The Story of Israel’s Revenge Against Terrorism at the '72 Olympics

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Shop now for family favorites. This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. The 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany was dominated by Mark Spitz, a Jewish-American swimmer who won seven gold medals for the United States. It was also the Olympics where Palestinian terrorists massacred 11 Israeli athletes. This incident was televised across America and prompted President Nixon to establish plans to avert terrorism in the United States. But what the world didn't see was Israel's response. Operation Wrath of God.

Let's take a listen. Nearly every week on television and in newspapers, we witness a blood feud between Israelis and Palestinians that has gone on for decades. It was in the late 1960s when this cycle of violence began to escalate. After the small New Jersey-sized nation of Israel soundly defeated the Arab coalition in the 1967 Six-Day War, Palestinian terrorist groups turned to increasingly spectacular acts of evil to get world attention.

Israel defended itself as it always had, but 1972 would be the turning point. On May 8th of that year, four members of a Palestinian terrorist group hijacked the Boeing 707 aircraft with 10 crew members and 90 passengers, 67 of them Jewish, and landed it in the heart of Israel, Tel Aviv. Soon after taking command, the two men and two women hijackers armed with hand grenades, a revolver, and two five-pound explosive devices separated the Jewish hostages from the others and sent them to the back of the aircraft. The captain relayed the terrorist demands that 315 convicted Palestinian terrorists be released from Israeli prisons, or they would blow up the airplane with its passengers.

The alternative is to leave here, otherwise I am quite sure the plane will be exploded. Israel's policy was never to negotiate with terrorists or never to back down. Prime Minister Golda Meir ordered an assault on the aircraft. The mission was led by Israel's elite anti-terror unit, commanded by Ehud Barak and joined by Benjamin Netanyahu.

Both will become future prime ministers. Israeli commandos approached the aircraft disguised as aircraft mechanics in white jumpsuits. They immediately killed the two male hijackers and apprehended the two females. Here's Ehud Barak on the incident. But it took just 90 seconds before we stormed it, killed two of the terrorists. Israelis interviewed the two captured female terrorists who admitted they were members of Black September, an amorphous branch of the terrorist organization Fatah. Founded by Yasser Arafat, Fatah is the most radical wing of the Palestine Liberation Organization, better known as the PLO. The man who ordered the hijacking was Arafat's protégé and Fatah's commander, Alay Hassan Salameh. Two weeks after the hijacking, Salameh's name came up again in connection with a bloody massacre that left 24 dead, 78 wounded, at the same airport. Two of the three terrorists died and the third was arrested, but Israel had not heard the last of Salameh or Black September. Here's Benjamin Netanyahu. After that they realized they can't hijack Israeli planes. If they go to Israel with somebody else's plane and try to extort something there, they'll be killed.

So they figured they'd go somewhere else. Somewhere the whole world would be watching. The 1972 Munich Olympics. Israel! Munich's Olympic Games were carefully constructed to convey the message that Germany's rehabilitation was complete. That 1936, when Berlin under Adolf Hitler hosted the 11th Olympiad against a backdrop of discrimination and violence, was a relic of a dead past.

Italian! The German organizers didn't want the world to see them holding guns, which might evoke old images. No armed guards or police were positioned in the Olympic village or at stadium entrances. Security costs for the games came to $2 million. This relatively insignificant sum was not born of miserliness, but of a frank desire to keep security to a minimum.

In contrast, the 2004 Olympic security costs exceeded $1 billion. Germany, Cologne Airport, Wednesday, August 23, 1972. A middle-aged couple wait for their four pieces of luggage to arrive. The man, dressed in a well-tailored suit, hoists the bags onto two carts and heads towards the customs line and the exit beyond.

The Palestinian man is a courier for Fatah and its black September wing in Europe. His accomplice, posing as his wife, is there to lend legitimacy to their cover. The couple are asked to open their bags.

The husband refuses. He begins to yell and scream, I am a businessman, not a criminal. The customs officials have seen this act before. They point to a bag and ask him to open it.

The man reluctantly opens the suitcase. Lingerie, in many colors and styles, covers the inspection desk. The officer motions to the man, close your case, and carry on. What the German officer doesn't know is that the three pieces of luggage he failed to inspect contains eight AK-47s, dozens of magazines loaded with 7.62mm bullets, and ten hand grenades.

