Customer Reviews

Mossad Exodus; The Daring Undercover Rescue of the Lost Jewish Tribe

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a must read for anyone who believes in the ideals of righteousness! Gad Shimron's MOSSAD EXODUS provides marvelous firsthand insight into the classified Israeli operation that freed Ethiopian Jews from persecution, starvation, and unspeakable brutality.

What makes this so historically remarkable and relevant, is that the Israeli government without any economic or political gain embarked on a strictly humanitarian rescue mission; risking the lives of Mossad spy agents deep within an enemy country to save the lives of a little known tribe of lost African Jews.

Gad Shimron also shares with the reader the little known details of the CIA's cooperation in the final days of the operation, further emphasizing Israel and the United States shared values and strategic relationship.

This was a fun and light read. The chapters are short, making for frequent stopping places. Although the basic story line of the rescue of the Ethiopian Jews from Sudan is threaded through the book, much of the content consists of anecdotes from this period of the author's life. These were often fun stories that made me laugh out loud at times.

There are also a few poignant moments related to the core narrative. It is clear that the author is fond of the people he helped rescue from Sudan and proud of the mission in which he participated.

I was a bit concerned that the book would be unblushingly pro-Israeli given it's Israeli publisher, author, and subject matter. However, Mr. Shimron is very even-handed, often taking Israeli politicians, society, and the government (and other organizations) to task for shortcomings.

Mr. Shimron also does an admirable job of placing the story at hand in its larger international political context. Likewise, he finishes the book with a general survey of the situation of Ethiopian Jews in Israel from then to now.

A couple of weak spots:
Near the end of the narrative, Mr. Shimron is removed from the team. At this point in his narrative, he is forced to rely upon media accounts. Although this information is pieced together well (and I was glad to have it), it was prevalent enough that it marred the first-hand account that so wonderfully marked the rest of the book.

Although I am familiar with the geography of the events in this book generally, a basic map relating the places common throughout the story would have been great. Israel, Ethiopia, and Sudan are close enough that a page size map should have easily allowed the publisher to mark the relevant locations (Arous, Gedaref and the Airfield, Port Sudan, Khartoum, etc.)

The language was also a bit odd at times. This isn't a beautifully written narrative. I suspect it suffers a bit in translation. Occasionally the choice of phrases is somewhat banal.

This is not a great history book. Mr. Shimron admits as much in the foreword. If you decide to read this book, sit down as if you were drinking a few beers with the author and he is going to relate that time to you one story after another. Occasionally you'll get a bit off track. Sometimes he'll have to stop to explain things. His choice of words isn't going to be well crafted to ring a certain way...after all, after a few stories, he's already going to have a buzz going. Instead, he's just remembering it out loud and you get to join him.

All in all, this was a great read that was worth the few hours. It reminded me of another fun read (that was much less serious) titled Scotch and Holy Water about a man living in Turkey in the 60's and 70's. If you enjoyed the feel of this book, you should try to track down Scotch and Holy Water. If you read Scotch and Holy Water and enjoyed it, you'll likely enjoy Mossad Exodus as well.

Thank you to Mr. Shimron for an fun first-hand account.

Don't miss this exciting journey with Gad Shimron. The adventurous, true story about the Ethiopian lost Jewish tribe, and the daring act of rescue is brought to us by one of the rescue-team members in a fluent and fascinating style.

This book is about the undercover rescue of hundreds of Ethiopian Jews from 1977 through 1991. Author Gad Shimron, a former Mossad agent, agrees to be hired as a consultant to join a small group of Mossad agents, including his friend Danny to rescue hundreds of Jews from Sudan. Shimron agrees to go to Sudan, a country not friendly to Israel at the time, and set up a fake tourist resort in Arous. He and three other agents will work there undercover to rescue as many Ethiopian Jews as possible and get them to Israel. In Sudan, Jews are being discriminated against and living in extreme poverty. In 1981, Prime Minister, Menachim Begin initiates a major effort to successfully aid the Beta YIsrael. During the next few years, hundreds of them will be rescued and brought to live in Israel. In the 1990's thousands of Ethiopian Jews will also be rescued by others than Shimron's group and they will be brought to Israel where they will settle.

