Originally posted by Alcibiaties of Athenae
They blame the Germans, especially as a year later, Germany released the three terrorists they captured in exchange for hostages of a Luftansa hijack, which they say proved how little the Germans cared for justice for Jews (their words, not mine).
Mossad tracked down and killed two of the three, BTW.
I didn't include this into the questions because it wasn't a part of the attack itself, but in fact it is one of the most interesting things about it.
I have read several reports as well as seen some on TV about it, and it seems that alot of people (including Israeli intelligence officers) think that the hijacking was a conspiracy. They were confused how short it took until the German government released the terrorists in exchange, so some claim it was made up. They argue in favour of that theory by saying that the plane had only very few passengers and was far from filled. More striking though is the fact (?) that all passengers were male, according to them there was no single woman or child on board, which is indeed strange (if it's true).
Now assuming that was true it would of course lead to the question of the intention behind it. Why should the government do so? I think the idea of a latent anti-semitism doesn't make very much sense if you know a bit about the people in charge at that time. Another theory, in which the German government conspirated with the Mossad so that they could kill the terrorists after their release is also not very likely to be true in my opinion, after all one of them escaped.
That leaves the idea I personally think makes the most sense (always assuming it was made up). The German government wanted to get rid of the thread of Arab terrorism. The terrorists in German prisons would have made the country a permanant target of the internationally operating groups.
History showed that it didn't help them, but at the time I can imagine that it was a logical thought, a very cowardly thought of course...
The Germans made a number of errors in the rescue attempt, for example, they thought there were only 8 men when there were 11, they failed to stop a camera crew from recording the rescue attempt (which the TERRORISTS saw on TV!), they opened fire prematurely (this is when the bulk of the jews were killed, in a vehicle on the airport runway), the list of mistakes would be comical if it wasn't so tragic.
Indeed. There have been many terrible mistakes. For the first rescue attempt (in the Olympic village) they put police officers in training suits to infiltrate the building over the roof. But across the street was the East German building and from there TV crews happily broadcasted the operation into the terrorists rooms...
Short before the second attempt (the one at the airfield that went so terribly wrong) they had positioned a fake crew in the plane the terrorists were told to use. This crew, made up of policemen, should have tried to overpower those terrorists who would go in to check it out, while on the outside the others would be attacked. But that crew left the plane, according to a TV report because they thought "the situation would become too dangerous"
The result was that the terrorists checked out the plane and when the shooting began they were still able to participate in the fight.
I'd like to add I remember this, I was 9 years old, and I still remember seeing it.
It was one of the first days where the world witnessed live how such tragic events took place. That's another reason why I think it was very significant. I'm not sure if this is to the better, actually when you think about the first rescue attempt it certainly wasn't.
Since that time, Israel has refused to send people to the olympics, for fear they won't be protected by uncarring and unsypathetic governments.
Here I agree with Darkshade, I'm pretty sure to have seen Israelis compete.
