EXODUS PART 3, ADVENTURE À LA CARTE

True Spies Episode 146 - Exodus, Part 3: Adventure À La Carte

NARRATOR: This is True Spies, the podcast that takes you deep inside the greatest secret missions of all time. Week by week, you’ll hear the true stories behind the operations that have shaped the world we live in. You’ll meet the people who live life undercover. What do they know? What are their skills? And what would you do in their position? I’m Sophia Di Martino, and this is True Spies from SPYSCAPE Studios. Exodus, Part 3: Adventure À La Carte.

DANIEL LIMOR: Suddenly we were surrounded by many soldiers, maybe 30 or 40. And someone hit me with the back of the rifle on my head. I was a bit fuzzy. My doctor inclines himself toward me. And he whispers in my ear, “Should we take them on?”

NARRATOR: March 1982, Sudan. Mossad officer Dani Limor and his team are evacuating scores of Ethiopian Jews from the coast. In the middle of the operation. A company of Sudanese soldiers ambushes the beach.

DANIEL LIMOR: And they shouted in Arabic, “Stop or we will kill you.” 

NARRATOR: The last of the transport dinghies are still leaving the shore. The entire mission is about to be exposed, leaving Dani and his crew facing life in a Sudanese prison as a best-case scenario.

DANIEL LIMOR: And one of the soldiers, he started running toward the boat with his Kalashnikov ready to shoot. He came to the shore, to the water's edge. The boat was to our right. And then he saw the other boats were still not far away from the shore. And you could see the foam the engines made, so before I could do anything he shot.

NARRATOR: In this, the final part of True Spies' in-depth look at Operation Brothers, we’ll hear how Mossad conducted a mission unparalleled in the Agency’s history.

GAD SHIMRON: The story is a real Zionist James Bond story. It's unique in the history of the intelligence world because it's the first time in the history of Africa that Europeans took Africans out of Africa not to enslave them, but to free them. 

NARRATOR: We’ll hear from the agents that were there.

RUBI VITERBO: One morning, I'm swimming back and I raised my head and I saw maybe 20 soldiers with guns. So I told myself, “Oh, my God, that's it. I am exposed.”

NARRATOR: And from the Jews that they rescued.

TAKELE MEKONEN: It's a Muslim country. It’s a very fanatical Muslim country. You don't imagine if they hear you are a Jew they can kill you. That's all.

NARRATOR: Neviot Resort, the Sinai Peninsula, 1981. Propping up the bar is the retreat’s diving instructor, Rubi Viterbo. Nicknamed ‘Beckenbauer’, after one of the world’s best-paid soccer players, Viterbo has carved out a reputation as one of the region’s most successful divers. Overlooking the Gulf of Aqaba though, the money - and the dream - is coming to an end. Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin has agreed to hand the Sinai Peninsula back to Egypt. Rubi and his colleagues are out. 

RUBI VITERBO: We already had the date of evacuation, the Sinai. April ‘82 was the last day that we had to leave.

NARRATOR: Unknown to him, however, one of Begin’s other, highly classified, projects is about to come knocking. Looking around the bar, Rubi spots two people he knows. Sat with them is a third man. The two men motioned Rubi over to their table and introduced the third.

RUBI VITERBO: And he spoke to me in Italian because I am Italian in origin.

NARRATOR: The man says he is from the Jewish Agency…

RUBI VITERBO: And told me that they want to smuggle some Jews from Africa - he didn’t say when and where - and they will need my expertise for two weeks. I'm a diving instructor and this involved transferring some brothers from the beach to a boat by dinghies. So he asked me if I agreed.

NARRATOR: “Sure,” Rubi responds, “I’ll do it.” The man then introduces himself. “I’m Dani Limor,” he says.

RUBI VITERBO: When he mentioned Jews from Africa, immediately I connected. A friend of mine wrote the book Black Brothers. So I brought the book and I said, “Dani, you mean this?” 

NARRATOR: Examining the book, Dani laughs. Operation Brothers, that’s what we’ll call the mission, he says, before telling Rubi someone will be in touch.

RUBI VITERBO: Nobody talked about Mossad or anything, but I knew.

NARRATOR: Rubi wasn’t just another diving instructor. He was an ex-commando in the Shayetet 13, Israel’s elite Navy unit. That’s how he recognized the two men in the bar - they too were ex-Shayetet 13. Dani knew these were the caliber of people he needed.

DANIEL LIMOR: The common denominator was they all had the capacity to operate undercover in an enemy country, with all that this means - the mind, the mentality, and the guts to do whatever was needed.

NARRATOR: Shortly after, Rubi and two other instructors he recommended are in Tel Aviv to be briefed.