The operation is on track. With 13 days to go before the attack, the terrorists have time to kill. They choose nicknames for themselves. One member of Black September calls himself Che Guevara as a tribute to his hero, the bloodthirsty Cuban communist sidekick of Fidel Castro.

The rest of the eight Palestinians take in the sights, make dinner plans, and catch up on sleep. One even goes to two Olympic volleyball games. And you've been listening to the story of the massacre at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany when we come back. More of this remarkable moment in American and world history here on Our American Stories. Here at Our American Stories, we bring you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith, and love. Stories from a great and beautiful country that need to be told.

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Start caring for your home with confidence. Download Thumbtack today. And we continue with our American stories and the story of the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. Remembered in part by Mark Spitz's remarkable performance winning seven gold medals.

But also for something far worse. Let's continue with the story. Tuesday, September 5th, 1972. Day 10 of the Olympics. A bus filled with the sounds of back slapping and laughter arrives back at the Olympic village.

The jubilant Israeli athletes just spent an evening at the theater. At 4 30 a.m. on September 5th. As the athletes sleep, eight track suit clad members of Black September. Carry duffel bags loaded with AK-47 automatic rifles, semi-automatic pistols and hand grenades.

Where are you guys from? As they are about to scale the six foot barrier into the Olympic village. They're immediately spotted.

I don't speak English man. A few tipsy American athletes sneaking back into the village after a night on the town. Let's help them over.

Quickly assist them in getting over the chain link fence. Here you go. Let's go. I got you.

Come on. The terrorists encounter no guards. But to the sober eyes of six German postal workers, the men seem suspicious. They report the break in.

But no action is taken. Once inside, the Black September members change their clothes and load their weapons. With a stolen key, they attempt to enter the apartment housing the Israeli delegation. But the lock won't turn. The jiggling of the key immediately wakes Yusuf Gutfreund.

A six foot three, 285 pound international wrestling referee. The terrorists flip the lock and open the door. But Gutfreund stands in the hall staring at the masked men. As he throws the full weight of his body and strength against the door. One of the terrorists quickly wedges the steel barrel of his AK-47 between the door and the frame. And begins using it as a crowbar.

The weightlifting coach, a Holocaust survivor who lost his entire family on German soil. Hears the commotion and sees the masked terrorist slowly gaining entrance. He yells to his flatmates to run for their lives as he throws himself out the back window and escapes. The terrorists overpower Gutfreund and charge into the room. Wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg is shot through the cheek while trying to fight off the intruders. A 106 pound Israeli wrestler slaps at one of the terrorist barrels. And runs down to the underground parking garage as one of the terrorists follows him. Spraying gunfire in his direction. He also escapes. Then the wounded Weinberg holding a rag on his bullet holed cheek makes another attack. Knocking one of the intruders unconscious and slashing another with a fruit knife before being shot to death. Weightlifter Yusef Romano, a veteran of the Six Day War.

Also attacks and wounds one of the terrorists before being shot and killed. That September morning in 1972, the people of Munich wake to the sound of sirens and the rumble of military trucks. Flickering police lights paint the city blue at dawn. The news is breaking all over the world. The peace of what have been called the Serene Olympics was shattered just before dawn this morning about 5 o'clock.

Here's Peter Jennings with the live broadcast. And they've taken nine members of the Israeli delegation hostage. It now appears that Black September has tossed a piece of paper out the window. A list of demands.

A man with a stacking mask on his face. Weird. What's going on inside that head and that mind? The terrorists demanded the release of 234 prisoners who were being held in Israeli jails and also some who were being held abroad. But Golda Meir would have none of it.

She just rejected their demands outright. By 5 p.m. the Palestinians demand an airplane to take them and their hostages to an unspecified Arab country. The Germans agree, counting on ambushing the terrorists at the airfield. German authorities transport the terrorists and their hostages to Furstenfeldbruck Airport. In his book Stateless, the commander of Fatah shared why he chose the Munich Games as his target. To use the unprecedented number of media outlets in one city to display the Palestinian struggle for better or worse.

