🎞 Israeli film 🇮🇱
🔻 Operation Thunderbolt
Operation Thunderbolt (Mivtsa Yonatan, 1977) is an Israeli film based on the legendary Israeli hostage rescue operation of the Entebbe raid in Uganda on July 3-4, 1976. His young brother Bibi, the current Israeli prime minister, wrote the book Bibi: My Story (2022) describes Yoni, the protagonist of this movie, the family episodes of Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan Netanyahu and the full accounts of the Entebbe raid. Why is this Israeli film masterpiece interesting now? Because it has taken on new meaning in the context of the ongoing hostage negotiation with Hamas in Gaza. A movie gets a new meaning when its social context or condition changes, but people need to reinterpret what's happening now in the spirit of the previous similar situation, especially how the people at the time of the past event reacted to the similar situation. Thus, Operation Thunderbolt (1977) is the best way to look at the latest Israeli issue, such as a hostage negotiation.
🔻 Analysis
There are two memorable lines in this movie. One is:
Dr. Avner Tal (played by Avraham Ben Yosef; to Brigadier General Dan Shomron):
I need to know that the government is doing everything possible to save the hostages in Entebbe.
The other is:
Joni (played by Yehoram Gaon; to his regiment before departure):
I know you don't like patriotic speeches, but I'm going to say a few words anyway. We're going on a mission thousands of kilometers away to save Israelis just because they are Israelis and Jews. Because if we don't do it, no one else will do it for us.
These key lines capture the spirit of the movie. In the first, the hostage families reacted to the Yitzhak Rabin government (1974-1977) in a similar way as they are now reacting to the Bibi, Benjamin Netanyahu government. This also triggered the similar chain reactions of patriots who don't give in to the demands of terrorists. The dilemma for the Israeli public and the world is that both are legitimate and rational human responses to a similar crisis. Although the antagonists in this movie, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP; 1967-), represented by Wilfried Böse (played by Klaus Kinski) and Halima (played by Sybil Danning), don't have any intention to divide the Israeli society in this way, Hamas clearly does, considering its superior propaganda scheme.
a) Protesters block Highway 1 near Jerusalem, demanding that Netanyahu "stop sabotaging the hostage deal".
Despite the fact that Hamas is clearly sabotaging the deal, as confirmed by President Trump.
b) The father of released hostage Arbel Yehud read her disturbing words in the Knesset:
"I learned Arabic within a month of my captivity, and I heard my captors express their joy at the division the hostage crisis has caused [in Israel]."
c) Yair Horn is forced to hold a small hourglass and photos of fellow hostage Matan Zangauker and his mother Einav, who have been the most vocal of the hostage families, repeatedly insisting that "time is running out.
Transnational actors, especially international terrorism, peaked in the 1990s. Operation Thunderbolt (1977) was the era when the Soviet Union supported international terrorist networks against the West. The Middle East, also known as West Asia, was and still is the ground zero of the security pandemic. The PFLP and its leaders in this movie, Wilfried Böse (played by Klaus Kinski) and Halima (played by Sybil Danning), perfectly represent their thinking and values. However, they belong to the old-fashioned PLO-style terrorism, including 911, as opposed to the advanced phase embodied by Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis and all transnational criminal organizations today, while the latter fully exploit the information revolution that started in 1993 and the increasingly close transnational relations between countries. Surveillance by state actors has been maximized, while decentralization is also maximized by the Internet. Here, transnational actors are empowered to form virtual communities and loosely connected cells are able to operate independently. They seek out and operate in areas that state actors can't reach. More precisely, Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis represent the intermediaries to the fully advanced organizational model, while they are still run by state sponsors like Iran. In this regard, KK Park's transnational criminal organizations in the larger Golden Triangle region, which are building the entire high-tech crime city, are the latest examples. To understand the antagonist in this movie, Bibi's book on international terrorism, Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorists (2001) is a must read.
