small matter that a foreign country, your country, would honor soldiers who came from another country and invaded it. I mean, Yoni and his brothers-in-arms killed dozens of Ugandan soldiers. And here you are, hanging a sign in his memory".
He said, "Yes, that is true. However, I want you to understand what it means to us: first in terms of the comprehensive war against terror that is still being waged today, and we fight such forces as well. But it had an additional meaning – for years we fought against this dictator, Idi Amin, from the depths of the jungles and we could not beat him. When we heard about the landing of IDF forces in Entebbe and what they did there, we knew that we would bring him down, that we would beat him. We knew then".
On the way to Entebbe, Yoni told one of his comrades that if he saw Idi Amin he would kill him. He said to Yoni, "How could you think such a thing?", and Yoni answered, "He is a war criminal. If I see him – I will kill him". Yoni was killed there, but his friends completed the mission to bring the hostages home.
If I am not mistaken, half of dozen veterans of the unit serve in the Knesset today, including MK's Bar-Lev and Shaul Mofaz who participated in the actual mission. I think it is no coincidence – the unit was a very small unit after all. The previous Knesset also had its members from the unit, and I think this is because of an ability to focus on a task and of daring, taking personal responsibility and the ability to coordinate team work to achieve supreme national goals. By the way, I believe that at when put to the test, the fact that we are on either side of the divide is meaningless because we are on the same side at the decisive moment.
In any event, the unit has an important prerogative, as do other units in the IDF. I was a student in the United States when I heard about the operation. Of course I had heard about the hostage-taking, but then I heard that IDF forces had freed the hostages in Entebbe. I immediately called my brother Ido and asked him one question, "Well, are they back yet?" "Are they back" – it was clear who they were… "Is he back?" – that too was clear. He answered, "Not yet". But it was clear that Yoni and his friends were involved.
Yoni had taken part in many rescue operations, more than just one or two. One was several hours before the end of the Six Day War, in the Jalbinah outpost in the Golan Heights, when he rescued an officer near him who had been injured by Syrian fire. He himself was wounded there and was declared a disabled IDF veteran who would not serve anymore at the end of the war. He also rescued Yossi Ben Hannan under enemy fire in Tel Shams during the Yom Kippur War. He received the Medal of Distinguished Service for that rescue.
The unit itself had rescued hostages, and therefore it was obvious that it would be dispatched on this operation if one were to be planned. What happened, as described here by MK's Mofaz and Bar Lev, was that there was pressure from below, from the army, from the unit, from the commanders of the Air Force, from Benny Peled of blessed memory. And the pilots who expressed their confidence in their ability to carry out the mission despite the risks, they were there too.
However, full credit must be given to then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of blessed memory, and Minister of Defense Shimon Peres, who made a very courageous decision. Because you can never really know, not really. One truck on the runway at Entebbe could have thwarted the mission – and therefore there was no certainty and the difference between success and failure was as fragile as a spider's web. There are people here who served in the army and they know exactly what I mean when I say a spider's web.
However, the decision to carry out the mission was derived from the possibility that it could be done and that it held supreme importance for increasing Israel's esteem. Let us not forget that this situation involved selektzia [selection] – thirty odd years after the Holocaust, German terrorists were differentiating between Jews and non-Jews, keeping the Jews and threatening to murder them.
The significance of this was not limited to the Ugandans or to terror, but included us, first and foremost as Jews – to the significance of this country and what it can accomplish when put to the test. So the government sent the IDF thousands of kilometers away from the State of Israel to rescue Jews; and the forces completed their mission, rescued the hostages, eliminated the terrorists, killed the Ugandan military forces, blew up the air force and returned to the State of Israel.
The threats against us during the 37 years since then continue, but the example of Entebbe shows that we can overcome them. Today I repeat that there is no place that the long arm of the State of Israel cannot reach and will not reach in order to protect the State of Israel. Today is a day of celebration for the State of Israel and for those who desire freedom and progress in the world.
For several families in Israel today is a day of terrible grief and sorrow – for the families of Dora Bloch, Pasco Cohen, Ida Borochovitch and Jean-Jacques Maimoni. From this podium, I take the opportunity to wish health and long life to our wonderful friend, Surin Hershko.
For me that day changed the course of my life and that of my parents and brother Ido. Thirty-seven years have passed; my parents have passed on; but I will never forget the majesty with which they bore their grief at the falling of their eldest son, Yonatan.