Terrorism - Lessons from Israel & Russia [Part 3]

Israel has handled some of the most audacious operations in the history like no other nation has ever handled. Some of the operations are so audacious that they are unthinkable especially for some meek country like ours. The courage, the patriotism, the retribution exhibited is something unparalleled. Though there are many operations to quote like war of attrition, operation wrath of god, operation spring of youth, the Entebbe crisis, I would like to concentrate on operation wrath of god and the Entebbe hostage crises.

               

OPERATION WRATH OF GOD:

This was the name of the operation given to the operation carried out by the Israeli government in retaliation to the Munich Massacre. In 1972, Summer Olympics was scheduled in Munich, Germany. In that event the terrorist group Black September had kidnapped Israeli players and Israeli coaches and took them as hostages (6 coaches, 5 athletes). Ultimately all the hostages were killed. Five of the eight terrorists also died. The three terrorists were captured but were released because the group Black September had hijacked a plane of Lufthansa airlines. Israel responded to this with the operation of wrath and operation spring of youth and killed almost all who were suspected responsible for the planning of the kidnapping.

A photo of the terrorist in the Munich stadium

Golda Meir

              

                At that time the prime minister of Israel was Golda Meir. She was considered very tough in her decisions. The actions taken by her after the Munich massacre testified the fact. A decision was made to assassinate all the individuals responsible for the Munich attack and the operation was named ‘operation wrath of god’. The targets included the members of the organizations Black September and PLO. It is said that the operation might have gone for nearly 20 years. The Israeli commandos penetrated many countries like Lebanon and other countries to search and kill the targets. A few mistaken murders also did happen. Israel was criticized by a few countries.

                The aim was to take revenge of course but more than that was to make the Palestine militants frightened. The team to carry out the operation consisted of 15 people and was divided into 5 groups: two killers, two guards who would shadow the killers, two agents to rent rooms, apartments, six to eight agents who would form escape routes for the first two groups, the other two agents specialized in communications.

Several hours before each assassination, each man's family received flowers with a condolence card reading: "A reminder we do not forget or forgive.”!

The first attack was in the form of air bombing on the Palestine refugee camp. The second target was the leader of Black September in France. The execution was nothing short of a Hollywood flick. A bomb had been planted underneath the desk phone. When it was confirmed that the person had picked the phone, detonate signal was sent and the bomb was detonated. The next execution was of the representative of Fatah & happened in Cyprus. The next person was gunned down in France.  These executions cautioned the rest of the terrorists and they began to live in heavily guarded houses in Lebanon. Convinced of the fact that the previous methods of assassination would not work, Israel launched ‘Operation spring of youth’ as a sub-operation of operation wrath of god.

Ali Hassan Salameh, considered to be the mastermind behind the Munich attack

                Israeli commandos launched multiple raids into Beirut. There they assassinated many high level PLO officials. Israel believed the mastermind behind the Munich massacre was Ali Hassan Salameh. In 1973, due to mistaken identity, a waiter was murdered in Norway. International pressure mounted on Israeli government to call off the operation wrath of god. The operation was suspended for five years and resumed after that. After five unsuccessful attempts, finally Salameh was assassinated by Mossad in 1979 in Beirut. Besides these, Israel indulged in psychological warfare like running obits of still living militants and sending very personal details to others.

                The assassinations caused dismay in the Arab world. Especially the operation spring of youth lead to the belief in the Arab world that Israel was capable of striking anytime, anywhere. There were criticisms about some aspects of the operations like possible wrong targets, moral issues involved etc.  This campaign is believed to have stopped the PLO terrorism outside Israel but strategically, it is not considered completely successful.

OPERATION ENTEBBE:

                One more operation which is more audacious than any other known operations carried out by any country is the ‘Operation Entebbe’ carried out by Israel in Uganda. This happened in 1976.

                On June 27, 1976 Air France flight traveling from Israel to France via Athens was hijacked by Arab-German terrorists. It had 248 passengers. The plane was taken to Libya for refueling and was then taken to Entebbe airport, Uganda. The hijack was done by four terrorists. When the plane landed in the Entebbe airport, four more terrorists joined the original four. Their demand was to release 40 terrorists in Israel and 13 more from many other countries. They had given the deadline of July 1^st. If their demands were not met, they had warned that they would kill all the passengers on board.

Idi Amin

                Uganda at that point of time was ruled by the notorious dictator Idi Amin. He supported the pro-Palestine cause and hence supported the terrorists. This is a similar situation to that of the hijack of Indian airlines to Kandahar. The Afghan government was more or less in control of the Taliban. They being radical supported anything or anybody who were pro-Islamic. Reasons did not work, only religion did. But Israel did not succumb to the pressure like India did. It did something unthinkable.       

  Many non-Israelis were released by the terrorists. When there were questioned about the kind of the situation in Entebbe, Israel was shocked to know that the Ugandan army was with the terrorists. Israeli government tried diplomatic ways to end the crises before deciding on the operation. But nothing worked out. Somehow, the Israeli government made the terrorists to extend the deadline to July 4^th so that it could get more time to plan the assault. On July 1^st IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) planners came out with the rescue operation and it got the approval from the cabinet.

The Entebbe Airport

                Many people were released and they arrived in Paris. Only 105 were held as hostages by the terrorists. Mossad build accurate picture about the airport, the hostages from the information gathered form the released hostages. A clear picture of operation took shape: five C-130 Hercules aircraft which carried 200 personnel, two Boeing for medical and communications issues, a black Mercedes limo and some land rovers deliberately used to trick Ugandan guards. The IDF pilots practiced the landing and operating on July 2^nd.

The route taken by the Israeli commandos to reach Uganda

Rescue plane taking off

                

                Because the operation was a risky one as well as a secret one, the routes in which they are about to fly had to be chosen very carefully. The distance was very long (about 4000 km) from Israel to Uganda. The planes flew over red sea, sometimes of altitude no more than 100 ft to avoid being spotted by radars (of Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia). On July 3^rd close to mid-night, the Israeli troops landed at Entebbe. A black Mercedes and the land rovers were used give an impression that the vehicles were escorts for returning Amin or other high ranking official.

Black Mercedes which was used in the operation

The Israeli force entered the airport and the hall in which the hostages were held. The terrorists and the Ugandan soldiers were taken by a huge surprise by the unexpected daring and impossible logistics of the IDF. During a 35-minute battle, 20 Ugandan soldiers and all eight hijackers died along with three hostages. The only Israeli commando to be dead was Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan Netanyahu, the leader of the operation. After the operation, the army began loading the hostages and the Ugandan soldiers attacked. The IDF counter-attacked.  The entire operation lasted for about 52 minutes. All 8 hijackers, around 40 Ugandan soldiers, 4 hostages were killed. All the rescued hostages were flown to Israel via Kenya.

Hostages returning after the operation

Yonatan Netanyahu's funeral

The prime minister of Israel commented: "This operation will certainly be inscribed in the annals of military history, in legend and in national tradition." He was absolutely right.  The government of Uganda urged the UN council to seek official condemnation of Israeli raid, which violated the sovereignty of Uganda. The council declined. Addressing the UN council, Israeli ambassador said “We come with a simple message to the Council: we are proud of what we have done because we have demonstrated to the world that a small country, in Israel's circumstances, with which the members of this Council are by now all too familiar, the dignity of man, human life and human freedom constitute the highest values. We are proud not only because we have saved the lives of over a hundred innocent people—men, women and children—but because of the significance of our act for the cause of human freedom”. Well, he was right.  It is high time that India takes up these ideas and start acting sternly against all the people who are posing threats to its security by innumerable means.