The American public had before it a paradigm of how a hostage extraction should be conducted in Operation Entebbe on July 4, 1976. Airline passenger hostages were removed from an African airport after the defeat of their captors. The rescuing Israeli commandos simply flew into the airport in a surprise attack. The fact that their much more powerful and resourceful nation could not stage a reasonable facsimile was something of a scandal to Americans and a topic of ridicule to their allies. There were also rumors of inordinate spending, with inflated prices being set for everyday cheap items.