RUBI VITERBO: And they asked us to write in English a short curriculum vitae a - CV. So I wrote, I was born and raised in Kah-Geh-Beh, KGB. 

NARRATOR: Minutes after handing the form in, an official rushed over to Rubi. “What is this? KGB?” he shouts. ”It’s Kibbutz Givat Brenner,” Rubi replies, the name of his local kibbutz - a kind of collective community unique to Israel.

RUBI VITERBO: He said this is the last time you make jokes with us. We take it very seriously. Very seriously. 

NARRATOR: Rubi and the others are then put through a series of examinations - psychoanalysis, aptitude tests, exercise simulations. Looking at their results, the examiner tells Dani none of them are right for the job. They’re too unpredictable, individualistic, and strong-minded. That’s exactly what I want, Dani replies.

RUBI VITERBO: So I was accepted. Dani gave us a small briefing. He said there was an abandoned Italian holiday village and this would be our base for the next two weeks.

NARRATOR: Rubi and the other diving instructors are given basic cover stories and aliases. A Mossad agent checks their belongings for anything with Hebrew markings. The agent then tells them: “You are not Israelis anymore.” Armed with fake passports, the team heads to Sudan. As does their boss, Efraim Halevy - one of the most senior officials in the Mossad.

RUBI VITERBO: Almost ran over a camel.

NARRATOR: Dani, meanwhile, remained field commander while also becoming a Mossad department head - a dual role unprecedented in the history of the Agency. Certain pockets of HQ were against running a diving resort as a cover story, however. Sending a team into an enemy country was one thing, they argued, but having them interact with large numbers of the unknown, unvetted people as holiday resort personnel was quite another. They would likely not return - unless in a body bag. But Dani stood up to his superiors.

DANIEL LIMOR: When someone wants to find a reason not to do it, you always find it. Always. In this profession, especially.

NARRATOR: “The Jews needed urgent help,” he said. The camps were rife with disease. Hundreds had died already while rumors were spreading to the Sudanese police that many were disappearing in the middle of the night. The clock was ticking.

DANIEL LIMOR: More and more people were arriving at the camps. We needed to upgrade the operation,

NARRATOR: Eventually, Dani convinces headquarters to let him use the resort. Nonetheless, Halevey wanted to check it out for himself. En route from Khartoum to the coast, some 900 kilometers away, Dani takes him and the rest of the team to see Gedaref's camp.

RUBI VITERBO: And we saw the condition that they are living in, the refugees. Terrible conditions. So this was to give us some ambition to do the job. 

NARRATOR: Eventually, the crew reached the coast and set eyes on the resort.

RUBI VITERBO: It was 5 am, just sunrise, and we went up the hill and I saw this village and two lagoons. Beautiful. The moment I saw this beautiful, deserted village, I thought to myself, “I would like to stay here as long as possible.”

NARRATOR: But there’s little time to relax. After one night, Efraim Halevey, the ultimate head of the operation, was satisfied, wished the team luck, and returned to Israel. The first seaborne evacuation was agreed upon - and it was only two weeks away. The team rigged the resort with communications and fitted a new generator. Rubi charted a route around the reef and out of the nearby cove that would be the evacuation point.

RUBI VITERBO: We organize ourselves. We get the fuel and the boats and everything was ready.

NARRATOR: Here was the plan: Dani, Rubi, and the rest of the team would drive 900 km from the resort inland to Gedaref camp. There they would rendezvous with the Committee men, hide the Ethiopian Jews in the lorries and make the return journey. All at night.

RUBI VITERBO: Kids. Old people. Pressed like sardines. Standing. Not sitting. No toilet, no drinking, nothing. 

NARRATOR: In the day, the convoy would retreat to a designated Wadi halfway. Waiting several kilometers offshore was a large Israeli military freighter - the Bat Galim. Israeli Navy Seals would launch fully armed Zodiac dinghies to pick up the Jews from the shoreline, bringing them back to the main ship over several trips. There were risks at every step.

RUBI VITERBO: On the way down, by the way, we saw that there are 10 block roads. I mean really, people with guns standing, checking.

NARRATOR: And the sea was often no less dangerous. Sudanese patrol ships scoured the coast at night, hunting for smugglers and pirates. Exposure at any point risked not just the lives of everyone involved, but also threatened to spark a major international incident. All at a time when Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin was trying to improve ties with the Arab world.

MENACHEM BEGIN [Recording]: “The signing of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel is only the beginning. Tomorrow, with God’s help, we shall lay the cornerstone, and on it in the days and months and years to come, we shall build the edifice of peace.”

