Entebbe: Who Gets the Credit?

Operation Thunderbolt, later renamed Operation Yonatan after the mission’s daring leader, Yoni Netanyahu, has taken on a mythical status in Israel’s public memory. Israel sent special forces to Uganda to save Jewish people who were aboard a hijacked Air France flight. The mission was a great success, though it leaves us with several questions: Who were the heroes of this story? What was the role of the political leaders, and that of the military leaders? How does collective memory remember this event?

Watch this video and use these prompts to deepen students’ understanding of an event they thought they knew.