More from "Fateful Triangle"

In the light of American beliefs about the history of terrorism, it should perhaps be observed that along with acts of piracy such as [the Israeli Navy's capture of boats of Lebanese Moslems], Israel has also resorted to hijacking of airplanes, and may indeed have initiated this practice. In December 1954, a Syrian civilian airliner was captured by Israeli military aircraft to obtain hostages for exchange with Israeli soldiers who had been captured within Syria. The Prime Minister of Israel, Moshe Sharett, states in his diary that he was informed by the State Department that "our action was without precedent in the history of international practice." Note that this Israeli action was a direct precedent for much later PLO actions to capture hostages for exchange with captured guerrillas, as in the major terrorist incidents that were widely and properly denounced in the West; at Ma'alot in 1974, for example. (p. 77)