DANIEL LIMOR: If this gets exposed, that the Mossad is doing clandestine operations in an Arab country. it would create a lot of problems with all kinds of efforts that are being conducted to develop the relations with Arab countries. You have to calculate all the time, the risk that you're taking. 

NARRATOR: Content with the risks they’re taking, however, on the night of November 21, 1981, the team departed the resort and headed for Gedaref camp. Luckily, the roadblocks don’t prove a problem. Each driver says they’re traveling from the resort to collect supplies.

RUBI VITERBO: We gave them some freebies, some cigarettes, and some drinks. We just waved to them and they opened the barriers without any problem.

NARRATOR: Once arriving at a quarry near the camp, the committee men of Ethiopian Jews organizing the groups appear. Takele Mekonen was one of them.

TAKELE MEKONEN: So a lot of camouflage, a lot of covering. The youngsters are the last ones to come. But all the elders, the children, the pregnant woman, we have to pick them.

NARRATOR: Rubi and the team load them in.

RUBI VITERBO: They were very quiet and we hit the road.

NARRATOR: Arriving at the Wadi halfway back to the coast, the convoy hides out for the day, where most of the team sees the Jews in daylight for the first time.

RUBI VITERBO: I was a bit shocked because they looked in very poor condition and they were frightened. We didn't communicate, We couldn't speak Amharic or Swahili, a little bit of English. Nothing in Hebrew. But we felt that we are doing something important. We are saving them from misery to the promised land.

NARRATOR: Upon opening the lorry, some of the Jews think they have already reached Israel.

RUBI VITERBO: They just kissed the ground because they thought, “This is the end of the journey.” They didn't know that we still had to go with the boat and everything 

NARRATOR: Setting off again that night, the convoy arrives at the beach. Several camouflaged dinghies appear out of the darkness. Most of the Ethiopian Jews had never seen the sea before, let alone been on a boat. But it’s not only them that are shocked by the scene. One of the commandos, confusion strewn across his face, turns to Rubi and says: “They are black. Do you think they are Jewish?”

RUBI VITERBO: So I laughed at him and said, “What do you care?”

NARRATOR: With the sea channel back to the Bat Galim clear, the commandos ferry their cargo back to the freighter. Once there, they’re hoisted on deck, en route to the promised land. Over the next 48 hours, the exercise is repeated without a hitch, with another load of Ethiopian Jews delivered to the freighter. By daybreak, the Bat Galim was already far out at sea. A few days later, it arrived at Sharm-El-Sheikh, then still in Israeli hands, untouched. Some 264 Ethiopian Jews disembarked to a rapturous reception from several high-ranking Israeli military and intelligence officials. The head of the Mossad, Yitzhak Hofi, was there himself. The plan had worked.

RUBI VITERBO: I was in charge of radio communication, sending messages, and deciphering messages, and they got the message from the Prime Minister through Efraim Halevy: “The Prime Minister is very happy and gives you all his congratulations and he will meet you when you come home.”

NARRATOR: For Dani’s team, the two-week mission was over. But Rubi had other ideas.

RUBI VITERBO: At this moment, I looked at Dani and I took him aside and I told him, “Dani, I would like to stay.” 

NARRATOR: “What?” Dani says. “Are you crazy? There’s no water, no electricity, no food, nothing.”

RUBI VITERBO: And Dani said, “I cannot get permission for this.” I said, “You don't need to. It's just between you and me.”

NARRATOR: Dani agrees and doesn’t tell headquarters.

RUBI VITERBO: The other guys looked at me and thought, “Well, he's out of his mind.” 

NARRATOR: But Dani also saw an opportunity in keeping Rubi in Sudan. Back in the military barracks, when he first operated with Ferede around Gedaref camp, Dani had met the head of the secret police - a man by the name of Mohammed.

DANIEL LIMOR: I want to keep this relationship alive.

NARRATOR: And doing so was becoming crucial, for, in his last meeting with Mohammed, the conversation had taken an unusual turn. 

DANIEL LIMOR: I brought with me a bottle of the best cognac. So he drank and he drank a lot.

NARRATOR: Mohammed then asked Dani: “Tell me, have you known Jews?”

DANIEL LIMOR: I said, “Of course, Jews are everywhere.”

NARRATOR: “What are they like, the Jews?” Mohammed replies.

DANIEL LIMOR: I said, “Like any other person - they're bad, they're good, they're ugly, they're beautiful.”

NARRATOR: “Do you know there are black Jews?” Mohammed then asked.

DANIEL LIMOR: I said, “What? Nah, you must be mistaken.” 

NARRATOR: “Yes, there are,” Mohammed says. Before adding…

DANIEL LIMOR: “They come from Ethiopia and they come into camps and they disappear because some Zionists come here and they take them because they need cannon fodder for their Army.” 

