Word: commandos
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...negotiations bogged down, sentiment for the commando rescue mounted in the Israeli Cabinet. Finally Premier Yitzhak Rabin acquiesced-but only after the men from Mossad had assured him that the skyjackers had not planted dynamite around the Airbus and the terminal's lounge, where the hostages were being held. Rabin warned, however, that if the raid failed, "it might cause the collapse of this Cabinet...
...engines of the Hercules were kept racing, the commando units, in civilian dress, fanned out across the airfield and headed for the old terminal (with its WELCOME TO UGANDA sign) where the skyjackers were guarding the hostages. After a 15-minute blaze of gunfire, it was all over. The terrorists, according to Israeli reports, were dead, and the hostages were on the planes. It had taken less than a half-hour, and the transports were back in the air. Before they left, the Israelis badly damaged or destroyed the Soviet-made Ugandan air force MIGS that were parked...
This decision too was taken reluctantly. Israeli officials were aware that failure might mean certain death not only for the hostages but for the rescuing party as well. Thus although Jerusalem began planning the commando rescue almost immediately after the skyjackers had put down in Entebbe, there was a very compelling argument against it: never had the Israelis tried so ambitious an operation so far from home. The difficulties of mounting a raid in Uganda thus argued strongly in favor of trying negotiations. Indeed, late in the week, reviewing his country's meager options, an Israeli official sadly (although...
Throughout Saturday, the last details of the commando mission were completed; early the next day the raiders struck. Reflected Peres later: "I'm proud of what we did and happy that we have an army, units and officers like these. But I hope we never have to repeat it." Less restrained was the Israeli radio announcer who first broadcast a hint of what was under way. "Hallelujah!" he exclaimed, to which the rest of the civilized world could now only say "Amen," as one of the most brazen terrorist acts in recent years has come to a surprising...
Last month, for example, 40 heavily armed men, clad in a variety of makeshift uniforms, staged a commando-style raid on two hotels run by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Buenos Aires. They herded 26 captives -24 Chileans, a Uruguayan and the Paraguayan manager of one of the hotels -into waiting cars. All 26 turned up the next day, many testifying to beatings and electrical torture in what they believed to be a military barracks. The refugees-most of whom left Chile following the overthrow of Salvador Allende-had been warned to leave the country within...