[lbo-talk] British document: Israel initiated Entebbe hijack

[Bryan Atinsky]

Who knows what to make of this..."quotes unnamed source" ....but it is
interesting...

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British document: Israel initiated Entebbe hijack

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3407333,00.html

Official government file quotes unnamed source as claiming Shin Bet
cooperated with Air France flight's hijackers, PFLP group, in
instigating crisis in bid to weaken PLO

Ynet
Published: 	06.01.07, 09:45 / Israel News

The state of Israel was behind the hijacking of an Air France plane to
Entebbe in 1976, and cooperated with the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine in staging the affair, a UK government file
compiled at the time of the occurrences and published by the BBC Friday
revealed.

According to the file released by the National Archives, an unnamed
contact told a British diplomat in Paris that the Shin Bet and the PFLP
collaborated to seize the plane, which was hijacked in Athens and flown
to Entebbe in Uganda, where 98, most of hem Israelis, were held hostage.

The crisis was brought to an end after Israeli commandos stormed the
airport. Three Israeli hostages and one Israeli commander, Yonatan
Netanyahu, were killed during the raid.

In the document, written on 30 June 1976 when the crisis was still
unresolved, DH Colvin of the Paris Embassy wrote that according to his
source, "the hijack was the work of the PFLP, with help from the Israeli
Secret Service, the Shin Bet.

"The operation was designed to torpedo the PLO's standing in France and
to prevent what they see as a growing rapprochement between the PLO and
the Americans."

He added: "My contact said the PFLP had attracted all sorts of wild
elements, some of whom had been planted by the Israelis."