NARRATOR: Dani starts to think he’s been burned, that Mohammed knew it was him.

DANIEL LIMOR: I was expecting - any time - a door to open. No, he just wanted to know if I knew. And when I said, “I don't” he says, “Well you should know.”

NARRATOR: But then Mohammed said something else…

DANIEL LIMOR: “We will find these people taking them out.”

NARRATOR: Maintaining his cover, Dani thanked Mohammed for his hospitality and left. But now he knew that cutting ties would attract suspicion. And more than that, Mohammed had even introduced Dani to his brother, the head of the Sudanese Navy himself - General Youssef. So, Dani takes Rubi to meet him.

DANIEL LIMOR: He had developed a relationship with the former owners of the resort, the ones who built it.

NARRATOR: The General tells them that every Thursday, the previous owners had brought him fresh lobster.

DANIEL LIMOR: Now the lobsters in that area, believe me, look like super lobsters.

NARRATOR: “If you bring me lobster every Thursday, then maybe I can help you in return,” the General adds. Knowing that the General would now be onside, Dani and Rubi agreed. With the relationship maintained, Dani left for Israel to update HQ and plan another evacuation. Rubi stayed at the resort where, with the help of several Sudanese workers, he renovated everything - installing electricity, water, and beds. Back in Israel, Dani hired another member of the team, a Mossad agent called Gad Shimron.

GAD SHIMRON: He found me in the corridors of the headquarters of the Mossad. He said, “I know you have an operational background. You speak Arabic. You have a Marine background. You are perfect for this mission. I need you.”

NARRATOR: With headquarters satisfied with the operation, the date was set for another evacuation. The Bat Galim’s capacity was also doubled, now able to accommodate over 400 rescued Jews. In early 1982, Dani, Gad, and the rest of the team returned to Sudan.

RUBI VITERBO: We specifically planned to do it on Friday. And with these very dark [nights], a very little moon, a dark Friday. So actually we invented Black Friday.

NARRATOR: Several days after arriving at the resort, the team convoy to a designated point outside Gedaref. The second evacuation is live.

DANIEL LIMOR: We had this very long journey - 900 kilometers. 

NARRATOR: Upon arriving at the rendezvous point some 15 kilometers from the camp, the convoy waits for its cargo to appear.

GAD SHIMRON: It was very cold. You know, the deserts at night in winter are very cold. 

NARRATOR: And then...

GAD SHIMRON: We heard a whistle and all of a sudden, 250 people from the darkness came toward us. Young people, old people, mothers, babies, whatever you want. Quiet, unbelievably quiet.

NARRATOR: The team loaded the Jews into the convoy and set off. After 24 hours, they arrive at the beach and transfer the refugees onto the Zodiac dinghies. Then, they did the whole exercise again. Another 1,800 km. After the second trip, the team was exhausted. 

DANIEL LIMOR: We didn't rest.

NARRATOR: But over the radio, the commander of the Bat Galim offshore sent Dani a message: We still have a lot of space on this boat - go again. Dani put it to a vote. Could they do another 1,800-kilometer round trip? All but one of the team voted to go again. One of the crew, a doctor by trade, dispensed benzedrine to keep each driver awake. Then, for the third time, the convoy started up again. Arriving at Gedaref camp, another load of Jews are hauled into the lorries. But on the return leg, even the Benzedrine can’t keep everyone going.

DANIEL LIMOR: I felt I was falling asleep. So I called one guy in and told him, “Look, come drive. I will sleep near you. I will sleep for 15 minutes or something.” 

NARRATOR: Almost immediately after falling asleep, however, Dani is woken by a loud crash.

DANIEL LIMOR: Sometimes those checkpoints, those roadblocks, they would put barrels. And he noticed the barrels when he was almost on top of it. He went into the barrel and there was a lorry coming. It went into our car and then it was like a chain accident. 

NARRATOR: One by one, the convoy crashes. The Sudanese troops stationed at the roadblock circle the vehicles. Dani assembles the crew outside the convoy, giving them a simple order.

DANIEL LIMOR: We do not allow them to see what or who we are taking in our vehicles. Okay. And if a soldier finds out then he will not be able to tell the story to anyone. We will take care of them.

NARRATOR: One of the soldiers approaches the middle lorry.

DANIEL LIMOR: I went toward him and started to bullshit him, “Blah, blah blah.” But he continued. He wanted to see. 

NARRATOR: Dani’s crew, armed only with knives, prepare themselves to take out a platoon of Kalsashnivok-wielding Sudanese soldiers.

DANIEL LIMOR: We knew what to do.

