Soldiers from Operation Entebbe decry judicial reform in letter to Netanyahu

PM Netanyahu's brother Yoni led Operation Entebbe and was the only one of the fighters to be killed during the mission.

yoni Netanyahu 298.88 (photo credit: AP)
yoni Netanyahu 298.88
(photo credit: AP)

Ten soldiers from the Amnon team who fought under Yoni Netanyahu's leadership in Operation Entebbe wrote a letter to his brother, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which they said that he is "knowingly and with open eyes sacrificing the State of Israel and the people of Israel for his own interests."

In the letter, which was first made public by Channel 13, the soldiers wrote to Netanyahu that "for years, you have been leading by way of 'separate and govern', dividing us Israelis from one another."

"You compared us to people who carried out pogroms in Huwara," the letter continued. "Your son, who hasn't held a gun in his life, calls us 'terrorists'.

To Netanyahu's brother Ido, they wrote "you called us 'conditional Zionists,' people who are confused and will leave the country at the first chance. You also claimed that were are causing anarchy and fear and that our goal is to cause panic."

The letter warned that "these days, Israel is in danger, and this time the enemy is at home."

Air France hostages who were rescued from Entebbe Airport in 1975. The pilot of the plane, Michel Bacos (not pictured), died at the age of 95 on March 25th, 2019 (credit: GPO FLICKR/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)
Air France hostages who were rescued from Entebbe Airport in 1975. The pilot of the plane, Michel Bacos (not pictured), died at the age of 95 on March 25th, 2019 (credit: GPO FLICKR/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)

The Amnon team mentioned their work in the operation in which Netanyahu's brother was killed.

"We didn't have Rolexes. We had Kalashnikovs. We took on ourselves the danger because we had a goal - to save 105 Jews. Ashkenazi, Mizrahi, secular, religious - all our people. We had a sense of purpose and the feeling of joint fate and the memory of the Holocaust of our parents (who today have become 'privileged'), and we had the knowledge that once again, the Germans had done a selection for the Jews.

"We are all together in the protests while you do all in your ability to crumble the Israeli people."

Entebbe Amnon team

"We did the impossible together with brothers in arms, soldiers from Golani, paratroopers, intelligence, medicine and media and Mossad agents. And again now, we are all together in the protests while you do all in your ability to crumble the Israeli people."

What is Operation Entebbe?

Operation Entebbe was an operation in which IDF commandos rescued Jews who were kidnapped by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in 1976. The terrorists hijacked and Air France flight from Tel Aviv to Paris and diverted it to Entebbe Airport in Uganda.

Of the passengers on the flight, 148 were not Jewish and were released to continue their journey to Paris, but 94 Jews and 12 members of the crew were kept hostage. Their objective was to bargain for the release of 14 terrorists imprisoned in Israel and 13 imprisoned in other countries.

Working on information gathered by the Mossad, the IDF staged a rescue mission led by Yoni Netanyahu that lasted 90 minutes, and of the 106 hostages, 102 were successfully rescued. The remaining four were killed, and of the soldiers carrying out the operation, Yoni was the only one not to make it home.