Around the world, viewers hunkered in front of their TVs, watching and waiting for the outcome. The latest word we get from the airport is that, quote, all hell has broken loose out there. At the airport, a novice German police force set up a decoy airplane to lure the terrorists into the line of their sniper fire. But as the terrorists board the plane, the pilots and the crew are gone. This is ridiculous. Little do they know that just 15 minutes prior, a group of 13 German officers from the police special task command force abandoned the plane and their mission for fear of their lives. He's right.

We can't do any good here. They took a last minute vote. It was unanimous and their commander supported their decision wholeheartedly. With an empty plane, the terrorists immediately assume it's a trap. And it all went horribly wrong. It degenerated into a battle and the hostages were in the middle of this. They were manic, pulled and shackled in the in the back of the helicopters. And all this time, the two Israelis who come over to try and help the rescue operation were standing there watching this and impotent, really.

They were they were powerless to do anything because the battle had begun. German snipers eliminate five of the eight terrorists in the chaotic gunfight. But before their deaths, the members of Black September murder all nine of the chained Israeli hostages.

The three surviving terrorists are held in police custody. Rumors rage. The media pounce. We have reports now that all the hostages, all nine hostages are safe. The International News Agency Reuters sends out an exclusive wire report. It reads, all Israeli hostages have been freed. And according to these reports, all Arab terrorists have died by German gunfire. The good news spreads like wildfire and the world celebrates.

In Israel, relatives and friends show up at athletes' family homes with flowers and champagne. Then, just after three in the morning, the truth finally reaches the media when Reuters sends a corrected message over the wires. Flash. All Israeli hostages seized by Arab guerrillas killed. ABC's Jim McKay broadcasts the devastating update to the world.

He looks straight into the camera and says, I've just gotten the final word. When I was a kid, my father used to say our greatest hopes and our worst fears are seldom realized. Our worst fears have been realized tonight. They have now said that there were 11 hostages. Two were killed in their rooms yesterday morning. Nine were killed at the airport tonight. They're all gone.

They're all gone. Jews have been led yet again to their death on German soil. Only 27 years passed since six million Jews were herded into camps and murdered.

As the relatives of the Munich victims gather to bury their dead, Israeli security officials plot revenge. I think it was a great shock. It was a great shock because it showed you what kind of lack of inhibition, lack of any moral constraints this terror had.

If it was supposed to break our morale, it didn't. And you've been listening to the story of the 1972 Olympics in Munich. And what tragedy. You could hear it in Jim McKay's voice.

He was one of the great broadcasters and did ABC's Wide World of Sports. And you could just hear the grief. Two killed in rooms, nine killed in the airport, just flat out murdered. And then you heard the voice of now prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who his brother was killed in the Entebbe raid. When we come back, the story of the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich and the acts of terrorism committed there.

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That's body with an eye dot com. And we continue with our American stories and the story of the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes in the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. And overshadowed were remarkable performances by American athletes, including Mark Spitz, the Jewish American swimmer who won seven gold medals for the United States. Let's pick up where we last left off. In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Golda Meir tells Parliament that Israelis will go after the terrorists responsible. We will smite them wherever they may be. At first, Golda's airstrike response looks like previous skirmishes, but this is just the beginning.

Golda wants to set a new standard. She realizes Israel can no longer afford to respond and retaliate. The Talmudic imperative to rise and slay the one who comes to kill you needs to be fulfilled to the letter of the law, she says. Prime Minister Meir authorizes the assassination campaign. They call it Operation Wrath of God. Terror will soon arrive at the terrorist doorstep. If Operation Wrath of God has any lingering doubts, they are erased by events on October 29th, 1972, just a month and a half after Munich. The Lufthansa jet was hijacked coming from Damascus. The hijackers demanded the release of three killers to survive Munich and the Germans said yes instantly. The three terrorists celebrate their freedom with a press conference. Look at them.