NARRATOR: The soldier reaches up toward the lorry’s tarpaulin, ready to look inside. Dani tries to stall him one last time.

DANIEL LIMOR: They appreciate it very much, toilet paper. And I gave him toilet paper.

NARRATOR: The soldier stops.

DANIEL LIMOR: And at the last moment, he said, “Okay, okay, okay.” And so he kept his life. 

NARRATOR: The crew patched up the vehicles, jumped back in, and set off. The Ethiopian Jews had not made a sound throughout. After safely delivering them to the Bat Galim, the commander on board counted his cargo. Some 350 had been rescued. Headquarters and Prime Minister Begin were overjoyed.

RUBI VITERBO: And again, I was in charge of communication, got another blessing: “Well done. Well done everyone.” 

NARRATOR: HQ authorizes further evacuations.

GAD SHIMRON: The Naval operations were working very well.

NARRATOR: The third happens shortly after, in March 1982. The convoy picks up its cargo as planned and eventually arrives back at the coast. Dani orders Gad to take up an observation post in the corner of the cove, surveilling the evac point with night vision goggles.

GAD SHIMRON: And as Dani and the convoy were getting closer, from my observation point, I saw movement around. 

NARRATOR: Gad radios Dani: “We’ve got company.”

DANIEL LIMOR: And then tells me there are soldiers. 

NARRATOR: Dani orders one of his men to stall the troops.

DANIEL LIMOR: So he went and gave them cigarettes. And they turned around and they left.

NARRATOR: Dani’s instincts begin to kick in.

DANIEL LIMOR: I thought, “it cannot be”. I mean, two soldiers walking in the middle of the night. They cannot be alone. Must be others.

NARRATOR: He asks the Navy Seals commander to bring all available Zodiacs onto the beach immediately. The Jews are loaded in without life jackets or safety belts.

DANIEL LIMOR: Things started moving very quickly.

NARRATOR: Gad radios Dani again.

GAD SHIMRON: I don't like it. There's movement around us. Like as if we are in Trafalgar Square on New Year's Eve. 

DANIEL LIMOR: And then he says, “And they are with the weapons on in the shooting position.”

NARRATOR: Dani orders Gad back from the observation point. The rest of the team were to finish moving the final boats off the beach, while he and one other agent would confront the advancing soldiers.

GAD SHIMRON: I must say, he was cool. He was keeping his senses. 

NARRATOR: All of the Zodiacs have left the beach, except one.

RUBI VITERBO: Sixteen boats. Minus one. The last boat was stuck.

NARRATOR: Rubi is leading the Zodiacs out of the cove. The radio sparks into life again.

RUBI VITERBO: Oh my God, there’s going to be a massacre now.

 NARRATOR: Along the beach, Gad is still trying to move the last boat off the sand.

GAD SHIMRON: I looked back on the beach. It was like a scene from a World War II movie, the Gestapo is rounding up French resistance fighters and Dani and I think it was five of our people standing with their hands up.

NARRATOR: Gad radios Rubi, “Where is your weapon?”

RUBI VITERBO: I said, “I don't have a weapon.”

NARRATOR: Before approaching the soldiers, Dani radios the Navy Seals commander, “I’m going to stall them. If something happens, don’t shoot unless I’m dead or I give you permission to shoot.”

DANIEL LIMOR: I trusted him totally and he trusted me. 

NARRATOR: Dani approaches the soldiers.

DANIEL LIMOR: And they shouted in Arabic, “Stop or we will kill you, shoot you.”

NARRATOR: Even at this point, Dani somehow manages to keep his sense of humor.

DANIEL LIMOR: My doctor inclines himself toward me. And he whispers in my ear. “Should we take them on [laughs]?” We are three and there are 40. And I said, ‘No, not yet.” It was funny. 

NARRATOR: Behind him, Dani sees that the last boat is still stuck on the beach. And so does one of the soldiers.

DANIEL LIMOR: He started running toward the boat with his gun, with his Kalashnikov ready to shoot.

NARRATOR: Immediately Dani runs with him.

DANIEL LIMOR: He came to the shore, to the water's edge. The boat was to our right. I don't know. Maybe. 25, 30, 40 meters, something like that. And then he saw the other boats. And you could see the foam the engines made. And so before I could do anything, he shot full, burst, full, from his hip.

NARRATOR: Rubi meanwhile is watching everything offshore with the Navy Seal commander, who leans into him and says:

RUBI VITERBO: “Oh, the smell of gunfire. I am fired up. I am ready for action. “

NARRATOR: Somehow, the soldier hit no one.

RUBI VITERBO: They missed. The last boat when they heard the gunfire suddenly was up in the air like a flying saucer and ‘whoom’, to the sea. 

