Lessons from Entebbe
By Ron Dermer

(June 28) - For over a century, the Jewish people, with greater 
and lesser degrees of success, have sought the imprimatur of 
the world for a state of their own. But while currying favor 
abroad is a vital part of statecraft, it is far less important 
than instilling a sense of purpose at home. 

Perhaps an Israel that seems so eager to placate the world and 
so uncertain of its cause should pause and consider the action 
it undertook 25 years ago this week. 

With a boldness and daring that shocked the world, our small 
nation-state sent its finest commandos 3,000 km away to free 
scores of their brethren from the clutches of terror. 

In a remarkable twist of fate, the very place that had nearly 
caused the rupture of the Zionist movement over 70 years earlier 
when Theodor Herzl proposed his infamous Uganda Plan, became 
the place of one of Zionism's greatest triumphs. 

Indeed, what made the operation in Entebbe so remarkable is not 
merely the peril that was involved nor its spectacular success, 
but the fact that it was a mission that went beyond Zionism's 
lowest common denominator. 

Though the raison d'etre of the State of Israel has been described 
as everything from Ahad Ha'am's "center of Jewish civilization" 
to Rabbi Kook's "dawn of redemption," all who proudly wore the 
Zionist label agreed that Israel must serve as a safe haven for 
the Jewish people. 

Both before and after Entebbe, wars were fought and sacrifices 
were made in the name of that safe haven. Yet unlike wars of 
survival, the operation of Entebbe was optional. 

In deciding to take that dramatic action, the State of Israel 
turned suddenly from refuge to savior and sent a message to 
the world and to its own people that it was willing to risk 
the lives of its elite soldiers not only to protect the citizens 
within its borders, but to save Jews outside of them.? 

How sad, then, that in a span of 25 years, we have gone from a 
nation willing to sacrifice our finest men to fight terror 
thousands of kilometers away to a nation unwilling to make 
sacrifices to fight terror in our own backyard.? 

Some might suggest that the difference back then was that the 
Entebbe mission was clearly defined, whereas today's objectives 
are unclear. 

Indeed, the incoherent policy of the current government and its 
refusal to take appropriate action against a man whom our prime 
minister has labeled a terrorist and a murderer has led to a 
moral confusion which is undermining our ability to act decisively. 
But that moral confusion is likely to be a temporary one. 

More ominous is the possibility that a political debate ostensibly 
revolving around a willingness to sacrifice for the sake of Judea 
and Samaria may be masking the far more fundamental question of 
whether we are willing to sacrifice our lives today for anything. 

This unwillingness to sacrifice lies in stark contrast to the 
steely determination of Yoni Netanyahu, the warrior poet who was 
the only soldier to fall at Entebbe. 

In a letter addressed to his brother, who would later become prime 
minister, the 27-year-old Yoni writes: 

"I would rather opt for living here in continual battle than for 
becoming part of the wandering Jewish people. Any compromise will 
simply hasten the end. As I don't intend to tell my grandchildren 
about the Jewish state in the 20th century as a mere brief and 
transient episode in thousands of years of wandering, I intend 
to hold on here with all my might." 

YONI'S DEATH would serve as more than a painful sacrifice for 
saving the lives of 103 hostages. His example, and the example 
of the country who sent him, would serve as a powerful inspiration 
for Jews around the world who believed that Israel would never 
forsake them. 

One such Jew is Natan Sharansky, a national hero in his own right, 
who sometimes heard the sounds of a distant plane passing over 
the Soviet prison in which the Prisoner of Zion languished for 
years: 

"The sound of a plane would always remind me of Yoni and his 
friends, who flew thousands of kilometers to the aid of their 
people. Each time I heard it hope and faith would well up in me 
with a new vitality and I would think: Avital is with me, Israel 
is with me. Why should I be afraid?" 

Indeed, it was not a bullet or a prison cell alone that made 
Netanyahu and Sharansky heroes to an entire generation of Jews, 
but a deep sense of purpose that allowed them to see themselves 
as one more link in the eternal chain of Jewish history. 

In deciding to go to Entebbe, the State of Israel showed that 
nations, like individuals, can have a sense of purpose. That 
is why the soldier who was left behind on that mission, and 
the family and nation that mourns him this week, knows that he 
did not die in vain. 

Today, at a time when our nation will be asked to make sacrifices 
once again, let us work toward renewing that sense of purpose 
that guided the leaders and soldiers of a generation ago.