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N
ot every thing planncd for the
supe r Biccntennial 4th o f
July - the 200th birthuay of
th e United States - camc off as
planned. But one exciting event - a
" m iss ion impossib le" - the daring.
spectacular Israc li skyjack rescue.
did. But its real significance was not
th e fact it happencd on the 4th of
July.
The Viking l scheduled landing
o n Mars on the American Bicenten–
nia l was dclayed due to thc slo pes
a nd bumps o n Ma rs' ruggcd surface
a t the prc-se lected landing spot.
And 1 pcrsona lly was scheduled
to cc lcbra te the "Fourth " in Je ru a–
lem, at a ceremony a t wh ich Mayor
Teddy Kollek and l were to break
ground for the sta rt of cons tructi on
o f a new public park in downtown
J e rusa lem. Thc new park will be
called
Liben y Be//
Carden
in ho no r
of thc 200th birthday of thc United
Sta tes. The city o f Philade lphi a has
pre1.ented the city o f Je rusa lem wi th
a duplicate o f the famed Libe rty
Bcll - including the famous crack in
the bc ll. The AI CF (t\mbassado r
1n tc rna tio nal Cul tura l Foundation)
is panicipating in the dcve lopmcn t
of this new park. As cha irman ofthe
A ICF, I was schcdul ed to j oin
Mayor Kollek in the gro und-break–
in g ceremony. Actually thc cere–
mony had been moved ahead to
July 2, because many prominent
lsraelis were going Lo be away o n
th e 4th.
1 had taken o tr from our borne–
base airport on Tuesday, June 29,
ex pecting lo a rri ve in Paris ve ry
early (5 a .m. ) Wedncsday - b reak–
ing th e long flight by spending the
night in Paris. then flying on to Ben–
Gurion a irpo rt in Israel Thu rsday to
be in Jerusa lcm F rid ay fo r the
ground-breaking ceremony.
My plane took off okay. Tuesday
mo rning. We norma lly fty one-stop
to Paris wi th a fue ! s top a t e ither
far-far- north Frobisher Bay o r
Goose Bay in Labrador. But exces–
sive and unusual head winds ca used
us to land a t Bangor, Ma ine. The re
our captain advised me of a crack in
a cockpit window. lt was necessa ry
that we return a t low a ltitude to
Pasadena until a new window could
be installed.
By te lephone communi ca ti o n
with Mayor Koll ek we decided on
The
PLAIN TRUTH September 1976
Personal from...
SIGNIFICANCEOF THE
ISRAELI "MISSION IMPOSSIBLE"
SKYJACK RESCUE
two separa te ceremo nies. He would
proceed wit h his part J uly 2.
r
wou ld
conduct a similar ceremo ny on my
nex t vis it to J erusa lem in Aug ust.
1 took off again la te Saturday af–
ternoon for Rome. where Mr. Rad e r
was wai ting fo r me. arriving in
Ro me late Sunday mo rning. July 4 .
Whilc 1 was in the air, the spec–
tacul a r l srae li rescue o f mo re than a
hundred hostages, mos t o f them
Israe li, took place a t En tebbe a ir–
pon at Uganda. l hca rd the news of
it Sunday a ft e rnoon. Thcrc we re no
English- language new papers ava il–
able in Rome . But Mr. Rad e r had
telephoned his wife in Beverly Hi lls
and hea rd the news from he r.
Perhaps nothing is mo re typ ica l
of today's wo rldwide
VIOLENCE
tha n
th e wave o f inte rnat iona l terro rism
and ai r p iracy agains t innocent
women. children. a nd other passen–
gc rs traveling by the world's inte r–
na tio na l a irlines.
Arab Palestini an terrorists have
sought to wage war agains t Israel by
skyjack ing huge a ircraft. includ ing
707s and 747 j umbos, belonging
us ua lly to
sorne other
nation. fi ll ed
with citizens of other countries, and,
in sorne cases. murdering hundreds
of innocent passengers and b lowing
up mulli-million-dollar aircraft in a
sensclcss e ffort to bring 1 rae!
to
te rms.
lt is na tu rally not my purpose to
report
de tails of the Israe li rescue
o pera ti on, but to expla in its signifi –
ca nce. in wo rld even ts of today and
o f the future .
l think it should be inte resting to
explai n that this entire Israel-Arab
hos til ity is the outgrowth o f the jca l–
o usy of two women over o ne man.
lt
da tes back to the very origin of thc
two peoples thousands o f years ago.
So this skyjacking incident had a
beginn ing in a ntiquity. The pat ri–
a rch Abraham had become very
rich . But he was childless with no
son to be his heir. His wife Sarah
was barren. In those d ays it was
considc red a serious reproach fo r a
woman to fail to have chi ldren.
Sara h broughr he r handmaid.
H aga r, to her husband to be hi s
wife. saying, "I may obtai n children
by her." But when Hagar had con–
ce ived, "her mistress [Sarah] was
desp iscd in her eyes" (Ge ncsis
16:4).
Then Sarah "dea lt hardly wirh
her" (verse 6). And Hagar tled. An
a ngel came upon her in the wilder–
ness a nd said, "Return to your mis–
tress, and submit thyself under her
(Continued on page 39)