OPERAT ON

An elderly, partially blind woman is carried upon arrival in Israel.

Bribes And Precision
Helped The Rescue

It took a $3 million payment and
clandestine intelligence work to get
the airlift off the ground.

HELEN DAVIS

Foreign Correspondent

T

his is a great moment
for all our people."
The speaker was
Israeli Prime Minister Yit-
zhak Shamir and he made
the statement as the first of
more than 14,000 Ethiopian
Jews streamed into Ben-
Gurion Airport last weekend
in a heroic rescue operation
that added a new chapter to
the dramatic story of the
modern State of Israel.
With one extended swoop,
nearly the entire community
of Ethiopian Jews remaining
in that war-plagued African
nation was plucked to safety
in the top-secret "Operation
Solomon" — an operation
conducted with military
precision under the tightest
of security nets.
Lending an air of urgency
to the operation was the

24

FRIDAY, MAY 31, 1991

backdrop of advancing Arab-
backed Ethiopian rebels
thought also to be harboring
a grudge against Israel and
Ethiopian Jews because of
the Jewish state's past
military aid to the collapsing
Ethiopian regime.
Full details of "Operation
Solomon" are unlikely ever

70 Mossad-trained
Ethiopian Jews
who had escaped
to Israel earlier
returned to Addis
Ababa to facilitate
the operation.

to be revealed by the
Mossad, Israel's foreign in-
telligence agency, but suffi-
cient information has
emerged to construct a pic-
ture of the dramatic events
that unfolded late last week.

Two key Israeli figures
have emerged as principal
players in the high-stakes
drama.
The first is the ac-
complished Israeli diplomat
Simcha Dinitz, former am-
bassador to the United
States and now chairman of
the Jewish Agency.
He was the link between
Jerusalem and Washington,
whose desire to play midwife
to the birth of a new Ethio-
pia enabled the operation to
take place. A letter from
President Bush to Ethiopia's
acting president urging him
to let the Jews go helped
pave the way.
The second — and even
more dramatic Israeli role —
was that played by Uri
Lubrani, a shadowy figure
and the former Israeli envoy
to Iran who was first to spot
that the Shah would not
survive the onslaught of
Islamic fundamentalism.

SOLOMON

More recently, it was Mr.
Lubrani who recognized that
the bloody, 14-year reign of
Ethiopia's Mengistu Haile
Mariam could no longer
resist the Eritrean and
Tigrayan rebels.
His task was to deal with
the key officials of that dy-
ing, tyrannical regime
which had re-established re-
lations with Israel in 1989
and had dealt with the Jew-
ish state on the basis of driv-
ing self-interest in the face of
growing rebel military
pressure.
Ethiopia's Jews were vir-
tually hostages of the
regime, which refused to let
them leave in large numbers
to insure a steady supply of
badly needed Israeli
military assistance. Mr.
Lubrani's task was to cajole,
promise and threaten the E-
thiopian leaders; to do
everything necessary to
safeguard them until the
rescue mission could be
mounted.
"Operation Solomon" was
finally activated last Tues-
day, immediately after news
filtered out that Mengistu
had fled to the southern
African state of Zimbabwe —
an event believed to have
been engineered by the
United States.
By that time, virtually all
of Ethiopia's remaining
Jews had walked to the capi-
tal from their former homes
in the war-ravaged, drought-
stricken provinces of Gondar
and Tigray. An estimated
4,000 died on the long,
treacherous trek, easy prey
to exhaustion, disease and
roaming bandits.
Meanwhile, about 70
Mossad-trained, Amharic-
speaking Ethiopian Jews
who had escaped to Israel
five years earlier during
"Operation Moses" were
returned to Addis Ababa,
where they melted unob-
trusively into the squalid
refugee camps and shanty
towns where 14,000 Jews
had been concentrated.
The day after Mengistu
fled, they moved into top
gear.
One group left the camps
to organize busses that
would transport the Ethio-
pian Jews on the first stage
of their journey to safety. A
second group told in-
habitants of the camps to
prepare to leave.
The destitute, displaced
remnant of Ethiopia's Jew-
ish community, mostly
barefoot and wearing tradi-
tional white robes, was
about to be dispossessed of
its last, precious belongings.
They could not, they were
told, take anything but the

clothes they were wearing —
no luggage except for per-
sonal religious articles.
At the same time as the E-
thiopian end of the operation
swung into action, Israeli
Air Force transport planes
took off from bases in the
Jewish state for the three-
and-a-half-hour journey to
Addis Ababa.
On board were some 200
crack commandos, led by
Israel's Deputy Chief of
Staff, Maj. Gen. Amnon
Shahak. They had already
been briefed on their task: to
secure the airport at Addis
Ababa and ensure the safe
arrival and departure of
scores of flights that would
follow almost immediately.
Less than 24 hours after
Mengistu had fled, and with

The Ethiopians
were allowed to
take nothing but
the clothes they
were wearing and
personal religious
articles.

the sound of rebel gunfire
clearly audible, fleets of
busses, each accompanied by
Mossad agents, had loaded
their human cargo and were
snaking through the
deserted streets of Addis
Ababa toward the Israeli
Embassy compound.
At the international air-
port, the Israeli transport
planes disgorged the corn-
mandos who knew every
inch of the airport layout
from their training in Israel.
As they took up their posi-
tions, the Ethiopian police
quietly left the area.
This was not a matter of
luck or intimidation, but the
result of another piece of
careful planning: Israel had
taken the precaution of han-
ding the Ethiopian au-
thorities $35 million in cash
"to facilitate the operation."
"Our assessment was that
the operation could not be
carried out by force," said
one Israeli official simply.
With the airport perimeter
and buildings under Israeli
control, the approaching
Israeli planes prepared to
land.
At the same time, the
groups of Ethiopian Jews ar-
riving at the embassy com-
pound were quickly re-
organized into fresh groups
and once again put on the
busses.
This time they were bound
for the airport, where the
first of the planes had landed
and were waiting, engines