Operation Babylon: Jewish Clandestine Activity in the Middle East 1946-51 [Paperback]

Schlomo Hillel (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The author, an Iraqi-born Jew (currently Speaker of the Knesset in Israel), played a major role in arranging the early '50s airlift that brought 125,000 Iraqi immigrants to Israel, at the same time ending the exile of the oldest Jewish community in the world. Hillel recounts the many tight spots and close calls he experienced as an undercover Israeli agent working to strike a deal with Iraq and open the way for the exodus, and how by luck and fancy footwork he was repeatedly able to extricate himself. (At one point, posing as a British business executive, he's invited to the house of the Iraqi prime minister and finds himself confronted by a relative he hasn't seen in years who he fears may inadvertently give him away.) The book includes little-known material about the persecution of Iraqi Jews in a country where, as Hillel puts it, "the death of a Jew was a cause for exultation." Photos.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

The Zionist effort to smuggle Iraqi Jews out of that country and into Palestine, later Israel (1947-52) is the subject of this harrowing tale. The author, a native of Baghdad and an Israeli diplomat, was an active participant in the Jewish underground. He also gives a great deal of insight on the role of Jews in Iraqi society and their social position in modern times. The often mysterious dealings of the underground, combined with the humanitarian aspect of the operation, make this story riveting. A much different perspective on Iraqi Jews is given in Abbas Shiblak's The Lure of Zion: the case of the Iraqi Jews (London: Al Saqi Bks., 1986). Recommended to a wide audience. Sanford R. Silverburg, Catawba Coll., Salisbury, N.C.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers (February 9, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0006372716
• ISBN-13: 978-0006372714
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,723,127 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exodus from Iraq, September 8, 2007

By 

Gary Selikow (Great Kush) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Operation Babylon (Hardcover)

A bestseller in Israel and winner of Israel's most prestigious literary awards, this book tells of the exodus of 250 000 Iraqi Jews from Iraq to Israel between 1947 and 1952, with nothing more than the clothes on their backs.
The author tells of his own very pivotal role in this biggest airlift in history.
The world's oldest Jewish community in exile, Iraqi Jews began to suffer increased persecution during the 1930s under Nazi-inspired Arab Fascism. The teaching of Hebrew was prohibited and Jewish cultural programmes abolished.
Then came the Farhud of June 1-2,1941, sparked by the incitement of Iraq's pro-Nazi regime, which had just been removed by the British.
Jewish homes and shops were torched, about 180 Jews were murdered and 240 wounded.
Jews were snatched off the street or dragged out of busses and cars and brutally beaten or stabbed to death.
Violent mobs burst into homes and buchered the Jewish families inside. Not even infants were spared.
Pregnant Jewish women were slit open and left to die in agony.
The pogrom left the Jewish community of Iraq traumatized and terrified.
The author traces the blocking of Jews, by the British, from entering Palestine during holocaust, and the anti-Israel riots that erupted across the Middle East when the State of Israel was proclaimed.
The author himself witnessed anti-Jewish riots in Beirut.
As the fledgling Jewish State fought to survive, anti-Jewish persecution worsened in Iraq.
The balance of events leading to the Jewish exodus from Iraq is traced.
The exodus was partly forced by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Said, who hoped that an infusion of hundreds of thousands of homeless and destitute Jews would cripple the tiny fledgling Jewish State.

The British did nothing to help the Jews of Iraq, as they did nothing to help the Jews of Palestine, as they wanted Arab friendship and support.
It is ironic to read in these days of Iran's threat to Israel's exitance, how Iran then under the enlightened reign of the benevolent Shah Reza Pahlavi helped thousands of Jewsd to escape from Iran.

The author describes the secret preparations and espionage behind the airlift, including a cast of characters such as secret Jerwish agents, British officers, American soldiers of forune, Iraqi pogromchiks and Iranian officials.

The airlift was a heroic chapter, among many, of the Jewish State's efforts to save Jews from murder and persecution.