DIN:On June 26, Rabbi Yair Hoffman published a column titled "Entebbe — Fifty Years Later – Some New Perspectives". In that column he finds some story that he says caused Idi Amin to turn on Israel and then he jumps through halachic hoops to justify the rescue, he ultimately arrives at the obvious conclusion that "the rescuers were true heroes!!" But first, instead of just sticking to the miraculous amazing rescue, he needs to dig up a story to bad mouth the Generals of the IDF! Unbelievable!
I am baffled, how low have we sunk that this even needs to be debated?
I saw comments — now deleted — from several Yeshivishe guys claiming that the IDF “should not have done the rescue because al pi halacha you cannot endanger rescuers to save hostages.” Of course, had the hostage been their mother, sister, or child, they would have suddenly discovered a different halacha obligating the rescue. Funny how flexible some people’s “principles” become when the situation is personal.
The reason that Rabbi Hoffman had that column to begin with is because he caters to these Yeshivishe guys that couldn't in their wild imagination give Hakoras Hatoiv to the Zionists! If it were a bunch of Satmar Chassidim that had carried out that rescue then Rabbi Hoffman would never have even written that article! They refuse to acknowledge that it is in fact the Zionists that would do anything in the world to rescue a Jew in need! I had a classmate who was a hostage and when he returned he made a huge Seudas Hoidah with many prominent Gedoilim attending and he was of course praising the IDF and it wasn't an issue, but in today's world where hating Zionists is now the norm in the Yeshivishe bubble, they need to search for a heter and reluctantly say that the "Rescuers (Rav Hoffman couldn't bring himself to say IDF) were heroes"
Article below by Leo Pearlman
July 4th marked the fiftieth anniversary of one of the most extraordinary military operations in modern history.
On 4th July 1976, Israeli commandos flew more than 2,500 miles into Uganda, stormed Entebbe Airport and rescued more than one hundred hostages in an operation so audacious that it has become the benchmark against which every hostage rescue mission since has been measured.
The anniversary made me wonder something. Not whether Israel could still carry out such an operation, but whether the world would still celebrate it. Would newspapers celebrate Israel’s courage? Would governments praise its resolve? Would commentators still describe it as a triumph of good over evil?
Then I realised we don’t need to wonder, because almost fifty years later, Israel carried out another extraordinary hostage rescue operation. This time it wasn’t Entebbe, it was Nuseirat and in the difference between those two moments lies a story not only about Israel, but about us.
Before going any further, it’s worth acknowledging something that should not need saying.
Israel is not perfect, no democracy is. Like every democratic nation, it has elected governments that have made mistakes, pursued policies worthy of criticism and produced leaders whose words and actions many people. including many Israelis, have opposed. Recent years have provided no shortage of examples.
But that isn’t what this essay is about. If the difference between Entebbe and Nuseirat can simply be explained by disagreement with one Israeli government, then we learn nothing. Democracies change governments, but if our moral principles change every time they do, they were never principles at all.
What changed over those fifty years was something much deeper. It was the moral framework through which the Jewish state came to be judged.
The hijacking of Air France Flight 139 began like countless acts of terrorism before it. Armed terrorists seized a civilian aircraft and diverted it to Uganda, where they were welcomed by Idi Amin’s regime.
Once on the ground, something happened that sent a chill through Jewish communities around the world. The passengers were separated, the Jewish and Israeli hostages were kept, most of the others were released.
Barely three decades after the Holocaust, Jews once again found themselves being selected by armed men. Israel refused to accept it.