July 4th marked the 47th anniversary of the Entebbe operation, during which Israeli commandos rescued passengers held hostages by Palestinian terrorists and Ugandan soldiers after the hijacking of an Air France plane in Athens. Israel lost one soldier during the operation, Yoni Netanyahu, brother of the current Prime Minister of Israel. The audacious soldiers who appeared in the skies of Entebbe in the middle of the night belonged to Sayeret Matkal – Israel’s Defense Force’s General Staff Reconnaissance Unit. The unit was founded in 1957 by Avraham Arnan and was directly inspired by the iconic SAS (Special Air Service) warriors who served under the Union Jack during World War II.
I was too young to remember what happened at Entebbe. But another operation has captivated me since I was a teenager. I vividly remember hearing on the radio the news of Abu Jihad’s neutralization in April 1988 in Tunis. From memory, Israel was announced as having ordered this operation and I wondered how these intrepid operatives could perform their art so far away from the shores of their homeland.
I was therefore thrilled to read Sayeret Matkal: The Greatest Operations of Israel’s Elite Commandos (Skyhorse Publishing) by Avner Shur and Aviram Halevi, whose first chapter invites the reader to walk with the Israeli commandos to accomplish Operation Show of Force under the leadership of commander Moshe “Boogie” Ya’alon.
With an engaging prose, the book depicts 15 operations – some were a resounding success, while others brought sorrow in the heart of the commandos, like the Ma’alot school massacre in 1974 – that contributed to form the ethos of that unit which was initially formed to provide reconnaissance before entering in the legend of special forces. The authors’ narrative ends in 1994. Understandably, revealing more recent initiatives might betray crucial information.
Any keen follower of Israeli affairs will quickly realize that Sayeret Matkal is a real Who’s Who of its political life. Moshe “Boogie” Ya’alon (former Defense minister), Ehud Barak (former Prime Minister) and Benjamin Netanyahu – the indomitable current Prime Minister have all served in its glorious rank. Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is not included in the scope of the book, but he also wore the red boots of the commando unit. Knowing the importance of politics in the rise of Sayeret Matkal, it should come as no surprise that so many of its members went into politics after their service. They had learnt how to be political, but the unit’s survival notably depended on its public image.
Israel has been a besieged country since its independence in 1948. The armed forces are therefore an essential part of its ethos, but Sayeret Matkal has carved up a particular and coveted place as the practitioner of military surgical interventions – like hostage takings, rescue operations, enemy neutralization and special interventions of the like. In a recent article published in the Israel Affairs quarterly, Ronit Berger Hobson and Ami Pedahzur analyze that units like Sayeret Matkal came to the forefront with the fusion between Special Operations Forces and counterterrorism, in the aftermath of the Munich Massacre in 1972. The operations they took part in “[…] provided Sayeret Matkal with the exposure that was and still is vital for accumulating organizational capital within the IDF and among policymakers”, according to the two academics.
The men serving the unit (there were no women serving during the period covered in the book) are anything but ordinary characters on whose shoulders mountains of doubt are always pressed before entering in action. Self-confidence is their main weapon, they are “always pushing the boundaries of possibility […]” – to borrow the expression of Avner Shur and Aviram Halevi – and their success can depend on a millisecond. Thinking outside the box is a prerequisite for these modern-day gladiators who never know what curveball will be thrown at them at a moments’ notice.
These authors bring to life the experience and turmoil associated with serving with elite soldiers. Egos often come in the way of smoothness and turf wars can thwart initiatives and success. One of my favorite stories in the book is Nitzan Alon’s. This member of the unit – who would later command the unit – was expelled because he was “caught with his red beret in his pocket, instead of on his shoulder […]”. An alternative would be found to bring him back into the fray, but the reader can only imagine how costly such a power trip move can be. On top of that, any student of the SAS and Special Forces has come to understand that conformity and discipline are not the best traits of those heeding their call to action.
Several types of leadership are depicted between the two covers of that riveting book. Humility is intertwined with ego and publicity-seeking, defeat can always be snatched from the jaws of victory, but all the commanders lead by example, and strive to emulate Omer Bar-Lev, who commanded the unit between 1984 and 1987. “Despite being a difficult and withdrawn man, not exactly an affectionate and highly visible figure, his soldiers [were] willing to follow him into the most dangerous and challenging operations, even after enduring extremely grueling periods of unbearable tensions with him.”
Sayeret Matkal is a real page-turner. It is beautifully written, and no sentence is superfluous. The reader will also understand why the unit adopted the motto of the SAS as its own: “Who dares wins”. Israel would never have survived without these words in its DNA. It has been blessed since its creation with men and women willing to don the olive green combat fatigues to carry that spirit into action.
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Avner Shur and Aviram Halevi, Sayeret Matkal: The Greatest Operations of Israel’s Elite Commandos, New York, Skyhorse Publishing, 2023, 272 pages.
I would like to express all my thanks to Harmeen Pannu of Simon & Schuster Canada for helping me with a copy of that captivating book and her much-appreciated support towards this blog.
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