Operation Wrath of God was Israel’s response to the Munich Massacre. In 1972, the Summer Olympic Games were held in Munich, Germany (then West Germany). Eleven, Israeli Olympians and coaches were held hostage and eventually murdered by members of the Black September terrorist group which is part of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Furthermore, five of the eight terrorists were killed in a failed hostage recovery attempt by the Germans. The three remaining terrorists were released in exchange for a hijacked plane (Rosenberg, 2010). Israel’s response was Operation Wrath of God.
In a swift response to the Munich Massacre the “Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir gave instructions for Israeli agents to hunt down and kill those behind it” (Palestine, 2010). Israel planned a covert action against those responsible. According to Lowenthal, the paramilitary operation is the most violent with the least amount of plausible deniability. It involves training and arming a group for direct assault against the enemy (2006, p. 163). Operation Wrath of God is “one of the most ambitious covert counterterrorist campaigns in history” (Palestine, 2010). Israel created the Committee X to organize the operation. They compiled a list of 20-35 Black September and PLO members who were involved with the planning and/or executing the massacre (Palmer, 2010).
A response such as Operation Wrath of God is controversial and difficult to approve. Ordering the killing of more people is morally and ethically challenging. Even though the terrorists attacked innocent athletes is it acceptable to murder more? As the leader of a nation, Prime Minister Meir needed careful examination and good analysis to arrive with the right reaction. O...
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... Was this the first error or just the first one in which the assassins did not escape? Since it was a covert operation it is hard to verify whether or not the continued attacks by Black September were in retaliation to the operation or continuation of the previous attack.
Works Cited
Lowenthal, Mark M. (2006). Intelligence: From secrets to policy [Third Edition]. Washington, DC: CQ Press.
PalestineFacts (2010). Israel 1967 – 1991 Olympic Team Murder. Retrieved from http://www.palestinefacts.org
Palmer, Alun (February 18, 2010). “The Mossad Files; Israel’s Deadly Assassins”. The Mirror. Pgs. 16,17. Retrieved from http://www. LexisNexis.com
Rosenberg, Jennifer (2010). “Munich Massacre”. About.com: 20th Century History. Retrieved from http://history1900s.about.com
Wikipedia (2010). “Operation Wrath of God”. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org
The evidence was simply the alias that Eichmann went by in Argentina, “Ricardo Klement.” Mossad was convinced to reopen the investigation into the whereabouts of the man who had orchestrated their people’s extermination and began to pursue Eichmann through every possible avenue. ` Eventually the agents traced Klement to a rundown shack on the edge of town, and they were again struck by the poverty that the orchestrator of their people’s deaths lived in, and how he had fallen. The agents, however, were not deterred and confirmed the man’s identity as Adolf Eichmann, before beginning to orchestrate a plan.
At a time of loss, the German people needed a reason to rebuild their spirits. The Jews became a national target even though Hitler’s theory could not be proven. Even as a Jew, he accused the Jews people for Germany’s defeat in order to rally the people against a group of people Hitler despised. The story-telling of the Jews’ wickedness distracts the Germans from realizing the terror Holocaust. Millions of Jewish people died because Hitler said they caused the downfall of Germany. Innocent lives were taken. The death of millions mark the rise of Hitler. He sets the stage for the largest massacre in
Hellman, Chris. “Chronology of Major Attacks Against US Targets). Center for Defense Information. Web. 01 Aug 2011.
The squads don't care how the Jews died, as long as it was cheap. There are also a few dates where a huge number of Jews died. This is important to the topic because it shows the devastation killing squads can cause. During the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the killing squads followed the German Army. Their orders were to destroy all Jews, Communists, and Gypsies.