NARRATOR: Dani jumps on the soldier, wrestling him to the ground.

DANIEL LIMOR: Someone hit me with the back of the rifle on my head. I was a bit fuzzy but still conscious.

NARRATOR: Getting up, Dani realizes the soldiers still don’t know what they’ve stumbled on.

DANIEL LIMOR: They saw a lot of people on the beach, but on a moonless night you'll see people. You cannot say, “What is the color of their skin?” On a moonless night, of course not. Everyone is dark, right? 

NARRATOR: Dani shouts at the officer.

DANIEL LIMOR: What are you doing? We are from a resort. We are diving here. 

NARRATOR: Then he stops the officer in his tracks.

DANIEL LIMOR: I mentioned the name of the admiral and then, with very primitive Arabic, I explained to him that the fish, lobsters, we go under the water and it can only be done by night.

NARRATOR: We’re catching the General’s weekly lobster, Dani explains.

DANIEL LIMOR: He said, “You know him?” I said, “Of course I know him. He's a very good friend. Yesterday I was in his office.”

NARRATOR: Immediately the platoon is at ease. The commander orders them to retreat off the beach. Dani says he is going straight to the General to complain.

DANIEL LIMOR: And I went to Port Sudan. I knew where the officers lived. 

NARRATOR: Arriving at the house of the General’s deputy in the dead of night, Dani feigns outrage at what has happened.

DANIEL LIMOR: I had real dried blood on my head. I had prepared in my mind a very aggressive speech. When you are attacked, the best defense is attacking. I said, “Look, I came here to tell you that I am packing, taking my team, and I am leaving this resort. We cannot continue working like this. It's too dangerous. And I cannot put my tourists in danger.”

NARRATOR: Embarrassed, the deputy pleads with Dani not to leave. The next morning they meet with the General himself - the man they served fresh lobster to every week. Apologizing, he says the beach will be off-limits to all Sudanese soldiers, asking Dani to reconsider. He even gives them an official permit stating they are operating under the General’s auspices. Arriving back at the resort though, even Dani couldn’t keep the episode quiet. The Bat Galim had reported back to headquarters.

DANIEL LIMOR: The order came, as I thought, to abandon. And I said, “If we do that, we cannot come back.” 

NARRATOR: At first, Dani ignores the order - directly disobeying the head of the Mossad, Yitzhak Hofi. As a former Army officer though, Dani was happy to live with the consequences.

DANIEL LIMOR: It's not the Army. They don't shoot you because you disobeyed in field conditions.

NARRATOR: Sensing he needs to get Hofi back onside though, Dani soon realizes he must follow the order.

DANIEL LIMOR: And then I gather the team and I said, “Look, I plan to go back to Israel and try to convince the chief that things are okay.”

NARRATOR: Arriving back in Israel, Dani meets with Hofi. Explaining the situation, he implores Hofi to continue the operation. Malaria and dysentery were now killing Jews every day, while some had been exposed to the Sudanese police by fellow refugees. “We must continue,” he says, “and the resort still offers a perfect cover.”

DANIEL LIMOR: General Hofi was the real leader that could accept that he was wrong and do it openly. He changed his own decision and he said, “Okay, you can continue.”

NARRATOR: Simultaneously, Hofi puts both an official reprimand and a citation in Dani’s file. He had disobeyed a direct order from the chief, but he was right to do so.

GAD SHIMRON: Dani Limor was a little bit of a troublemaker. This is one of the reasons he was chosen for the job. 

NARRATOR: But there’s a change of plan. Sea evacuations were now deemed too risky. And Hofi had spoken to the head of the Israeli Air Force, who had offered to help. From now on, the Ethiopian Jews were to be airlifted out of the desert. Dani returned to the resort, which by now was becoming a booming venture.

GAD SHIMRON: In a very short time, the village became a success story and started making money which caused a problem for the Mossad accountant who had to explain to the Ministry of Finance how come that there was more money now in the cashier's office than there was before.

NARRATOR: The Mossad even funded a marketing campaign for the resort - Adventure À La Carte was the headline, below pictures of young men and women walking on an idyllic beach.

RUBI VITERBO: This lagoon is like National Geographic. Pelicans, flamingos, and herons with some mangroves.

NARRATOR: With the air now the escape route, the team found and vetted a Second World War landing strip just inland from Port Sudan.

DANIEL LIMOR: It was used by the RAF in the Second World War to launch aerial attacks against the Italian Air Force.

