Fifty years ago, on July 4, 1976 – as America rejoiced with fireworks and fanfare to celebrate its bicentennial – news broke of one of the most audacious military operations in history.
Israeli commandos flew 4,000 kilometers to Entebbe, Uganda, and stormed a terminal where Palestinian and German terrorists held 103 Israeli and Jewish hostages, hijacked aboard an Air France flight a week earlier. The mission was as successful as it was daring, with the terrorists killed and all the hostages freed and returned home.
This July 4, America turns 250. Israel marks the 50th anniversary of that rescue – known as Operation Jonathan, named for Lt.-Col. Yoni Netanyahu, the mission’s heroic commander and only fallen soldier.
The coincidence of dates is not merely a historical curiosity. It is a symbol that captures something essential about the bond between the two nations. Operation Jonathan embodied the very ideals America was celebrating that day: courage in the face of impossible odds, an unyielding commitment to freedom, and the ironclad principle that every innocent life is precious.
It also captured Israel’s deepest moral tenet – as both a refuge for the Jewish people and a nation willing to bear the cost to bring its people home. Two democracies, an ocean apart, beating with the same moral heart.
That kinship has only deepened in the half-century since. The US-Israel security relationship is among the most consequential alliances in the world today. American military assistance has helped Israel defend itself against enemies that target the innocent by design. In turn, Israeli military technology, intelligence sharing, and counter-terrorism doctrine have saved thousands of American lives.
Contrary to how some people portray US-Israel relations, it is not one-sided. It is also not one whereby Israel is a pawn of America, and vice versa. In fact, it is a strategic partnership built on shared interests and values. Israel is America’s number one investment, and America is Israel’s number one partner. That partnership has been tested vigorously in recent years.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been engaged in a multi-front war against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and – most consequently – Iran, the grand architect of this terror network.
When Iran launched direct missile and drone attacks on Israel proper, the United States helped intercept missiles and drones and coordinated the diplomatic response. When Israel struck back, it did so with American support and precision, exposing the vulnerabilities of Iran’s defenses and contributing to the pressure that is fracturing the regime from within.
Defending and celebrating freedom
The war against Iran and its proxy network is not Israel’s war alone. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has American blood on its hands – from the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing that killed 241 US servicemen to the IED networks that killed American service members in Afghanistan and Iraq. It has called for “death to America” since 1979, and it still does.
Every Iranian proxy degraded on the battlefield is a blow against a terror machine that has long targeted both nations. Israel has been fighting on the front lines of a broader civilizational conflict with tenacity and moral seriousness, even as it faces relentless criticism from institutions that hold the Jewish state to unique standards. Double and at times triple standards.
The second half of the 20th century – the most prosperous and peaceful era in human history – was made possible by American power and leadership. It was America that defeated fascism and contained Soviet totalitarianism for decades. It was America that built the liberal international order that lifted billions out of poverty.
That order is now under renewed assault from authoritarian powers – Iran, China, Russia – and from Islamist movements that seek to replace it with a world governed by violence and fear. Today, we are once again confronted with the oldest of choices: civilization or barbarism.
Freedom, as both Americans and Israelis know well, is never free. It must be defended by those willing to pay the price. On July 4, 1976, Yoni Netanyahu paid that price in Entebbe. American and Israeli service members have paid it on countless battlefields. Today, IDF soldiers pay it daily fighting on the front lines.
The forces of barbarism have not retreated. Civilization still needs defending, and America will once again need to have civilization’s back.
As the United States celebrates 250 years of independence and Israel commemorates 50 years since Entebbe, the message of that extraordinary coincidence rings clearer than ever: two nations, forged in the pursuit of liberty, are strongest when they stand together.
The writer is head of the US office at Acumen Risk Ltd., a risk-management firm.