As part of an excursion down Bad Memory Lane, I feel I should re-visit the Entebbe Raid, which took place almost exactly 50 years ago.
This is especially appropriate in view of the current global obsession with ‘Palestine’, as it helps to trace its roots in terror.
Here in the UK, we have Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally calling for an end to Israel’s ‘occupation of Palestine’ and the Church of England General Synod about to discuss a motion in support of this scenario. We even witnessed a Channel 5 TV news report, in which a rape victim was discussing a personal legal victory, gate-crashed by a man on a bicycle riding around in circles flying a Palestinian flag.
You couldn’t make it up. So, let’s go back to July 1976 when Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, who claimed many grand titles for himself including the uncrowned King of Scotland, got his comeuppance.
More than 100 hostages were rescued in a daring raid on Entebbe, Uganda’s international airport, after the hijacking of an Air France plane bound for Paris from Tel Aviv with 248 passengers on board.
The Arab and German terrorists responsible for the hijacking were evidently determined to kill the 100-plus Jewish and Israeli passengers if their demands (for the release of Palestinian prisoners) were not met, with Amin facilitating their wicked plan.
But they hadn’t counted on divine intervention. An elite Israeli force, under the command of Yoni Netanyahu, older brother of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, managed to infiltrate the airport terminal, which just happened to have been built by an Israeli construction company.
As Jewish-American businessman Jonathan Feldstein recalls: “It would have been impossible for Israel to transport a convoy of planes and equipment so far, alone, undetected, without God’s protection and the involvement of numerous people.”
The battle was swift: 102 hostages were rescued, though three were killed, along with all the hijackers and 45 Ugandan soldiers, with most of the country’s Soviet-built MiGs destroyed. Tragically, however, Lt Col Netanyahu was also killed and five of his commandos wounded.
Israeli Defence Force planes were given permission to cross Kenyan airspace and refuel there on the way home. “As a Christian, Kenya’s president Jomo Kenyatta understood God’s imperative to bless Israel,” Feldstein wrote. (See Genesis 12:3)
Many nations and organisations who have attacked Israel over the years have similarly suffered a bloody nose. But Amin has long since disappeared into the dust of bad memories, and Uganda is a happier place.
The Arab hijackers were members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, part of the PLO which had four years earlier carried out the Munich massacre of Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games.
They continue beguiling the world into dancing to their murderous tune by believing their fictitious propaganda. The Palestinian people, with a right to a state, was an invention of Egypt-born Yasser Arafat and his make-believe fantasy has duped the world into taking sides with terrorists in their various forms – Hamas, Hezbollah and the like.
(By the way, Israeli Jews were also called Palestinians in earlier years as the region had been generally known as Palestine, a derivative of Philistine, Israel’s ancient enemy, which the Romans – also adept at rewriting history – had re-named Israel as a final insult to the exiled Jews in AD 135).
Arabs already occupy 99 per cent of the Middle East. Why do they wish to deprive the Jews of the remaining one percent, quite apart from their historic links? Because the problem is not so much the land in question, as the Jews. They simply do not wish the Jews to live among them. Hence the conflict, in which Israel are simply fighting for their very existence.
In fact, they do have a legitimate claim to all the land from the river (Jordan) to the sea (Mediterranean) – and much more – courtesy of the San Remo treaty of 1920 and the subsequent League of Nations mandate. That’s quite apart from the clear biblical basis for their ownership of the land “from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates” (Genesis 15:18).
And yet so-called Christians have shamefully sided with God’s enemies. For how will Yeshua return to Jerusalem as promised and be welcomed by his brothers in the flesh if they are not there because they have once again been forcefully exiled? (see Matthew 23:39, Acts 1:11f, Zechariah 12:10, 14:4)
The psalmist asks: “Why do the nations conspire, and the people plot in vain” against God’s chosen and his Messiah? But “the One enthroned in heaven laughs,” saying: “I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.”And he adds: “Therefore, you kings, be wise…serve the Lord with fear…” (Psalm 2).
The battle over Israel is hotting up, which means that the Second Coming of our Lord is approaching. Make sure your lamps are lit and you are ready for the Bridegroom. (Zechariah 12:3, Matthew 25:1-13)
Charles Gardner is author of Israel the Chosen, available from Amazon; Peace in Jerusalem, available from olivepresspublisher.com; To the Jew First, A Nation Reborn, and King of the Jews, all available from Christian Publications International.
