{"id":26621,"date":"2016-07-05T02:11:57","date_gmt":"2016-07-05T02:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/visit-marks-new-chapter-after-airport-raid-israel\/"},"modified":"2016-07-05T02:12:21","modified_gmt":"2016-07-05T02:12:21","slug":"visit-marks-new-chapter-after-airport-raid-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/visit-marks-new-chapter-after-airport-raid-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Uganda:Visit marks new chapter after airport raid – Israel PM"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Kampala- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, yesterday described his country\u2019s clinical mission to rescue the 103 nationals who had been held hostage at Entebbe airport in 1976 as a \u201cwatershed moment\u201d that taught his people a lesson of fighting back and protecting themselves.}<\/p>\n

Mr Netanyahu, who was in the country for a day\u2019s visit to commemorate the 40th anniversary of this mission often referred to as the \u2018Raid on Entebbe\u2019 in which his brother, Lt Col Yonatan Netanyahu, was shot dead by a Ugandan soldier, said it was not only an \u201cemotional privilege\u201d but also a new chapter in the Israel-Africa relations.<\/p>\n

\u201cForty years ago, a group of Israeli commandos landed in the dead of the night in a country led by a brutal dictator on a rescue mission. Today, we land in the light of the day in a country led by friendly president,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Israeli delegation
\nMr Netanyahu, accompanied by his wife Sara Netanyahu and a group of about 100 military officials touched down at about 1:40pm at the old Entebbe airport; where 40 years ago on the same day, an elite squad commanded by his elder brother Yoni Netanyahu attacked on a rescue mission.<\/p>\n

Yoni was the lone casualty in the group. The mission has since been christened \u201cOperation Yonatan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also accompanying him were the surviving members of the elite squad that raided Entebbe and select hostages who were rescued that day.<\/p>\n

In his speech, Mr Netanyahu commended Uganda\u2019s efforts in the fight against terrorism and vowed to contribute to these efforts, also promising to help other African countries.
\n\u201cWhen terrorism succeeds in one place it thrives everywhere. When it is defeated somewhere it is defeated everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the raid on Entebbe \u201cdelivered a devastating blow to the spirits of terrorism\u201d and vowed that the fight will continue guided by two principles -clarity, to distinguish between good and evil and courage, to fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must condemn all acts of terrorism everywhere, whether in Paris, San Bernado, Orlando or Nairobi.\u201d<\/p>\n

He later met select African presidents, Zambia\u2019s Edgar Lungu, Rwanda\u2019s Paul Kagame, South Sudan\u2019s Salva Kiir, Kenya\u2019s Uhuru Kenyatta, Malawi\u2019s Peter Mutharika and the Ethiopian premier Hailemariam Desalegn.<\/p>\n

He said the visit, the first by an Israeli premier on the continent in 30 years, marked a new page in relations saying that \u201cIsrael is coming to Africa, and Africa is coming to Israel\u201d.<\/p>\n

The celebration of the anniversary was attended by several government dignitaries, Ugandan military officials, select members of the Jewish community in the country and members of the Diplomatic Corp.<\/p>\n

President Museveni used the moment to talk tough promising to double the efforts in the fight against terrorism but also set the record straight that he supports Israel living side by side and in harmony with her arch rival Palestine.
\nIt was, however ,not clear why the President repeatedly referred to Palestine.<\/p>\n

In his opening remarks using political and biblical facets, President Museveni dwelt a lot on the bond between Palestine and Uganda\/ Africa which caused some discomfort among the visitors.<\/p>\n

In the presence of his guest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his delegation and the top brass of the Ugandan government, Mr Museveni also advanced a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict saying Uganda\u2019s view is guided by the Bible and cannot accept \u201cbigotry\u201d which holds that \u201ceither of you [Palestine or Israel] does not belong in that area.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Israeli<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Kampala- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, yesterday described his country\u2019s clinical mission to rescue the 103 nationals who had been held hostage at Entebbe airport in 1976 as a \u201cwatershed moment\u201d that taught his people a lesson of fighting back and protecting themselves.} Mr Netanyahu, who was in the country for a day\u2019s visit to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[99],"byline":[2481],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-26621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-daily-monitor"],"bylines":[{"id":2481,"name":"DAILY MONITOR","slug":"daily-monitor","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2481,"name":"DAILY MONITOR","slug":"daily-monitor","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26621\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26621"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=26621"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=26621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}