OPERATION

still running, to take them to
Israel.
For the next 21 hours, the
34 aircraft, packed more
tightly with humanity than
their designers had dared
imagine, made a succession
of round trips, landing at
Ben-Gurion Airport every 15
minutes. (Because the opera-
tion took place over the
Sabbath, rabbinic approval
had been required.)
At one point in the opera-
tion, a total of 28 planes
were in the air at the same
time. One Boeing 747, its
seats removed and its cabin
floor covered with mat-
tresses, carried 1,087 Ethio-
pian Jews, more than twice
its normal maximum load
and the largest number of
people ever to travel in a
single passenger airliner.
Some two-thirds of the
immigrants were estimated
to be children, and their
number was swollen by no
fewer than 10 infants who
were born during the opera-
tion itself, including one set
of twins.
Once in Israel, the new
immigrants were processed
and then taken to absorption
centers, hostels and, in one
case, to a hotel in Jerusalem
for the start of yet another
long and arduous journey.
For most, it was not only a
journey from Ethiopia to
Israel, from peril to safety,
from exile to home, but also
a journey from the 17th cen-
tury to the 20th century; a
replay of that remarkable
event six years ago which
captured the imagination of
the world when 7,000 Ethi-
opian Jews had their first
encounter with the modern
world.
This week, another 14,000
embarked on a journey that
will eventually take them,
like previous waves of im-
migrants, into the main-
stream of Israeli society.
"This is a great operation
that has brought out the en-
tire Jewish community from
Ethiopia to Israel," Mr.
Shamir declared triumphant-
ly atBen-Gurion Airport.
Meanwhile, other, more
sober-minded Israeli officials
estimated that in addition to
the $35 million payoff to the
Ethiopian authorities,
"Operation Solomon" would
cost a further $127 million:
$7 million for the flights and
the remainder — at a modest
$8,500 a head — for the ab-
sorption of the immigrants.
For the time being, no one
is counting the cost, but com-
ing on top of the bill for ab-
sorbing the hundreds of
thousands of new Soviet
immigrants, Israel will
sooner or later face a tough
day of reckoning. ❑

SOLOMON

Israel's Long History Of Rescuing Jews

Operation Solomon is
the 16th rescue mission
the Israeli government
has attempted since the
state was founded in
1948.
This latest mission,
which packed 14,087 E-
thiopian Jews into El Al
jetliners and military
cargo planes from Addis
Ababa, reportedly cost
Israel $35 million.
The first official
government airlift of E-
thiopian Jews began from
the Sudan in 1985 when
Operation Moses
transported 7,000 Ethio-
pian Jews to Israel.
To obtain freedom for
Jews, Israel had been sup-
porting Ethiopian Presi-
dent Mengistu Haile
Mariam. The president,
who resigned and fled the
country last week, had us-

ed the Jews as hostages,
letting them out a few at a
time in exchange for
Israeli aid.
Other rescue missions
devoted to the evacuation
of Jews included:
• 1948: Operation
Magic Carpet brought
45,000 Yemenite Jews to
Israel.
• 1948: About 7,000
Kurdish Jews were
brought to Israel from
Iranian Kurdistan.
• 1948: Operation
Ezrah and Operation
Nehemiah: more than
110,000 Iraqi Jews were
brought to Israel on ap-
proximately 2,000 flights
from Bagdad.
• 1948: Operation
Goshen: Israel brought
10,000 Jews from Egypt.
About 4,000 Karaites,
Jews who adhere almost

fanatically to the letter of
the written law, were also
brought out of Egypt at
that time.
• 1949 to present: Some
300,000 Romanian Jews
have emigrated to Israel.
• 1949: Some 4,000
Jews were brought from
Moslem Afghanistan to
Israel via Iraq.
• 1949: About 25,000
Persian Jews were
brought to Israel between
1949 and 1950.
• 1949: About 32,000
Jews were brought to
Israel by boat.
• 1951: Most of the
2,500 Jews living in the
Indian port city of Cochin
were brought to Israel.
Another 12,000 Indian
Jews called Bene Israel
came to Israel also during
the 1950s.
• 1953: About 35,000

Turkish Jews were
brought to Israel by boat.
• 1959: Operation
Yachin: Approximately
250,000 Jews were
brought out of the
Maghreb by the Mossad,
Israel's secret security
agency from Morocco,
Tunisia and Algeria.
• 1979: On the eve of
the Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini's rise to power
in Iran, some 2,000 Jews
escape the country and
are brought to Israel.
• 1989: Operation Ex-
odus: Israel has brought
out 250,000 Soviet Jews
since mid-1989.
• 1991: About 300 Jews,
nearly all of the known
Jewish community of
Albania, were flown to
Israel in a hurried opera-
tion.

❑

_ Amy J. Mehler

In Addis Ababa, Israelis help Ethiopian Jews move from a bus to an Israeli military plane for the flight to Tel Aviv.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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