Word: ashdod
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...various terror groups have different versions of the end of days, but none include a Jewish state. The Achille Lauro hijackers, for example, issued a communique in Cyprus saying they had planned to land at "Ashdod harbor in occupied Palestine." Ashdod is not in the West Bank or Gaza. It is within pre-1967 Israel. If you consider Ashdod "occupied," every inch of Israel is occupied...
That theory received indirect support on the day of the EgyptAir interception. A P.L.F. statement delivered in Cyprus accepted responsibility for the hijacking, apologized, and admitted that Ashdod was the original terrorist target. Said the statement: "The aim of the operation was not to hijack the ship or its passengers or any civilian of any nationality...
...called themselves "the beach people." On Sunday, the night before the 23,629-ton Achille Lauro reached Alexandria, they celebrated the 59th birthday of Marilyn Klinghoffer of Manhattan. It had been her idea that they should all take the eleven-day cruise from Genoa to Naples, Alexandria, Port Said, Ashdod, Limassol, Rhodes, Piraeus, Capri and back to Genoa...
...anchor raised, and soon the Achille Lauro was sailing for Port Said, at the northern approach to the Suez Canal, under a brilliant blue sky. + There, late that evening, he was scheduled to pick up the passengers who had gone to Cairo and proceed to the Israeli port of Ashdod...
Exactly what happened next is not known, but it seemed that the four Palestinians intended to remain quietly aboard the liner until it reached Ashdod. There, according to this theory, they would launch a terrorist attack, seize Israeli hostages if possible, and demand the release of 50 Palestinians, including many from their own organization, the Palestine Liberation Front, who were being held in Israeli prisons. But something went wrong--probably the chance discovery of their weapons and ammunition by a member of the crew. According to the Italian news agency ANSA, they later told Italian authorities that they...