Newly released state archives protocols from June 1976 show Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Defense Minister Shimon Peres in a sharp debate: Peres argued that yielding to hijackers would fuel future terror, while Rabin said the public would not forgive the state for refusing to trade prisoners for living hostages, as it does for bodies, according to the documents published by N12.
This morning, N12 published additional declassified state archive documents from June 1976 — the period leading up to the Entebbe hostage crisis — that expose a fundamental policy disagreement between Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Defense Minister Shimon Peres. According to the transcripts, Peres argued forcefully against negotiating with hijackers, warning that capitulation would encourage more hostage-taking. Rabin countered that the public could not accept a policy that released prisoners for fallen soldiers' bodies but refused to do so to save living hostages.
As The Zioneer reported earlier this morning (06:32 Jerusalem), earlier declassified Entebbe-era protocols focused on the rescue mission's survival odds. These new documents go deeper into the moral and strategic trade-off — prisoners for lives versus prisoners for bodies — which remains a live political fault line in Israeli hostage policy today. The source is a single publication by N12 from state archives; no other channels have independently confirmed or commented on these specific documents yet.
3 developments
- DevelopingYair Golan accuses Netanyahu of obstructing hostage deal, says PM willing to let captives rot
- StrongDeclassified protocols reveal Israeli cabinet's internal debates ahead of Operation Entebbe
- StrongMK Gilad Kariv tells Netanyahu: 'Thank you for 46 hostages who died because of you?'
- DevelopingZe'ev Elkin: 'Give and take' between politicians and media shouldn't be a criminal offense
Source and signal
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- Open-source intake