Dr. Avner Tal and all other hostage families are now represented by INGOs / NGOs (NGOs existed before WW1). Human Rights Watch has a huge activist online-offline network as its "activists" to maximize the pressure on the Israeli government. In international politics, NGOs are really GOs. Evidence gathering bias is just one of the biases that depend on the orders of the financiers at stake. As a result, Operation Thunderbolt (1977) shows the same human reaction in the past form, hostage families themselves visiting government officials personally for help or demand.
The best solution to this national dilemma was Operation Thunderbolt. Unfortunately, today Hamas is successful in its tactics to force the Israeli government to exchange prisoners for hostages and to demand that the Hamas mini-state remain intact. This is why Operation Thunderbolt (1977) is so attractive under the circumstances as an ideal solution to both the national crisis and the psychological dilemma caused by the terrorists.
Coincidentally, the two anti-terrorist films, Operation Thunderbolt (1977) and Sorcerer (1977), are filmed in cinema verité. It would have been an aesthetic failure if the Steve McQueen blockbuster had been made, because the movie must be faithful to the real event and capture its inner rhythm in the form of art. Yoni can't be fictionally personified in the character of Steve McQueen or Charles Bronson or any number of fictional heroes. So Yehoram Gaon is the best casting. As for the flow of shots in this movie, it is smooth, yet an episode of Mossad coordinating with MI6 to persuade Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta to allow the Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft and four to six planes from Israel to refuel at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport was cut. This should not have been omitted while it's a critical moment in the process of the success of Operation Thunderbolt. The IDF succeeded while getting the East African support to carry out the legendary raid. This episode wasn't included, but it ensured the smooth flow of the shots. Instead, it is mentioned in a line after the success and a storm was inserted in the middle of the flight to Uganda. Maybe it's more dramatic if the Kenyan thing was filmed as it actually happened.
Also, on the second important line quoted above:
Joni (played by Yehoram Gaon; to his regiment before leaving): I know you don't like patriotic speeches, but I'll say a few words anyway. We're going on a mission thousands of kilometers away to save Israelis just because they are Israelis and Jews. Because if we don't do it, no one else will do it for us.
The characteristics of this Israeli film are different from Japanese, Chinese and English films. For example, the collectivist tone is underneath the whole film narrative, so Wilfried Böse (played by Klaus Kinski) and Halima (played by Sybil Danning) are treated equally among the antagonists, realistically depicted as just one of them, not the strongest or engaging the hard-to-die mode of Hollywood-style antagonist heroism. This surprised me the most after having seen millions of movies. This is similar to the sudden death of Lieutenant Colonel Austin Travis, US Army Special Forces (played by Steven Seagal) in Executive Decision (1996). I have to commend familiar actors Klaus Kinski and Sybil Danning for their elegant German and English acting without dubbing in this multilingual film, which shares a style with Sorcerer (1977).
Israel on the recent Amsterdam pogrom intended to do the similar rescue flight for Jews. Joni's line is real, represents the principle of IDF military operations in the real world. After all, Joni's death is the death of a protagonist. But Israeli characteristics shine through here as well. His death in this movie and in the real event is not a suspension or failure of the operation, but it proves that Sayeret Matkal under his training met the military standard that the unit can complete its mission even if a commander is lost in the middle of the operation. Therefore, Joni's death in reverse completes his role in the operation as an officer of Sayeret Matkal. He became the ideal commander, a symbol of courage.
My personal suggestion to Israel is that quality Israeli movies and TV content should be streamed online from convenient platforms. And Operation Thunderbolt (1977) should also be restored in 4K with full English subtitles for the world to see. Today, it's still difficult to access Israeli films and TV content outside of Israel without a small number of Hollywood co-productions. I am sure that theaters and discs, which are severely limited by geographical distances and costs, will completely disappear as media for film and TV content. This favorable trend is becoming a reality in Hong Kong and everywhere else.
This film article is for the educational purpose only.
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