World War II played host to some of the most gruesome and largest mass killings in history. From the start of the war in 1939 until the end of the war in 1945 there were three mass killings, by three big countries on those who they thought were lesser peoples. The rape of Nanking, which was carried out by the Japanese, resulted in the deaths of 150,000 to 200,000 Chinese civilians and POW. A more well-known event was of the Germans and the Holocaust. Hitler and the Nazi regime persecuted and killed over 500,000 Jews. This last country may come as a surprise, but there is no way that someone could leave them out of the conversation. With the dropping of the Atomic bombs the United States killed over 200,000, not including deaths by radiation, in the towns of Nagasaki and Hiroshima and ultimately placed the United States in the same group as the Japanese and the Germans. What are the alternatives other than dropping the two A-bombs and was it right? The United States and President Truman should have weighed their opting a little bit more before deciding to drop both atomic bombs on the Islands of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. In the case of dropping the atomic bombs the United States did not make the right decision. This essay will explain through logic reasoning and give detailed reasons as to why the United States did not make the right choice.
The events which have become to be known as The Holocaust have caused much debate and dispute among historians. Central to this varied dispute is the intentions and motives of the perpetrators, with a wide range of theories as to why such horrific events took place. The publication of Jonah Goldhagen’s controversial but bestselling book “Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust” in many ways saw the reigniting of the debate and a flurry of scholarly and public interest. Central to Goldhagen’s disputed argument is the presentation of the perpetrators of the Holocaust as ordinary Germans who largely, willingly took part in the atrocities because of deeply held and violently strong anti-Semitic beliefs. This in many ways challenged earlier works like Christopher Browning’s “Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland” which arguably gives a more complex explanation for the motives of the perpetrators placing the emphasis on circumstance and pressure to conform. These differing opinions on why the perpetrators did what they did during the Holocaust have led to them being presented in very different ways by each historian. To contrast this I have chosen to focus on the portrayal of one event both books focus on in detail; the mass shooting of around 1,500 Jews that took place in Jozefow, Poland on July 13th 1942 (Browning:2001:225). This example clearly highlights the way each historian presents the perpetrators in different ways through; the use of language, imagery, stylistic devices and quotations, as a way of backing up their own argument. To do this I will focus on how various aspects of the massacre are portrayed and the way in which this affects the presentation of the per...
...one of the darkest periods of history, filled with madness and murder. Following the war many people asked why the Jews succumbed to the Nazis like “Lamb at the slaughter”. One cannot forget or ignore the many shows of resistance amongst the Jews such as the Jews who fought in the forest of Eastern Europe and also the Jews who started the uprising in ghettos and in concentration camps. One result of the Holocaust is that the state of Israel was no doubt established because of the Holocaust. As a result of the great catastrophe which occurred to the Jewish people many nations realized that establishing a state was a necessary step for the protection of Jews. With the end of the war and the unconditional surrender, international courts were set up for the quick trials and sentencing of the Nazis for their war crimes against the Jewish people and against all humanity.
The year is 1972 and people are ready for the summer Olympics. Unfortunately for the eager sports spectators the 1972 Munich Olympics have a much more tragic story line. People don’t talk about any records broken or international competitiveness, instead people remember the Munich Games because of the hostage situation. A Palestinian formed group called the Black September terrorist captured nine Israeli Olympic athletes. Jim McKay one of the Olympic sportscasters at the games says, “The Munich tragedy was the biggest event in my career and the most terrible.” Truly Munich’s is tarnishing the Olympic Games. Even today the impact and repercussions of the game can be felt not only with the heightened security protocol but a lasting social impact as well.
Keck, Zachary. "Yes, Edward Snowden Is a Traitor." The Diplomat. N.p., 21 Dec. 2013. Web. 21 Feb. 2014
Capsule: In 1931, the International Olympic Committee awarded the 1936 Summer Olympics to Berlin. The choice signaled Germany’s return to the world community after its isolation in the aftermath of defeat in World War I. Two years later, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany and quickly turned the nation’s fragile democracy into a one-party dictatorship that persecuted Jews, Gypsies, and all political opponents. The Nazis’ claimed to control all aspects of German life which also extended to sports. In August 1936, the Nazi regime tried to camouflage its violent racist policies while the country hosted the Summer Olympics. Most anti-Jewish signs were temporarily removed and newspapers toned down their harsh rhetoric. Movements towards the boycott of the Nazi Olympics surfaced in the United States, Great Britain, France, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, and the Netherlands. Debate over participation in the 1936 Olympics was more intense throughout the United States, which traditionally sent one of the largest teams to the Games.