They are movie stars. Did you shoot any of the Israeli hostages? It's not important to say I killed the Israeli one. It is clear that if those who planned and carried out the attack at Munich were ever going to pay for what they did, only Israel could extract that payment. Operation Wrath of God would be the instrument of its revenge. That was the first time I think in the history of Israel, maybe in the history of the world, that the state decided to pursue a policy of personal killing in a systematic way. A committee led by Meir draft a secret hit list of black September members. Ambushed and slaughtered again. While the rest of the world is playing games, Olympic torches and brass bands and dead Jews in Germany. And the world couldn't care less. The Israeli intelligence agency Mossad supplies the committee with dossiers on the Palestinian members.

Number one on the list was Aleh Hassan Salameh. There's people. They're sworn to destroy us. Because I don't know who these maniacs are and where they come from. Palestinians.

You tell me what law protects people like these. I've made a decision. The responsibility is entirely mine. Salameh is the operations chief of Black September and the mastermind behind Munich and the Palestinian hijackings. For all his bloody activities, the Israeli media crown him the Red Prince. He was really a protege of Yasser Arafat. Yasser Arafat publicly declared him to be his son in inverted commas. And he was really something of an aristocratic hero within the Palestinian, among the Palestinian people. Operation Wrath of God is underway as Mossad agents fan out across Europe and the Middle East.

The first target on Mossad's secret assassination list is a Black September operative working as a translator at the Libyan embassy in Rome. He had no idea the Israelis were coming for him. He ate dinner that night with a friend and walked home to his apartment block.

He stopped off to buy some groceries, made a couple of phone calls and then walked into the entrance hall where he lived. When two Israeli agents emerged from shadows and shot him with small caliber pistols. Over the next six months, Mossad agents hunt down and kill three other Palestinian terrorists hiding in Europe. They came up with quite intricate, sophisticated ways of killing people, including bombs that were detonated by telephone calls.

They put landmines under somebody's car seat. They blew people up in their hotel bed. Here's Bassam Abu Sharif, Yasser Arafat's chief advisor. The PLO at that time urged all who have relationship to the PLO and their offices to be on the alert because they're expecting that Israel would carry such terrorist operations. By the spring of 1973, Israel cooks up a mission that will strike fear into the heart of Black September and the PLO. Beirut, a one million person coastal city, 75 miles north of Israel's border. Beirut is a notorious factory for terrorism. At the time, of course, Beirut wasn't like Europe. It was an armed city where they would have been quite prepared to attack and kill any Israeli soldiers that they saw. But these Israeli agents will not be seen. For this operation, Mossad will enlist Israel's elite special force known simply as the UNIT. Lieutenant Colonel Ehud Barak is in charge.

We felt very self-confident that we can do whatever we need to do. There's the scalpel and there's a sledgehammer. The sledgehammers, the cruise missiles, and the air force coming in and laying down a carpet of bombs. The UNIT is a scalpel.

And this operation is most definitely a surgical strike. Mossad learns that three top-level Fatah targets live in the same apartment block on the Rue Verdun, just beyond the American and British embassies and the luxury seaside hotels. They were the planners, they were the military commanders, and they were very, very close to Yasser Arafat. It's Israel's most audacious counter-terrorism mission to date. The intended message, our reach is long.

We can find you anywhere. The motive, deterrence, prevention, revenge. Here's how it goes down. Ehud Barak turned up at the commando's base and slapped down on the table the three photographs of the individuals they were going to target. And people who were there have said this murmur of anticipation ran through the room. They told him, these are the guys. They tried to photograph their faces.

We are going to go and find them. As they train to go and find them, they realize that a group of young Israeli men moving through the streets of Beirut might easily blow up their operation. So they decide to disguise themselves as couples on a date. The shortest warriors dress in drag. Barak is the hot brunette. A future Israeli general and deputy head of the Mossad are the blondes. The men hide their weapons and explosives under their jackets. The ladies stash Uzi submachine guns in their fashionable purses and hide hand grenades under their braziers. The idea is show the people something very unthreatening.

They won't even notice it. And you can walk right by even a police officer as they did in this case. And you've been listening to the story of the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany. The terrorist attacks that massacred and took the life of 11 Israeli athletes. And then Israel's response led by then Prime Minister Golda Meir.

