20160705

On Independence Day / Entebbe Rescue anniversary- Netanyahu & filmmakers on what Americans and Israelis share

On America's 200th birthday in 1976, Benjamin Netanyahu's IDF officer brother, Yonatan, helped lead a mission to to rescue 105 Israelis kidnapped and being held at Entebbe Airport in Uganda. Bibi drove from Boston to tell his father Bentzion, teaching in Ithaca, NY, that Yoni had been killed leading that rescue mission. On July 1st, 2016, Prime Minister Netanyahu gave this address at the US Ambassador to Israel's residence, prior to flying to Uganda, where Idi Amin's son Jaffar welcomed Anat Shomron Bukai, the only daughter of Dan Shomron, who commanded Operation Thunderbolt.
Debbie Schlussel, Zionist blogger and film critic, characterizes Israel's July 4th 1976 raid on the Entebbe Airport in her Israel’s Raid on Entebbe, 40 Years Ago Today – Defeat of Jihadists

"the heroic, successful Israeli Army rescue of passengers that hijackers working for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist group (and Germany’s Baader-Meinhoff Gang/Red Army) had taken hostage to Uganda. America was jubilant in celebrating its special birthday and independence, and its closest ally in the world, Israel, was also jubilant in the rescue of people taken hostage on an Air France flight because they were Jews and flying from Israel. Israel paid special tribute and had parades in honor of its ally, America’s 200 years of independence. But Israel also had its own celebration going on–that Israel had successfully rescued so many Jewish lives threatened by Palestinian terrorists. I say Palestinian–and not Muslim–because the PFLP was not an Islamic organization. Its leader, George Habash, and his deputy, Wadih Haddad, were Christian Arabs. 

The Israeli commandos at Entebbe carried out a secret mission planned on the previous Jewish Sabbath to rescue the passengers. All but four passengers were rescued. Three were shot by the pro-Palestinian hijackers, and an elderly Jewish lady was murdered by Muslim Ugandan dictator Idi Amin’s henchmen, as she sought medical treatment at a Ugandan hospital. The operation’s commander, Yonatan “Yoni” Netanyahu a/k/a Jonathan Netanyahu–whom many say was the superior Netanyahu brother to current Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was killed in the raid. Other than this casualty, the operation was carried out with surgical accuracy and success. Although the flight contained 248 passengers, as is usual for bigoted Palestinians and their supporters, the non-Jewish passengers were freed, and 103 Jewish hostages were rescued by Netanyahu and his fellow IDF commandos. The Israeli commandos also killed all three hijackers and 45 Ugandan soldiers (have fun with those 72-revirginized, chumps!), and they blew up 11 Soviet MiGs. An awesome achievement." Read more of  Israel’s Raid on Entebbe, 40 Years Ago Today – Defeat of Jihadists



At the L.A. Jewish Film Festival screening of  a biography of Cannon Films director Menachem Golan, Austrian actress, Sybil Danning, relates how she managed to get Germans to finance Menachem Golan's hoped-for, Hebrew-language dramatization of Operation Thunderbolt, "Mivtza Yonatan," depicting the Netanyahu brother's frontline role in the Entebbe rescue mission.


Watch "Operation Thunderbolt" ("Mivtza Yonatan" in Hebrew) featuring Klaus Kinski and Sybil Danning, produced by Yoram Globus, directed by Menachem Golan.  


(Click Settings cog to activate subtitles in English).

"Golan: A Farewell to Mr. Cinema- L.A. Premiere Documentary, UK/Israel, directed by Christopher Sykes

This film is the final chapter in the extraordinary life and career of Menahem Golan, Israeli movie director, producer, mogul and madman. Golan and his cousin Yoram Globus, pursued the American Dream and turned the Hollywood power structure upside down, producing over 300 films and becoming the most powerful independent film company in the world; Cannon Films. Golan produced movies featuring such stars as Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Charles Bronson. In his eighties and living in Jaffa, Golan looks back to his great days in Hollywood, forward to a new blockbuster, and dreams of the Oscar he has always wanted.


Sybil Danning and assistant director, Sam Firstenberg discuss life with legendary Israeli director Menachem Golan at the "Golan" documentary, post-screening at Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival in May, 2016.

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