Weekend ‘hostage rescue’ in Gaza was really another mass slaughter
- The Netanyahu brothers mark the moral arc of Israel, from the heroic self-sacrifice of the older Yonatan to the wanton massacre in central Nuseirat under Benjamin
Israel’s tragedy is perhaps reflected in the history of the Netanyahu family – especially when it comes to hostage rescue operations.
Elder brother Yonatan Netanyahu led and then sacrificed his life in one of the world’s most daring and heroic rescue operations: the raid on Entebbe in 1976.
I read somewhere that even today, such a rescue is still considered impossible by many military experts with all the hi-tech gear then unavailable to the special forces unit of the Sayeret Matkal – led by Yonatan – who played a key role in the operation.
Rescuers were thousands of kilometres from home (Israel), deep into the territories of a hostile state (Uganda) and facing its army as well as a group of Palestinian and German extremists. The number of hostages involved exceeded 200, most of them Israeli citizens.
Yonatan was the only Israeli soldier killed in the famed operation, which was subsequently renamed after him. After the six-day war of 1967, the Entebbe rescue cemented the reputation of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) as invincible. It not only earned the admiration of the world, but such a response became a very realistic, even standard option for Western governments when confronted by hostage-taking or related terrorist situations. Compared with Entebbe, the Princes Gate operation by the British SAS at the Iranian embassy in the heart of London was small beer, even though it galvanised the nation and reversed the plummeting poll numbers of Margaret Thatcher.
Of course, Entebbe didn’t end all so tidy and happy. What is usually left out of Western gung ho accounts is that the psychopathic dictator Idi Amin took revenge on Kenyans living in his country because Nairobi provided logistical and intelligence support to the Israeli operation. Hundreds of Kenyans were killed and thousands fled. In effect, the lives of one group of innocent human beings were exchanged for another group.
Be that as it may, the Kenyan killings and exodus were not the fault of Israel.
Fast forward almost half a century. The raid on central Nuseirat in Gaza at the weekend was billed as a heroic success by Yonatan’s younger brother, Benjamin, the prime minister, and his closest ally, US President Joe Biden.
But what a contrast with Entebbe. The Gaza operation rescued four Israeli hostages, but killed about 100 Palestinians, the Israeli government said. Hamas said more than 270 Palestinians were killed. Netanyahu’s war cabinet minister Benny Gantz resigned a day after the operation. He didn’t quit because of it, but he disagreed with the prime minister on the direction of the war. But clearly there was no glory to be shared from the operation.
In December, the IDF mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages following their own escape from their Hamas captors. Even if we ignore all these accidental killings of hostages and repeated massacres of Palestinians, which certainly look, feel and smell like war crimes and crimes against humanity, the Israeli public itself increasingly thinks Netanyahu is more interested in prolonging the war, which keeps him in power, rather than making a deal with Hamas and rescuing the hostages.
The IDF has been performing badly in the past eight months across Gaza, with many incidents of poor discipline, including the abuse of prisoners and civilians alike, and taking celebratory selfies amid Palestinian ruins. The army may claim victory over Hamas because this is not a real war, but a series of massacres against a defenceless civilian population, with full diplomatic and military support from the United States and some of its Western allies.
Sadly, it is no longer the IDF of 1967 or 1976. Israel today is a very different place, as it is isolated, hated and despised by a majority of nations outside the West. The Israel of Yonatan has become the Israel of Benjamin.