NARRATOR: The idea was presented to Prime Minister Begin, who approved the operation. The mission was a go, with the first airborne evacuation taking place in May 1982. The first stage of the plan was the same as before. Collect the Jews from Gedaref camp and convoy back toward the coast. But instead of loading them onto Zodiac dinghies, a Hercules C-130 military plane would be waiting for them. But first, however, it had to land, which meant lighting up the runway with the lorries’ headlights.

GAD SHIMRON: I remember it was completely quiet and then you hear some kind of noise. And all of a sudden something huge, dark flies maybe 10 meters above your head, and lands on the strip. It has to reverse its propellers to make a shortstop, a cloud of dust. We were sure it could have been seen in Khartoum.

NARRATOR: The back of the Hercules opens. Several Israeli Special Forces march out, illuminating the scene with green stick lights. Within 15 minutes, some 200 Ethiopian Jews were on board and in the air. The pilot was the same man who had picked up the first of the Beta Israel back in 1976 under the secret agreement between Ethiopia and Israel. 

GAD SHIMRON: It was a huge success because it was a short, efficient operation and the okay was given. Okay, we continue this.

NARRATOR: The team completes a second airlift six days later, evacuating nearly 200 more Jews. But then, an event thousands of miles away upended the mission. On June 3, 1982, Palestinian gunmen shot the Israeli Ambassador to the UK. In response, three days later, Israel invaded neighboring Lebanon to destroy Palestinian guerilla positions. The Israeli Air Force was pulled off Operation Brothers to fight in what became known as the first Lebanon war. Dani, a reservist paratrooper, goes to the frontline himself.

DANIEL LIMOR: I went with my unit and I did some fighting there. We were on the eastern side of Lebanon. So in front of us was the Syrian Army, Syrian commandos, and so on. 

NARRATOR: And so, again, the operation stalled. Gad and Rubi stayed at the resort to maintain its cover while the war raged. By September however, the Palestinians had agreed to pull out of Lebanon and Dani returned to Israel. There, headquarters allow the operation to resume while a new landing site is selected, much closer to Gedaref. The new landing site was risky, however. It meant going 500 km into Sudanese airspace. 

DANIEL LIMOR: Now the weight of danger goes more to the Air Force because those pilots penetrated at very low altitudes and without any lights to avoid the radars and missiles. 

NARRATOR: Given the risk of detection, everything would have to be done much faster than previously. Landing to take off couldn’t last much longer than 10 minutes. So Dani and the team did intense training with the C-130 squadrons in the Negev Desert, perfecting the evacuation maneuvers. By late spring, Operation Brothers recommenced and the team was back in Sudan. On June 10, 1983, another C-130 plane was in the air headed for the country. But soon there’s a problem. The Committee men are delayed in rounding up the Jews for evacuation. The Secret Police have heightened security at the camps, scaring some of the refugees into staying inside. Dani knows that the plane will not delay landing, nor wait longer than planned on the sand.

DANIEL LIMOR: Once you penetrate Sudanese air space, you could not turn around and wait until the people come. So if you're not on time, then it goes back empty.

NARRATOR: Radioing the pilot, Dani says he doesn’t have enough time to fire up the covert lights that only the plane could detect.

DANIEL LIMOR: So I am talking to the pilot. They said, “No, I have to land, so go to the beginning of the strip and turn your car in the direction where I have to land and light your full lights on the car.”

NARRATOR: In the rush though, the Committee has not been able to brief the Jews on what would happen - which was more of a risk than it sounds. None of them had ever used electricity before, let alone knew what an airplane was. Watching a C-130 effectively drop over their heads into the desert was asking for trouble. But there’s no time, the plane is about to do just that.

DANIEL LIMOR: I've been in many situations in the Army and so on, but sitting in a car when this monster buzzes over your head, maybe several meters not much because he landed immediately after. That's something that you have nightmares about.

NARRATOR: Within the chaos, panic erupts.

GAD SHIMRON: They ran away.

NARRATOR: The team runs after them.

DANIEL LIMOR: Everyone was looking for Jews behind the rocks, even the pilot and all the airplane crew and the commando soldiers, all of us looking for Jews and bringing them inside the plane. 

NARRATOR: With every minute that passes, the risk of exposure grows.

DANIEL LIMOR: The first full flights that we did, the plane was on land, from touching to disengaging, an average of 12 minutes. But that night the plane was there. maybe 45 minutes.

NARRATOR: Eventually, each of the Jews is swept up and hauled into the plane.

DANIEL LIMOR: So I gave the pilot the sign that he could take off and he took off.

