My childhood brain remembers the excitement around this country’s 200th anniversary in 1976 and the short Bicentennial Minutes that played on television trying to teach Americans a bit about our history. All the while we went to see Rocky in the movie theater, listened to Silly Love Songs, and laughed along with Laverne and Shirley.
But when the anniversary came around there was real excitement for other reasons, with the New York Times headlines wishing the USA a Happy 200th while celebrating, in equally tall font, an Israeli success.
At the top of the front page was an enthusiastic headline: Israeli’s Return with 103 Rescued In Uganda Raid.
Terence Smith wrote:
Israeli airborne commandos staged a daring night‐time raid, on Entebbe airport in Uganda last night, freeing the 105 mainly Israeli hostages and Air France crew members held by pro‐Palestinian hijackers and flying them back to Israel aboard three Israeli planes.
There is a book called People Love Dead Jews, but there was a time when they also loved heroic Jews who could do great things like pull off daring nighttime raids or blow up 3000 pagers in the pockets of terrorists.
George Will, my favorite columnist at the time and the person I wanted to be when I moved to Washington, put it this way in his widely syndicated column:
“July 4, 1976, was a great day to be an American, and a great day to be Jewish, and was, I am assured, an absolutely sensational day to be American and Jewish.”
I hope that day comes again.
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