A Google search of “Israel” reveals a list of links to news stories about bombings and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. To help students and the Peoria community better understand the altercation, Bradley Chabad brought in Sassy Reuven, a veteran of the Israel Defense Special Operations Forces.
Reuven’s speech was primarily about the 1976 nine-day mission raid on Entebbe.
“I’m a strong supporter of Israel,” senior and president of Chabad Daniel Bachrach said. “I thought the topic was interesting.”
According to Reuven, on June 27 of that year, Air France Flight 139 leaving Athens was boarded by four terrorists who hijacked the plane and flew it to Libya. There, they proceeded to identify and single out all of the Jewish passengers.
“In every generation, they will try to destroy our people, and God will save us,” Reuven said.
The plane was redirected to Libya, where they were told to leave because the country did not want to be involved in terrorist negotiations. Flight 139 then flew to Entebbe, Uganda where President Idi Amin greeted the plane.
“Amin was mad at Israel because we didn’t give him fighter jets,” Reuven said. “He was mentally-ill and wanted revenge.”
In Entebbe, the terrorists released all non-Jewish passengers and one old woman who needed medical attention. Reuven said Amim later ordered the woman to be taken to an open field and shot.
In order to save the hostages, Reuven said the mission needed 212 people, but they only received 10 minutes of training before storming in.
At the end, Reuven said he lost one soldier and four were injured. Six hostages were injured and four were killed. The Ugandans lost seven terrorists, 45 soldiers and 11 MiG-jet fighter planes.
Though the majority of the audience consisted of elderly community members, the students who did go said they enjoyed it.
“I thought he was very good,” Bachrach said. “His presentation was very well put together.”