Shimron is a good writer and the story is made even more interesting because he relates all of the obstacles he encounters during the time of the rescues. In addition, the reader learns a great deal about how the Mossad operates and follows the endearing and funny exploits of these Israeli heroes.

Shimron and his buddies have many adventures including diving expeditions, while actually creating a tourist resort in the middle of nowhere in the Sudan desert. Keep in mind, these men are willing to spend day after day in the very, very hot temperatures of Arous, Sudan. They are a small group of twenty and thirty year olds who worked in Sudan under difficult conditions, minimal phone contact, electricity that could not counted on to be available most of the time, and limited access to water with not much to do in the area. Of course, things improved as they built up the pretend tourist resort!

I found the book the most interesting when Shimron is describing the actual rescue efforts. Each time I wondered if they would get caught and what the consequences would be. At one point, Shimron explains that the Ethiopian Jews are being rescued by a large aircraft and are scared to death since they've never seen an airplane before. One of the Ethiopians describes the scene and how he felt entering the large plane, "I felt like the prophet Jonah who was swallowed by the whale," he tells Shimron.

After the rescue operations are over for Gad Shimron, he works at Maarev at the foreign news desk in Israel. Years later he takes a trip back to Ethiopia and tells the reader yet another interesting story about his exploits. This fascinating book is filled with many worthwhile stories of inspiration and heroism. Definitely worth reading and learning more about the positive side of human nature!

Very poorly written.
Another in the thousands of blatently biased, pulp Israeli propaganda pamphlets, enjoyed only by blindly patriotic Jews, and Israelis.
Don't waste your shekels on this tripe.
Instead ask why the israelis dont put half the energy into humanitarian treatment in their own eternal inhumane prison camp, known as Palastine.

Book came as promised, and was an exciting and easy read. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the subject.

This is a great book, a quick read. You get most of the story of how Israel rescued most all of the lost tribe of Ethiopian Jews, from the first hand view of one of the brave Mossad team members responsible for the operation.

I have one criticism of one part of the book. There is an attitude expressed accusing the "Orthodox Rabbis" in Israel of "forcing" the new immigrants from Ethiopia to undergo "humiliating" procedures before they would be considered Jewish. This kind of accusation can be expected from someone who had the misfortune of getting their education from a secular, anti-religious educational system. However, the truth is this:

A person is considered Jewish if he is born to a Jewish mother, or if the person converts according to Halacha, according to Jewish Law. It happens sometimes that doubts arise about a person's Jewishness. In the case of Jews in Ethiopia, since there was a degree of intermarriage, it was not always clear whether a person's mother was actually Jewish. In cases such as these, the person is required to take a few additional steps to remove the doubt. For a male, these steps include a circumcision, or, if the person is already circumcised, then "hatafat dam" is performed, which involved the letting of one drop of blood from the circumcision area, plus immersing in a mikveh and accepting the laws of the Torah upon oneself.

If a person is truly committed to a Jewish way of life, then these simple steps are not any kind of humiliation at all. And you can't try to make it a race issue, because the same thing would be required from a Jew who was born in Ethiopia or one who was born in Scarsdale, and is whiter than Wonder Bread.

Before you are allowed to get a driver's licence, you need to take a driving test. Nobody says that is humiliating. Well, maybe it's humiliating if you are a lousy driver, but that's besides the point. This is no different, in a way. People who claim it is a humiliation have little to no understanding of the process, or have a "thing" against Judaism to begin with. Point being that immigrants from Ethiopia, who had to undergo this religious ceremony, and who have a real commitment to Judaism, have gone on, after the usual difficulties facing any new immigrant, to adjust to a very different kind of society and have excelled.

Aside from that small flaw, the rest of book makes up for it. The author did a great job twice. First, by going to Ethiopia and second, by writing the story. Read this book.

Great good fun: heartwarming, occasionally terrifying, often hilarious. This true story of how a few intrepid Mossad agents began the rescue of Ethiopian Jewry from the refugee camps of Sudan, proves truth is stranger than fiction. The story: a small band of motivated smart-allecks buy a defunct dive resort as a cover and then, accidentally, make a success of it, bringing all kinds of characters into their midst, while drawing the ire of those in Mossad headquarters who become convinced they're just goofing off and having a big party. Meanwhile, first by the dozens and then by the hundreds, Ethiopian Jews are being rescued, smuggled out first by sea and then by air from remote landing strips, until soon they are being flown out full scale by the thousands. A great adventure, and best of all, a true one!

