Fifty years after Entebbe, we should remember not only what happened there, but why it still matters.

In July 1976, Palestinian terrorists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, assisted by two German ‘Nazis’, hijacked Air France Flight 139 after take-off from Athens and diverted it to Uganda. At Entebbe Airport, Jewish and Israeli passengers were separated from the others.

For Jews, the symbolism was unmistakable.

Only 31 years had passed since Auschwitz, Treblinka and Bergen-Belsen and the liberation of other death camps. Once again, German ‘Nazis’ were participating in the selection of Jews. Once again, Jews found themselves singled out because they were Jews.

This time, however, history unfolded differently.

There was a State of Israel.

Israeli aircraft flew thousands of kilometres, Israeli soldiers stormed the terminal, and Jewish hostages were rescued by a Jewish state acting on behalf of Jewish lives.

Entebbe remains perhaps the clearest and most powerful answer ever given to the question of why Zionism exists.

It is against that historical backdrop that many Jews listened with disgust, but no surprise, to the testimony of Sarah Schwartz from the extreme left Jewish Council of Australia (JCA) before the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion. Schwartz argued that conflating Jewish identity with Israel or Zionism contributes to antisemitism and that Jews should not be treated as representatives of the Israeli state.

Technically, she is correct that individual Jews should not be held responsible for decisions made by Israeli governments, much like blaming an Iranian for the actions of the IRGC or blaming a Russian for the actions of Putin. Then why does she sit........

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