And my goodness, her Operation Wrath of God, which she authorized in October 29, 1972, was the first time in history that a state decided on a system of personalized killings. A hit list, so to speak, with Mossad leading the charge. And of course, we're caught now in the middle of the operation in Beirut in 1973. And there are two ways of going about taking on the terrorists. First, air power, the sledgehammer. But then comes the scalpel and a group that's called simply the unit.

And when we come back, what happens next in Operation Wrath of God and how it impacts America here on Our American Stories. A loud, light-framed duvet can go straight into your wash. Perfect for anyone with kids, pets or anyone who loves an easy-to-clean, spotless sofa. With a modular design and changeable slipcovers, you can customize your sofa to fit any space and style. Whether you need a single chair, loveseat or a luxuriously large sectional, Anibay has you covered. Visit washablesophas.com to upgrade your home. Sophas start at just $699. And right now, you can shop up to 60% off storewide with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Shop now at washablesophas.com. Add a little to your life. Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply. Watch The Today Show with Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin, weekdays at 7 a.m. on NBC. If we can do it with TikTok ads, you can too. Want to grow your business fast?

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That's body with an i.com. And we return to our American stories and the story of the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany, and the terrorist attacks that occurred there, taking the life of 11 Israeli athletes, and the response by Israel, Operation Wrath of God. We last left off in Beirut.

Let's return to the story. On April 9, 1973, Israeli naval missile boats depart from Haifa Naval Base carrying the unit's top 16 commandos and rubber Zodiac speedboats. The ladies cover their heads with plastic ponchos to protect their wigs and make up covered faces from the sea spray. When the missile boats reach the shores of Beirut, the inflatable Zodiacs are lowered into the water.

To avoid being heard, they cut the engine several hundred yards from the shore and begin to paddle. The agents from the Mossad had found out where they lived and had even gotten blueprints of the houses, the apartments where they were living, right outside of Beirut. A broad-shouldered man in a suit two sizes too big for him walks hand in hand with Barack the brunette towards the entrance of their target. The other couples follow along while staying in character. The unit meets strong resistance early on from nearly 100 militants guarding the apartments. They engage in a close quarters battle.

The doorman runs into the apartment and cries out in a garbled voice, The Jews are here. Within minutes, three of the PLO's highest level leaders are dead. The soldiers shove piles of paper into waterproof bags and race down the stairs. As the unit exits into the street, they run into a firefight with Lebanese police who are quickly beaten back. Mossad agents drive the commandos back to the beach, abandon their rented Buick Skylarks and return to the missile boats in their rubber Zodiacs.

It took us the whole operation from the time we landed to the time we were back in the sea some thirty minutes. By the time the sun rises over Beirut, Barack and his men are back in Israel. The Israelis assassinated three Palestinian leaders who all lived in this one apartment building. Altogether they killed or injured as many as 40 Lebanese and Palestinians. I remember the town was in shock when they invaded Beirut itself and in the dead of night just stitched these guys in their apartments. The sets of vulnerability was enormous. Yet the most important target and most elusive is still at large. The Israelis were so keen to assassinate Ali Hassan Salameh that they searched all over Europe for him. They weren't sure where he was based or even really sure what he looked like at the time. He was very cautious and careful and moved from one place to another, never stayed at the same place.

It was a very, very difficult time. Mossad agents pick up traces of Salameh throughout Europe. But the leads run cold. Then, on July 14th, 1973, Mossad gets a tip that a low-level courier has a scheduled rendezvous with the Red Prince. Fourteen Israeli agents follow the courier to a tiny town in Norway called Lillehammer. For two days they do not let the Red Prince out of their sight. There is, however, a junior member of the Israeli team who has her doubts about whether this is actually Salameh.

But she is overruled. On the night of July 21st, as Salameh walks with a woman up a deserted street, two Mossad agents jump out of their car, withdraw their silenced Berettas, and shoot the man ten times at close range. The woman screams as the mastermind of Munich falls to the ground. But junior backup agents make a fatal error as they speed out of the sleepy Norwegian town.

A lone Lillehammer police officer takes down their license plate number. The morning after, they drive the same car to the Oslo airport and are arrested. One of the agents, who has serious claustrophobia, spills the beans on the operation and discloses the locations of many Israeli safe houses across Europe. It is an international embarrassment for Israel.

