Operation Thunderbolt: Flight 139 and the Raid on Entebbe Airport, the Most Audacious Hostage Rescue Mission in History

Military historian David (Military Blunders) tackles the weeklong drama of the July 1976 hijacking of an Air France flight from Israel and destined for Paris by two Palestinians and two Germans, considering it largely from the perspectives of the hijackers—who had diverted the plane to Entebbe, Uganda—and Israeli leaders in charge of the rescue operation. David conclusively demonstrates that Ugandan dictator Idi Amin cooperated with the hijackers and, in reprisal for the Israeli raid, had an elderly Israeli-British hostage abducted from a Ugandan hospital and murdered, while also ordering the deaths of the Entebbe air traffic controllers and hundreds of ethnic Kenyans in his country (Kenya had provided landing rights to the Israeli commandos’ transit planes). Of note is David’s account of the tug-of-war between Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres—Israel’s prime minister and defense minister, respectively—over whether to conduct the raid mission. David profiles other Israeli principals involved—including Yoni Netanyahu, brother of Benjamin Netanyahu and the only one of the 91 commandos involved who was killed—and captures the largely ineffectual and peripheral activities of a number of British, French, and American diplomats. David’s book lacks insight on the hijackers’ backgrounds and motivations, but is otherwise an excellent account of the planning and execution of a successful high-risk operation. Agent: Jason Bartholomew, Hodder & Stoughton (U.K.). (Dec.)