90 minutes at Entebbe by William Stevenson

Title: 90 minutes at Entebbe
Author: William Stevenson
Publisher: Bantam Books (1976)
Pages: 216 (softcover)
Rating: 3 out of 5

This book encapsulates the true story of the hijacking of an Air France flight 139 having over a 100 Jews, on 27th June 1976. The flight was commandeered to Uganda via Libya and the hostages were secured in the old terminal building at Entebbe under the guardianship of the terrorists with full support from Idi Amin (self proclaimed president of Uganda).

The terrorists had links to the PLO, and wanted Israel to release various high profile terrorists in exchange for the Jews from the flight.

Israel deliberated whether to release hostages and do an exchange (Plan A) or to go in and get the hostages via a long range rescue mission (Plan B). A bit of luck along with lots of excellent planning and some gutsy decisions by the men and women in charge led to a successful execution of plan B with just 1 military casualty.

The story covers not only what ensued after the hijacking, but also captures in depth the workings, machinations, conscience and response of the Israeli government and individuals for the situation they were in.

The only reason I gave this book a 3 on 5 is because the writing style is pathetic. William Stevenson does his research well, but his presentation has a lot lacking. I had to keep forcing myself to finish the book as the writing in many places was almost unbearable.

(You can read more about the operation at Operation Entebbe page at wikipedia.org.)