July 4, 1976— Hostages Are Rescued at Entebbe
A team of 200 elite Israeli Sayeret Matkal commandos lands at the international airport in Entebbe, Uganda, to rescue 106 hostages held by the Palestinian and German terrorists who hijacked an Air France flight from Tel Aviv to Paris on June 27. In a 35-minute battle, all seven terrorists, 20 Ugandan soldiers, three hostages and one Israeli soldier (Yoni Netanyahu) are killed. The rescued hostages are flown to freedom in Israel.
July 5, 1979— Opera Star Edis De Philippe Dies
Israel National Opera Company founder Edis De Philippe dies at 67 after brain surgery. A New York native, De Philippe starred with the Paris Opera in the late 1930s. She made aliyah in 1945, and the Zionist Congress in Basel in December 1946 approved her plan to launch an opera company. She opened the Israel National Opera Company in 1947. She financed and managed the company and was its star as it performed across Israel.
July 6, 1989— Bus Attack Kills 16
A Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist seizes a No. 405 bus from Tel Aviv as it passes a ravine outside Jerusalem and steers it over a cliff. Sixteen people, including one American and two Canadians, are killed, and 17 others are injured. This is often seen as the first suicide attack of the First Intifada, although the terrorist survives and is one of 1,027 Palestinians released in 2011 in exchange for kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.
July 7, 1969— U Thant: ‘Open Warfare’ Along Canal
U.N. Secretary-General U Thant says he is considering withdrawing the 96 U.N. observers from the Suez Canal zone because “open warfare” exists there. Egypt and Israel have shot across the canal daily for three months, and U.N. soldiers were fired on 26 times in June. Thant says the situation, which becomes known as the War of Attrition, represents the worst disregard ever for a U.N. cease-fire accepted by the warring parties.
July 8, 1958— Politician Tzipi Livni Is Born
Politician Tzipi Livni is born in Tel Aviv to two veterans of the Irgun. A former army officer and Mossad agent with a law degree from Bar-Ilan University, she is first elected to the Knesset in 1999 with Likud. She switches to Ariel Sharon’s Kadima in 2005 and becomes deputy prime minister and foreign minister under Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. In the 2009 election she leads Kadima to the most seats but can’t form a government.
July 9, 1967— Bernstein Concert Celebrates Victory
Leonard Bernstein conducts the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra on Mount Scopus to celebrate the cultural unification of Jerusalem after the June 1967 war. The audience in the packed amphitheater includes Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, President Zalman Shazar, former Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and wounded veterans of the war. Mezzo-soprano Jennie Tourel participates in the show, which features Mahler’s “Second Symphony.”
July 10, 1895—Zionist Leader Nahum Goldmann Is Born
Nahum Goldmann, a founder of the World Jewish Congress and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, is born in Lithuania. Goldmann is drawn to Zionism as a child in Frankfurt, Germany. Starting in 1935, he lobbies at the League of Nations for the partition of Mandatory Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. In the 1950s he initiates negotiations with West Germany to pay Israel reparations.
Items are provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.