As bad as this is, the team makes a bigger mistake. The man they killed is not Aleha San Salameh. Here's former CIA officer Sam Wyman. When you have a team that is that expert and that skilled and that well-trained, when there is disagreement from one of those expert, well-trained people, history has shown us you ought to listen. Five of the six Israeli agents serve a maximum sentence of twenty months, a slap on the wrist. To many, this is evidence that European governments quietly condone the actions of the Israeli hit teams. But back in Israel, one of Golda Meir's worst nightmares has come true. The murder in Lillehammer was seen as such a disaster for Israeli intelligence that Golda Meir and the Israeli government decided to suspend Operation Wrath of God and put a hold on future assassination operations. Mossad hit teams lie dormant for five years. During this time, in 1974, Golda authorizes a hit on PLO leader Yasser Arafat. But low visibility prevents aerial reconnaissance from confirming Arafat's location.

The mission is aborted. That same year, Arafat is given a hero's welcome at the United Nations, just two years after the Munich Massacre. Standing right behind him and sharing in the spotlight is Arafat's close friend, the architect of Munich, Ali Hassan Salameh. In 1978, five years after Operation Wrath of God was suspended, Mossad is given a green light once more and zero in on Salameh, who is working at PLO headquarters in Beirut. He had lowered his guard. He was following a pretty regular daily routine. The Israeli agents soon realized from surveillance where he was living and where he would work and people he would visit.

January, 1979. Salameh leaves his home in the afternoon and gets into his tan Chevrolet, accompanied by two bodyguards. Two more bodyguards climb into the Land Rover and follow behind. The Chevy rolls towards a rented Volkswagen Bug that is packed with 11 pounds of plastic explosives, equal to 70 pounds of dynamite. A Mossad agent stands 100 yards away on the balcony of her rented apartment and watches the convoy approach.

She flips the switch on the detonator as the Chevrolet rolls past. As the smoke clears, the car lays obliterated in the middle of the street. Inside, 38-year-old Aleh Hassan Salameh is dead. Salameh was seen as almost an aristocrat within the Palestinian community. He was revered by many people, idolized by many others, and his death came as a huge shock to Palestinians.

He had a huge funeral. Yasser Arafat shed tears and hugged Aleh Hassan Salameh's young son and really was visibly moved and deeply upset by the attack. The Israelis, by contrast, of course, were completely delighted about his death. It is seven years in the making, but Israel feels they finally avenged Munich and made their country, and the world, a safer place. Two of the three terrorists who survived Munich were also reported killed in the late 70s. There's only one surviving terrorist who was involved in the actual attack at Munich. That's a man called Jamal al-Gashi, who still lives in hiding now. He still lives in fear of his life and thinks the Israelis may try to assassinate him. In 1999, a Hollywood film crew accomplished something that even the Mossad was unable to do. They locate Jamal al-Gashi and convince him to sit down for an interview for their Oscar-winning documentary, One Day in September, narrated by Michael Douglas. The almost fully silhouetted Palestinian reflects on the massacre of 11 innocent Israeli athletes 27 years after their deaths. I felt great pride and happiness that I would be participating in an operation against the Israelis. I was finally going to fulfill my dream. Today, he is reportedly hiding somewhere in Africa.

And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Greg Hengler. And my goodness, what happened in 1972 in Munich? Well, we've had similar experiences here in America. 9-11 for sure. Our own citizens and what happened to them in the Negev Desert in 2013. And it's still happening today. Terrorists around the world committing untold horrors on innocents. And my goodness, the story of finally taking down Salome, the Red Prince, and almost seven years after the day of Munich, the full justice, the full wrath was finally felt by the people of Israel and free people around the world.

The story of the 1972 Olympic massacre here on Our American Stories. or anyone who loves an easy to clean, spotless sofa. With a modular design and changeable slip covers, you can customize your sofa to fit any space and style. Whether you need a single chair, loveseat, or a luxuriously large sectional, Anibay has you covered. Visit washablesophas.com to upgrade your home. Sofa started just $699. And right now you can shop up to 60% off store wide with a 30 day money back guarantee. Shop now at washablesophas.com. Add a little to your life.

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