I thought that this would be a very appropriate film to put up tonight, bearing in mind that as I write Israeli armed forces are fighting in Gaza against the terrorists of Hamas, and I thought I should put up something showing Israeli soldiers being heroic and saving the lives of innocents.

Victory at Entebbe is a star studded telling of what has been called ‘the greatest hostage rescue tale ever told’. In 1976 terrorists supporting the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine boarded an Air France Airbus A300 when it stopped in Athens on its journey from Tel Aviv in Israel to Paris, France. While in the air the terrorists produced weapons and took control of the aircraft. After a stop off in Lybia the terrorists and their hostages eventually landed at the main airport of Uganda,which was Entebbe airport. The terrorists separated the hostages into Jews and non-Jews and issued demands that Israel release many terrorists.

Negotiations between Israel and the terrorists broke down and the Israeli government decided to send in a rescue team to extract the hostages. This film is the story of that rescue. It was an incredible achievement to fly troops thousands of miles to a country run by the deranged and murderous dicator Idi Amin, rescue as many hostages as possible and kill a seven of the terrorists with only a single death from among the Israeli rescuers. The raid on Entebbe must surely rank as one of the most impressive small force operations in modern military history. It could all have gone wrong but the Israelis managed to pull off a raid that some may have said was impossible.

I hope you enjoy this movie as much as I did. As an aside, if you visit the Israeli Airforce Museum near Beersheva, you will find one of the aircraft used in the raid and which has been converted into a cinema showing films about the history of the Israeli Air Force.