NARRATOR: From 1980 to 1984, Dani and Ferede’s original escape route of flying Jews out on Refugee Visas was still operational. The next morning Dani arranged a passport for the woman, who landed in Israel several days later. Happy with the result of the airlift, the air force upped the ante. They thought if one plane could make the trip, why not another? The plan was agreed and, in October, landed in the Sudanese desert and collected their cargo. But while it was the start of a new step in the operation, it also marked the end of another. After nearly five years running Operation Brothers in the field, Dani Limor was tired. During his time in Sudan, he had found Ferede Aklum; improvised several separate evacuation routes; been imprisoned; started a professional diving resort, and, all the while, rescued several thousand Ethiopian Jews.

GAD SHIMRON: He was one of those guys who if you threw him through the door, he came back from the window. If you threw him from the window, he came back from the chimney. If you threw him from a chimney, he came back from the cellar. And if he had to face a wall, he would knock his head on the wall and the wall would come down. 

NARRATOR: Offered a new mission within the Mossad, Dani accepted and wished his team luck. Thanks to him, Operation Brothers now had an effective system to evacuate the Jews - the Naval evacuations resumed and the airlifts were stepped up. At one point, three C-130 Hercules planes made the trip.

GAD SHIMRON: I think there was one night that we were the busiest airport in Sudan. 

NARRATOR: But by late 1984, the Mossad terminated Operation Brothers after another near miss during an airlift. They didn’t leave the rest of the Jews to their fate, however. Sensing an opportunity with President Nimeiri, and with pressure from the Americans, Israel negotiated the secret evacuations of the remaining refugees in a separate operation, codenamed Moses. The remaining Operation Brothers team abandoned the diving resort in 1985 and evacuated the country. They even left a note on the desalination system for the advancing Sudanese soldiers. It read: “This is the contribution of Israel to the wellbeing of Sudan.” In all, over 7,000 Ethiopian Jews were rescued through Operation Brothers. Another 4,000 died either trying to reach the camps or in them. For Raffi Berg, the Middle East editor at the BBC, Dani Limor is the main reason so many Beta Israel did reach the promised land. 

RAFFI BERG: If it wasn't for Dani's extraordinary judgment, his decision-making, and his chutzpah, this operation would never have been accomplished the way that it was. 

NARRATOR: Throughout the operation, Dani was guided by one simple question: “What is the purpose of our existence under the sun?” He remained in the Mossad for many more years, taking on missions all over the world. But, for him, rescuing the Beta Israel was always more than just a mission. 

DANIEL LIMOR: In Israel, you have people coming from maybe 100 countries. And for me, I realized that this mosaic is part of the strength of our history, of our tradition 

NARRATOR: Takele Mekonen - one of the younger Committee men - is now part of that tradition in Israel itself, having been evacuated by Dani in ‘81.

TAKELE MEKONEN: I landed at Ben Gurion airport. I cry a lot. I kiss the ground and thank God for the prayer my grandfather brought me to my life country, Israel. It's freedom. You don't imagine what it means, freedom.

NARRATOR: In Israel, Takele got to know Ferede Aklum - the man whose telegram back in 1978 sparked the entire operation.

TAKELE MEKONEN: Ferede is a visionary. If he's determined to do something, he does it. He didn't speak a lot. And his courage! You don't imagine and we’ll keep his dynasty. 

NARRATOR: Ferede Aklum died in 2009 while in Addis Ababa. Upon hearing the news, Dani arranged for a Mossad jet to repatriate his body to Israel free of charge.

DANIEL LIMOR: He was not an easy man. I also was not an easy man. But the association between what he brought and what I brought was meaningful. Together we could do things that, separately, we probably would not have been able to do.

NARRATOR: For the rest of the True Spies in Operation Brothers, it was the mission of a lifetime.

GAD SHIMRON: This operation was run like a Wild West story. And it was done so purposely. This was one of the highlights of the operation being run by Dani. There was not one single paragraph in the book about how to run a clandestine operation which was not broken by purpose because it was the only way. This is Sudan. It's different. We’ll risk it. We'll do it. 

RUBI VITERBO: My personal experience will remain with me till the day I die.

NARRATOR: In the 1970s there were only a handful of Ethiopian Jews living in Israel. Today there are over 140,000.

TAKELE MEKONEN: I'm so lucky it happened in my generation. The prayer of 2,700 years. I accomplished that dream.

NARRATOR: I’m Sophia Di Martino. If you’d like to learn even more about Operation Brothers, you’re in luck. Over on SPYSCAPE Plus, our subscriber-only channel, you’ll find two bonus episodes on the Beta Israel and the Red Sea Diving Resort, full of fascinating detail that we weren’t able to pack into these episodes. SPYSCAPE Plus is available via Apple Podcasts and spyscape.com/podcasts. Join us in our next episode for some old-time glamor as we uncover a secret history of spies in showbiz.