What a plot!

Join us at the JBF event on Wednesday, Feb. 3 to discover the secrets behind one of the Mossad’s most clandestine missions!

In the meantime, enjoy the review of Red Sea Spies by JBF Committee Member Carole J Greene.

Novelists toil for excruciating months to shape plots that propel their characters to overcome obstacles and reach their goals. Raffi Berg’s Red Sea Spies has no plotting problem. This tale — that reads like page-turner fiction — is all true.

The desired goal: to deliver Jewish refugees from Ethiopia through Arab Sudan and then on to Israel. The characters: agents of the Mossad, Israel’s version of the CIA, working undercover at what appears to be a resort catering to scuba-diving enthusiasts from around the world; also, Jews from Ethiopia risking their lives to reach Jerusalem. The obstacles: the forbidding heat and isolation of the desert; vast distances between the refugees’ hometowns and Israel; the Arab people surrounding the resort, sworn enemies of all Jews; Sudan officials with authority to approve or prohibit every aspect essential to the transportation of Ethiopian Jews to the Promised Land.

The tribe, now called “the Ethiopian Jews,” has maintained throughout generations that they are Israelites, driven out of their land in biblical times. From the core of their belief arose a single driving force: to return to Jerusalem. In the late 1970s and onward, they trekked on foot for months from their homeland to refugee centers in Sudan, where they dared not admit that they were Jews. Only someone familiar with their Jewish habits, such as Shabbat observance, could discern that they were not like other refugees.

The story reveals the only operations — variously termed Operation Moses, Operation Brothers and Opening Gift — led by an intelligence agency to evacuate civilians from another country. By its very nature, the Mossad must operate in clandestine ways, as was the case in smuggling Jews out of Sudan. Berg interviewed past and present Mossad agents as well as Israeli Navy and Air Force operatives. Many made similar, personal points: they knew they were involved insomething historic.

In his book’s introduction, Berg wrote: “All would say with modesty that they were ‘just doing their job,’ but it was clear they were motivated by something much more visceral than that. More than once, these individuals would use the analogy of the biblical Exodus of the Jewish people who went from bondage in Egypt to redemption in the Promised Land. They felt they were carrying out something similar in the modern age.”

The lead character — protagonist, if you will — was an experienced Mossad agent named Dani. He formulated a cover story so he could move about Sudan and talk with people in the refugee camps: he appeared to be an anthropologist studying these tribes. In 1979, he happened across Ferede Aklum, an Ethiopian who would become his trusted ally. Ferede ferreted out people known as Beta Israel, hiding amongst the non-Jewish Ethiopians. In the early days of the smuggling operation, working only on moonless nights to decrease chances of detection, Dani and Ferede spirited small groups of Jews to the airport at Khartoum. Terrified, the Jews boarded airplanes — crafts they never knew existed — and flew to Greece. From Greece, they emigrated safely to Israel.

The mission required careful coordination. Intelligence organizations instructed their foreign ministries to authorize their diplomats in Khartoum to stamp passport requests from “Antoine,” and, wrote Berg, “Dani collected the list, now officially approved for emigration to Greece. The intelligence agencies knew the requests were false, but the diplomats did not. They did not know the refugees were Jewish, nor that ‘Antoine’ was Dani from the Mossad.”

Risks lurked at every point in the carefully executed extraction. Eventually, this method of smuggling the Jews became too dangerous to continue. After assurances that Ferede and his family made it to Israel, Dani worked to find another way. In 1982, Dani and his Mossad colleagues took over an abandoned Red Sea resort, outfitted it for scuba divers, and marketed it throughout the Mediterranean and beyond. Diving enthusiasts had no idea that the resort’s staff were undercover intelligence agents, taking them on dive excursions by day, smuggling Jews out of Sudan by night. In 1984, the resort, named Arous, enjoyed its best year for both tourists and smuggling. Agents collected Ethiopian Jews by truck, taking them across the desert and onto Zodiacs tied up at the resort. Under the cover of darkness, the Zodiacs offloaded their human cargo onto the Bat Galim, a ship in the middle of the Red Sea, which headed for Israel. But soon, Sudanese politics made it necessary to scale back smuggling from Arous. The Mossad agents based at Arous reverted to night airlifts in the desert, where no airstrips or roads existed. Giant cargo planes, piloted by the best of the best from the Israeli Air Force, located the carefully selected stretches of sand and safely landed — sans lights.

Berg wrote: “From the time of the first secret airlift in 1977 to when the last aircraft touched down in Tel Aviv on 25 May 1991, at least 28,695 Ethiopian Jews — about 80% of their entire community — had been transported to Israel, . . . spirited out by every means possible, over 14,300 of them through Sudan.”

What a satisfying denouement!

Raffi Berg

Wednesday, Feb. 3, 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 3, 10:30 a.m.

Red Sea Spies by Raffi Berg Sponsors: Jewish National Fund and Naples Jewish Congregation

Raffi Berg, the Middle East editor of the BBC News website, has extensive experience reporting on Israel and the wider region. His book grew out of an article he posted on the BBC News website. Top audience for such articles usually reaches 1 million. This article garnered 5.5 million views. The story has been made into a Netflix film titled “Red Sea Diving Resort.”

The Saul I. SternCultural Series

Each year, JCMI strives to offer patrons educational and entertaining events. This season, three wonderful programs are planned:

Jan. 16 – Tim Schwarz and Dan Weiser – Broadway Violins

Feb. 6 – The Naples Philharmonic Brass Quintet, our 15th year of magical music

March 6 – Frank Del Pizzo, singer and comedian straight from Las Vegas

For further information on pricing and venues, contact the Synagogue office at 239-642-0800 or check the Flyers & Information page of our website, www.marcojcmi.com