Night Raid - Operation Entebbe Quiz

Answer: Athens

There was nothing unusual about Air France Flight 139 as it left Tel Aviv but the stopover in Athens changed everything. Among the passengers waiting to board in Athens were the four hijackers. The armed hijackers were able to walk right past the metal detectors in Athens because no one was manning them.

Although it is unclear whether they had prior knowledge that this would be the case, it is a sensible conclusion. What is also clear is that the hijackers would have had no chance of getting past security in Tel Aviv but found a weak link in Athens.

Answer: Benghazi

Libya was a logical choice for the hijackers to seek refuge. Beginning in 1972, Gaddafi financially supported and offered military training to militant Palestinian groups fighting against Israel. The plane landed in Benghazi and stayed on the ground for seven hours for refueling. After that it flew to Entebbe.

On Sept. 11, 2012, the 11th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks, Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed in Benghazi in a terrorist attack.

Answer: Uganda

Entebbe is located in Uganda and was once the capital of the Protectorate of Uganda during British colonial rule. The international airport in Entebbe is the largest commercial and military airport in Uganda. Idi Amin allowed the hijackers to use an abandoned terminal to hold the hostages and visited every day.

Interestingly, land in what was then considered Uganda and is now part of Kenya was once offered as a homeland for the Jewish people in 1903 under the British Uganda Programme. The Zionist Congress rejected the offer. Also during the first year of Amin's rule, Israel had supplied arms and military advisers to Uganda, but in 1972 Amin ended the relationship and turned instead to Gaddafi and Libya.

Answer: Mau Maus

The Mau Maus were a violent New York City street gang in the 1950s and 1960s that took their name from the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya in the 1950s. The other three names were all associated with the two German terrorists, Wilfried Böse and Brigitte Kuhlmann. The Red Army Faction and the Baader-Meinhof Gang are synonymous terms for the same group. Some sources claim the two were members of this group while other sources claim they were members of the Revolutionary Cells (or Revolutionäre Zellen [RZ] in German). Whether there is a clear distinction between the two groups is unclear, but what is clear is that the two Germans were members of the violent leftist movement in Germany during the 1970s.

The two Palestinian hijackers were members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - External Operations (PFLP-EO). Once they landed in Entebbe, three more members of this group joined the hijackers.

Answer: Red Sea

The four Israeli C-130s carrying the commandos flew down the coast of Africa over the Red Sea at a height of no more than 100ft above the water in order to avoid Egyptian, Sudanese, and Saudi Arabian radar. Once close enough they most likely flew across Somalia close to the Ethiopian border until they reached Kenya. From there they crossed Kenyan airspace to reach Entebbe.

In the book of Exodus in both the Hebrew and Christian Bibles, the Red Sea figures prominently in the story of Moses and Israelites travels to the Promised Land.

Answer: Lake Victoria

Because Entebbe is a peninsula that juts into Lake Victoria, the planners of the raid considered using boats for the assault. But test runs for dropping the boats from C-130s into water proved unreliable and the idea was scrapped. The teams had no choice but to land at the airport and attack that way.

The four C-130s were scheduled to land in seven minute intervals with the initial assault party landing first followed by the other combat teams.

Answer: Thunderbolt

The operation was originally called Operation Thunderbolt but after the raid its name was changed to Operation Jonathan in honor of Yonatan Netanyahu, the only member of the attacking force to die in the attack.

The raid took place the night of July 3rd and the early morning of July 4th. The commandos landed under cover of darkness and proceeded to the abandoned terminal. They were in a motorcade made to look like the one Idi Amin used when visiting the hostages. There was only one problem, the car they were using was black and Amin had recently purchased a white car. Ugandan guards ordered the cars to stop and a firefight ensued. With the element of surprise gone the commandos rushed the terminal to rescue the hostages. Yoni Netanyahu was killed in the attack.

Answer: The Unit

Although other units were involved in the raid, the Sayeret Matkal was the lead unit. Their nickname is simply 'The Unit'. The other main units were the Sayeret Tzanhanim and Sayeret Golani. The Sayeret Matkal was originally designed to be a long range reconnaissance force for operations behind enemy lines. As such it was a logical extension of this that they be tasked with counter-terrorism and hostage rescue missions outside of Israel's borders. Not only did Yonatan Netanyahu serve in the Sayeret Matkal, so did his brothers Benjamin and Iddo.

"The Unit" was an American TV show that aired from 2006 to 2009. It followed the fictional exploits of a top secret US military unit modeled after the US Army Delta Force.

Answer: Kenya

The relationship between Kenya and Israel can be traced back to 1963 when then Foreign Minister Golda Meir met with Jomo Kenyatta and forged an agreement whereby Kenyans would be trained in Israel in agriculture and medicine. This lasted until 1973 when diplomatic relations were severed because of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

The cooperation between the countries during 1976 actually began in January when Kenyan security forces foiled a plot by three Palestinian and two German terrorists (from the same organizations who would carry out the hijacking) to shoot down an El Al flight using a SAM 7 rocket. The terrorists were then turned over to Mossad who took them back to Israel where they were imprisoned. (Source: http://www.biblicalproductions.com/articles_operation-entebbe.htm)

During Operation Thunderbolt, the Israeli forces used the Nairobi Airport as a refueling station and hospital stop. At the airport the hostages were transferred to other planes for the trip back to Israel and the wounded were treated. As a result of Kenya's aid to Israel in carrying out the operation, Amin had scores of Kenyans killed in Uganda. The 1980 Norfolk Hotel Bombing in Nairobi was directly attributed to retaliation for Kenyan involvement in Operation Thunderbolt. The 1998 bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi by Al-Qaeda, although not directly attributed to retaliation for Operation Thunderbolt certainly makes one wonder if this did not play a role.

Full diplomatic relations between Kenya and Israel were resumed in 1989. In 1991, agricultrual cooperation resumed with the joint Kibwezi irrigation project.

Answer: It weakened him greatly and he was deposed in less than three years

Amin had come to power in a coup in 1971 and had ruled ruthlessly since that time. The raid showed he was not invincible and critically hurt his military, with the Israeli destruction of 11 MiG fighters at the airport. His air of invincibility was now gone and his corrupt, inept leadership eventually led to the collapse of his government. In 2005, Benjamin Netanyahu was invited to Uganda for the placement of a memorial dedicated to those who died at Entebbe. The then president of Uganda explained to him that the raid was the beginning of the end for Amin. (Source: http://www.netanyahu.org/thiryeartoop.html)

Some may wonder why Amin would get mixed up in the politics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Amin came from the Muslim minority in the country and he embraced his Islamic roots in an attempt to win favor with the Libyans, namely Qaddafi, and the Soviets as he sought help in building up his military.