"There are few military operations which, in retrospect, reflect the spirit and courage of an entire nation," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said this week at the state ceremony marking 25 years since the Entebbe mission. "Operation Yonatan (named for the mission's commander) was one of those few."

"There are few commanders who, during their lifetime and

"Yoni's death at Entebbe marked a unique turning point in the world's battle against terrorism" - Bibi Netanyahu

even more so after their death, become a symbol of a heroic and confident Israel, a peace-seeking nation, determined to confront its enemies, through dedication and adherence to the cause. This is how the late Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu -- Yoni -- who fell during the battle to release the Entebbe hostages, is engraved in our national memory," Sharon said.

In a poll released this week by the Association for Commemorating the Memory and Legacy of Lt.-Col Yonatan Netanyahu, a nonprofit organization, 30 percent of the Israeli public did not know what Operation Yonatan was. Even so, 89 percent of the 500 Israelis polled were familiar with the name Yoni Netanyahu. Less than half of those polled knew that Netanyahu was the person killed in the Entebbe mission. Most knew of the name because they were aware that Yonatan was the late brother of former Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu.

Yonatan Netanyahu's name and memory became political fodder with the rise and fall of the political fortunes of younger brother Bibi. In an article published today in the Jerusalem Post, Elli Wohlgelernter writes, "Yoni has fallen from grace in certain circles of left-wing Israeli society" due to the public's association of his name with Bibi. In February, Sarah Honig described in the Jerusalem Post the defacing of Yonatan's image in a junior high school in central Israel named in his honor with anti-Bibi stickers.

Bibi Netanyahu acknowledges this targeting of his brother in attempts to attack his own political career, but believes there is a change in the country now. There is "a seeking, an eagerness, to examine our traditional values and the justice of Zionism, and the sacrifices made for Zionism. I think that in that sense there's a natural turn towards Yoni's story," Bibi says.

According to Bibi, Yonatan's "death at Entebbe marked a unique turning point in the world's battle against terrorism. After Entebbe, it was very difficult to argue that you had no choice but to surrender to terrorism," he adds. Following the Entebbe mission, Bibi Netanyahu founded the Jonathan Institute for the Study of Terrorism.

In commentary entitled "Lessons from Entebbe" published last week in the Jerusalem Post, Ron Dermer wrote, "In deciding to take that dramatic action [in Entebbe], the State of Israel turned suddenly from refuge to savior and sent a message to the world and to its own people that it was willing to risk the lives of its elite soldiers not only to protect the citizens within its borders, but to save Jews outside of them."

Dermer then adds, "How sad, then, that in a span of 25 years, we have gone from a nation willing to sacrifice our finest men to fight terror thousands of kilometers away to a nation unwilling to make sacrifices to fight terror in our own backyard."

Prime Minister Sharon says, "Operation Yonatan is perhaps also a reminder of a time when we were younger and smaller, but had the courage, imagination and determination to spread our wings... Today, it seems that we have lost some of the spirit of that time."

Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres, who served as Minister of Defense at the time of the Entebbe mission, eulogized Yonatan Netanyahu this week. "These days, when we are in the midst of an ongoing battle against terrorism, violence and incitement, and when we are making a joint national effort to return to political negotiations without fire, we must rekindle the spirit of that operation. The secret of our strength lies in such spirit and faith, and if we learn how to renew it we will be able to meet all the challenges that still lie ahead."

More than any of the speakers at the state ceremony, Yonatan Netanyahu's own words expressed the challenges of defending the State of Israel.

"I, and Israeli youth, have the duty to defend this country," Netanyahu wrote. "It is a great responsibility that has made us come of age prematurely: people from the moshav, the city and the kibbutz who are united by something stronger than political affiliation. They are united by a feeling of brotherhood, mutual responsibility, recognition of the value of human life, a strong and sincere yearning for peace but at the same time a willingness to stand up to any challenge".

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