Gad Shimron, a key participant in the Mossad operation that led to Operation Moses, weaves a brilliant tale that combines the elements of a spy novel with the elements of the best tear jerking story regarding the rescue of Ethiopian Jewry from the clutches of famine and Islamism. This book is a quick read, one that keeps the readers on the edge of their seats from start to finish as one sits beside Shimron in the desert, waiting for the moment to give the signal for refugees to board boats on the Sudanese shore, or as he weaves his way through downtown Khartoum posing as a tour guide and dive expert, swilling gallons of alcohol and sucking down lobster in order to blend in with the small expat community at the highest class hotels in Sudan.

The book begins in the 1970s with Shimron's experience in the 1973 war and the Mossad, from which he takes his leave twice, becoming known as a trouble maker. But he is called back 'one last time' for a mission made just for him: to rescue the Ethiopian Jews. The classic story of the decisions to bring them to Israel are recounted, including Chief Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef's ruling and Menachem Begin's desire to 'Bring them to me.' So the Mossad is dispatched to work with the locally recruited Ethiopian 'Committee' in the refugee camps in Sudan to arrange to bring Jews either via Europe (as refugees) or by sea and eventually by air to Israel. Shimron recounts the first operations where several hundred Jews were brought to a boat offshore. He recounts refurbishing an old British runway to use to fly them out. He tells of sitting in the desert and repairing the trucks and cars and relaxing on the beach at the 'tourist resort' that serves as his, and the other Mossad operatives' cover.

The gem of this account is it is not merely a tear jerking account of the rescue of the Lost Tribe. It is told by an author who is intimately interested in history and has a key eye for observation. Shimron notes that the airport in Khartoum was based on a similar design as the one at Lydda, in Israel and even tells the history of such obscure places as Fashoda and Omdurman. He notes that the British received medals for operations that failed while Russian soldiers received them for everything. This is a book full of nuggets of information and fascinating digressions. The author is a man with an eye for detail and he digresses to provide histories of Sudan that will surprise the reader and adds color to the book.

The account deals mostly with the first years before Operation Moses, detailing how the operations got underway. It focuses almost entirely on the Mossad team and it a first person account. It thus does not seek to provide a general history or one that examines the operation's entirety. The book also includes a brilliant color photograph insert showing the men and their equipment as well as several Ethiopian refugees and the local Sudanese workers.

In the end he also informs the reader that he is "no longer objective about anything pertaining to Ethiopian Jews" and relates, at the end, the hardship they faced once they reached Israel, including racism and tragedies of assimilation. But this is also a book about daring and hope and the main message is "what other country would spend such resources to rescue people." He tells one story of a sick Ethiopian girl on board a ship transporting her to Israel and how the possibility of sending a helicopter was broached in case her conditioned worsened. "To save the life of a girl who had not even received an Israeli I.D." And this was the story of the mission: to save people no European country would ever help, despite all the talk about 'aid' that comes from Europe. This was the message and it is a wonderful message.

I have been looking for books and information about the subject rescue of the Etiophian Jews for some time. Finally after browsing at amazon I found the book Mossad Exodus written by a former Mossad agent. I believed now I will get much exact information about the rescue operation, written from one inside.

But no, to be honest I were very dissapointed. This book gives little or no information about the rescue operation unfortunately. The details is totally missing. How they traced the Etiophian Jews in the camps and how did they gather them is only mentioned very, very shortly. How many they were in total and how had they entered Sudan is not mentioned. How did they seperate an Etiopean from a Jewish Etiophian is not mentioned.

Are you interested in the subject of the culture, nature and diving possibilities in Sudan, this is a book for you. One chapter in the book is about the execellent diving condition in Sudan and another chapter is about wind surfing. I can promise this Mossad agent is keeping most of the secrets about the rescue operation in Sudan close to himself.

The book is also suffering of the fact that it is written nearly 20 years after the operation ended. My recommedation unfortunately, find another book