Netanyahu tours Africa, remembers Entebbe

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a tour of East Africa by marking the 40th anniversary of the raid at Entebbe that killed his brother.

“We were powerless no more,” Netanyahu said Monday of the July 4, 1976 Israeli commando raid on the Ugandan airport where German and Palestinian terrorists were holding more than 100 Israelis hostage after having hijacked a plane.

Netanyahu’s older brother, Yoni, who commanded the rescue unit, was killed in the raid, which “was a watershed moment for my people.”

During the Holocaust, Jews “were murdered by the millions, stateless. The State of Israel has changed that. It was perhaps in Entebbe where this transformation was seen by the world.”

“Entebbe is always with me, in my thoughts, my consciousness and deep in my heart,” the prime minister said.

“Every one of you, the soldiers and pilots, whether here or not — you didn’t know whether you would come home. You came to rescue, but you knew that if something went wrong there was no certainty that someone would come to rescue you.”

In order to defeat terrorism, Netanyahu said, the world needs two things: “Clarity to distinguish good from evil, and courage to fight back against terrorism. We must condemn all acts of terrorism, regardless of where they are committed.”

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who spoke after Netanyahu,said that Israel was right to have carried out the rescue operation. Netanyahu laid a wreath at a plaque marking the rescue. Also speaking at the commemoration was Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

On his tour traveling with 80 businessmen in order to cultivate trade ties in Africa, Netanyahu will also visit Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia; he will address the Ethiopian parliament. In Uganda, the prime minister will meet with leaders from countries as well as Zambia, Tanzania and South Sudan.

Netanyahu is the first Israeli prime minister to visit sub-Saharan Africa since 1987.

JTA