Summary of Saul David's Operation Thunderbolt

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The Cojots were waiting in line to check in at Ben-Gurion Airport’s Terminal 1, which had replaced the original whitewashed terminal built by the British in the 1930s. The flow of people reminded Michel Cojot of an Oriental bazaar.

#2 Air France Flight 139 was one of the recently introduced Airbus A300B4s, a comfortable twin-engined jetliner capable of carrying 272 passengers in a two-class layout. Only 228 seats were occupied.

#3 The author's father was a high-achieving man who tried to educate his son even when they were on vacation. The only bleak spot for the thirty-seven-year-old Cojot was the proximity of unruly neighbors, who included brawling brats, a woman who spilled over her seat on both sides, and a couple of retired Americans.

#4 On the plane, there were fifty-six new passengers, bringing the total to 246. The majority were still nationals of Israel and France, but more than twenty other nationalities were now present.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822533912

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

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Insights on Saul David's Operation Thunderbolt

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The Cojots were waiting in line to check in at Ben-Gurion Airport’s Terminal 1, which had replaced the original whitewashed terminal built by the British in the 1930s. The flow of people reminded Michel Cojot of an Oriental bazaar.

#2

Air France Flight 139 was one of the recently introduced Airbus A300B4s, a comfortable twin-engined jetliner capable of carrying 272 passengers in a two-class layout. Only 228 seats were occupied.

#3

The author's father was a high-achieving man who tried to educate his son even when they were on vacation. The only bleak spot for the thirty-seven-year-old Cojot was the proximity of unruly neighbors, who included brawling brats, a woman who spilled over her seat on both sides, and a couple of retired Americans.

#4

On the plane, there were fifty-six new passengers, bringing the total to 246. The majority were still nationals of Israel and France, but more than twenty other nationalities were now present.

#5

Four of the new passengers on Flight 139 were in transit, having landed in Singapore Airlines Flight 763 from Bahrain. Two were South American: a tall blond-haired Peruvian named A. Garcia, and a young Ecuadorian woman named Ortega. The other pair were Middle Eastern in appearance and carrying Bahraini and Kuwaiti travel documents.

#6

The arrival of the Arab passengers caused a stir among the passengers and crew. The two Arabs had been traveling to Paris to visit their parents, and were seen as rude and dangerous by some of the other passengers.

#7

The two South American transit passengers in first class sprung to their feet, both holding a pistol and a grenade. The two Arabs herded the passengers and crew members, and demanded that the plane head to Benghazi in Libya.

#8

The plane was hijacked by the PFLP, a Palestinian guerilla organization that was committed to the destruction of the Israeli state. The threat to the Israelis on board was obvious, and many of them began ripping off their Jewish star necklaces and throwing them on the floor.

#9

The PFLP, a Palestinian Christian group, was the first to use plane hijackings to strike back at Israel. They planned to take over an Israeli El Al plane en route from Paris to Tel Aviv in July 1968, but the plan was a success. Israel agreed to release sixteen convicted Arab terrorists in exchange for the Israeli hostages.

#10

The PFLP was the first Palestinian group to copy the hijacking strategy. They mostly targeted Israeli and Western airlines, and it seemed like the West’s security forces were powerless to stop the hijackings.

#11

The terrorists separated those who were potentially dangerous from the others by moving mothers with infants and all children to the first-class buffer zone in the front of the plane.

#12

The passengers were told that if they had any weapons, they should throw them immediately out the window. The hijackers began to search the passengers, collecting weapons. Moufflet handed over his pipe cleaner, but young Olivier Cojot was less keen to surrender the Swiss army knife he always wore chained to his trousers.

#13

After the Cabinet meeting, Rabin announced that a special task force of relevant ministers would meet to discuss the government’s response. He told the ministers to warn Ben-Gurion Airport that the hijackers might want to do another Sabena.

#14

The Israeli Army has many reconnaissance units, but the best is Sayeret Matkal, the brainchild of legendary Jewish fighter Avraham Arnan. It was created in 1958 and specialized in strategic intelligence gathering.

#15

Betser was a