Recent history vs ancient history

Everywhere in Israel you walk a history of amazing triumph and tragedy. Not just the ancient stories from the Bible, but current events, at least, ones that happened while I have been alive.

I am staying in central Tel Aviv, at a really modern hotel called The Savoy. It's all sleek lines and chrome and glass, a very sexy building literally steps from the beachfront. It just re-opened in January and is truly a cool place with amazing people running it, wonderful breakfast every morning, and lots of tourists--especially French--- hanging out in the lobby/restaurant planning their day. http://www.inisrael.com/savoy/

But the Savoy Hotel has a history: I've cut and pasted the following from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savoy_Operation

"On the night of 4 March 1975 at 11:00 PM, eight Palestinians in two teams landed by boat on the Tel Aviv beach. Shooting and throwing grenades, they captured the Savoy Hotel near the center of the city. The guests were taken hostage. The Palestinians threatened that if the Israelis did not release 20 Palestinian prisoners within four hours the hostages would be killed.

Early the next morning the Israeli counter-terrorist unit Sayeret Matkal stormed the hotel, killing seven of the perpetrators and capturing one. Five hostages were freed and eight were killed. Three soldiers, including the former Sayeret Matkal commander Uzi Yairi, were also killed. A few hours later the ship that transported the militants was captured and its crew were taken prisoner.

The Palestinian operation was planned by Abu Jihad in retaliation for a surgical raid that the Sayeret Matkal conducted in Beirut, Lebanon in April, 1973 (Operation Spring of Youth), where they killed three top PLO leaders."