...One of the most crucial lessons from Entebbe, Iddo said, is that a country is obligated to protect its citizens regardless of world opinion. “The important question is: what decision should a sovereign country make when the lives of its people are at stake?” he said. “Israel should make its decisions primarily based on its people’s interests and not by how other governments might react.”

He recalled that although most Western nations, such as the US, Britain, and even France, praised Israel’s actions, most countries were not supportive. “There was harsh criticism of Israel throughout the non-Western world – from the Communist Bloc, from Uganda’s allies in Africa, from most of Asia – because of those countries’ political leanings,” said Iddo.

“But while the vast majority of governments came out against Israel, their populations obviously felt differently. It was a tremendous boost for the Jewish community in the Soviet Union; Natan Sharansky said he had a photo of Yoni in his jail cell. And there were many brave men in Uganda who were fighting Idi Amin and were inspired by the Entebbe rescue because it showed them this man could be defeated.”...

...“The main issue is not his death, but his life,” he said. “This was a man who murdered hundreds of thousands of his own people, and would throw torture victims out of the top floor of the Nile Mansions Hotel in Kampala or cast them into the water to be eaten by crocodiles. He was a bad man in all respects and he supported other bad people, so it’s no surprise that he was a friend of Arab terror organizations and of Yasser Arafat in particular.

“This man did not deserve to live a quiet, uneventful life after being deposed, so the big question is why he lived in comfort for so many years. The answer is that he was being sheltered by people who considered him a great hero. From their point of view, what he did was good – he assisted in threatening Jewish hostages with death. They would never have given him up to any court for justice.”...