Arik Sharon and the Lubavitch Rebbe

ChossidMom

Sun, Apr 20 2008, 4:48 pm

My husband just recounted this story to me over yomtov.

Remember the plane that was hijacked by Arab terrorists in the early 70's (maybe 1972?). That's the plane that Rav Hutner zt"l which was made to land in the Jordanian desert (I think). Apparently Arik Sharon was supposed to be on that plane but just beforehand he was having an audience with the Lubavitch Rebbe zt"l, who didn't let him leave. Eventually he let him leave but it was too late and Arik Sharon missed the flight! He later asked the Rebbe - if he knew the flight would be hijacked why didn't he warn others? The Rebbe said that he didn't know about the hijacking. He just knew that he couldn't let Sharon go. I asked my husband how he knew this story and he said that it was publicized after the hijacking.

This story came up because I shared with dh the story I read in one of Yitta Halberstam's books about a group of 3 Americans who had flown to the U.K. for the wedding of their rebbe's son. The day of their departure they were supposed to have an audience with the rebbe but the rebbe kept them waiting in the waiting room and would not admit them to his office. They asked the gabai if maybe the rebbe was davening or busy and the gabai said "no". In any event, he finally received them (really late) and then they quickly drove to the airport but got stuck in terrible traffic and missed their flight. They were very disappointed (because of various simchas they would miss the next day in the U.S.) and then the plane they were meant to be on blew up over Lockerbie. YET ANOTHER GREAT REBBE STORY.

Motek

Tue, Apr 22 2008, 11:11 am

Quote:

Arik Sharon, when he was Israeli Minister of Defence, came to visit the Rebbe. After his private audience, he related to his friends, "The Rebbe was very cordial. He asked when I was leaving, and when I told him I was taking a flight back tomorrow he insisted that I stay a little longer."

General Sharon's Lubavitcher friends explained to him that the Rebbe doesn't say such things just out of politeness and insisted that he postpone his flight. The plane that Sharon was to have taken was hijacked to Libya.

At a later date, another Israeli cabinet member, in private audience with the Rebbe, poised the obvious question. "If you knew," he asked the Rebbe, "why did you not report the matter to the authorities and attempt to circumvent the whole hijacking?" "Do you think I knew?" the Rebbe responded in a very serious tone. "It is not a matter of prophecy or knowing. It is simply that when I see someone standing before me, I am so completely obsessed with doing that person a favor -- that is why I say what I say."

After the 1981 elections, Begin rewarded Sharon for his important contribution to Likud's narrow win, by appointing him Minister of Defense and so the story was not the hijacking that involved R' Hutner.

ChossidMom

Tue, Apr 22 2008, 11:36 am

I found another reference to it online (not that that is proof...). Maybe someone here has that book and can see what it says exactly.

This is a story told to the author of "The Rebbe's Armies" by friends of Sharon--Ariel Sharon comes to the United States and arranges for a visit to the Rebbe. At the end of their visit the Rebbe tells Arik, "Do not get on the plane you were going to return to Israel on tonight." So Arik stays over one more night. The plane is hijacked to Algeria by terrorists. So the Rebbe is asked, "If you knew the plane was going to be hijacked why didn't you say it in public and save all the victims of the hijacknig their misfortune?" The Rebbe says, "I didn't know about the hijacking. I just knew Ariel Sharon could not get on that plane."

Posted by: Paul Freedman | July 25, 2005 at 08:09 PM

Motek

Thu, Jul 03 2008, 3:50 pm

Here's the accurate information as related by R' Zev Segal (Nochum Segal's father)

Rabbi Segal related this story about when the first and last El Al plane was hijacked. It was in July 1968, when a flight from Rome was seized by the terrorist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and forced to land in Algiers. Passengers and crew were held hostage there, with the last of them not released until five weeks later.

To the terrorists' dismay, however, their prime target, Ariel Sharon, then a general in the Israel Defense Forces, was not on the plane. Where was he? He was in an audience with the Rebbe, who continued to speak to him, though the general wanted to leave to make it on the flight.

"He came to say goodbye to the Rebbe, so the Rebbe told him not to go on that plane," related Rabbi Segal, "He listened to the Rebbe."

Rabbi Segal, who was in an audience a little while later, mentioned to the Rebbe that he wanted to ask a question. "Is it true that you stopped Sharon from going on that plane that was hijacked?" he asked.

The Rebbe confirmed that he did. To which the rabbi asked, "So why didn't you stop the plane altogether?"

"The Rebbe responded, "Do you really think that I knew that they'll hijack the plane? I didn't know that they'll hijack the plane. Sharon came to say goodbye to me, so I told him not to go."