Relations with Panama grew even worse. Noriega named himself “Maximum Leader”. And on December 15 1989 a state of war was declared with the United States. Not many people know this but Noriega actually declared war on the United States. A Panamanian soldier shot three American officers. On December 17, after reviewing the Facts, President Bush decided to act. Operation Just Cause began first thing December 20. Special forces attacked key installations in Panama that day. U.S. troops moved in to Panama City, to secure the U.S. Embassy and other strong holds. A battle between the Panimanian Defense Force and U.S. troops erupted in the city. The U.S. captured the Panimanian Defense Force (PDF) headquarters within three hours. As Noriega went into hiding and the PDF headquarters was overtaken the PDF collapsed. The remaining PDF were only in small pockets witch were taken out with little if any problems.
In 1935, the U.S. decided to attend the ‘36 Berlin games, even though the United States knew how Hitler was persecuting the Jews. By July 1933, at least 27,000 people had been placed in what Hitler liked to call “detention camps” (Hart-Davis 16). In early 1932 at an IOC meeting in Barcelona, the committee decided to grant Germany the right to the 1936 Olympic Games, which allowed Germany to restore their athletic reputation that they lost because of the outbreak of World War I. All over the world, there was an outcry to boycott or at least change the location of the ‘36 Olympics. The IOC’s first response was that they had granted Germany the Olympic site before the Nazis’ came to power. All over Germany before the Olympic Games were signs that read Juden Unerwunscht, or “Jews not wanted.” “The racial discrimination- so obvious and deliberate- was more than some foreign sports organizations could stomach. Apart from being offensive to normal human beings, the Nazi attitude was also diametrically opposed to the principle of free competition on which the Olympics were supposed to based” (Hart Davis 62).
However, this attack on the commander and launch sites came as an immediate response to heavy Palestinian rocket fire over the previous weeks and prevention of other “Palestinian factions from building up their arsenals further. In a statement made by the Israeli Defense Force spokesman, he justifies the assassination of Ahmed Jabari stating “The first aim of this operation is to br...
Most narratives out of the Holocaust from the Nazis point of view are stories of soldiers or citizens who were forced to partake in the mass killings of the Jewish citizens. Theses people claim to have had no choice and potentially feared for their own lives if they did not follow orders. Neighbors, The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland, by Jan T. Gross, shows a different account of people through their free will and motivations to kill their fellow Jewish Neighbors. Through Gross’s research, he discovers a complex account of a mass murder of roughly 1,600 Jews living in the town of Jedwabne Poland in 1941. What is captivating about this particular event was these Jews were murdered by friends, coworkers, and neighbors who lived in the same town of Jedwabne. Gross attempts to explain what motivated these neighbors to murder their fellow citizens of Jedwabne and how it was possible for them to move on with their lives like it had never happened.
...ed on defending the from any and all threats. The variance in personnel and amount of crime present can be accounted for by the population difference between the United States and Israel while still observing that both countries acknowledge a need for a diversely equipped force shall the moment arise. Despite Israel’s and the United States drastically different approaches to the structure and operations of the law enforcement aspect of the criminal justice system both countries agree on keeping the people safe from criminals and the even more dangerous terrorists. In fact law enforcement from the United States visit Israel and attend training seminars and conferences to learn and pool resources in regards to new techniques on dealing with terrorism, drugs, policing strategies, hand to hand combat, and any topic that can aid the other country (FIND ONE OF THE MANY).