Red Sea Spies: The True Story of Mossad's Fake Diving Resort

by Raffi Berg Narrated by Peter Noble

Overview

THE TRUE STORY THAT INSPIRED THE NETFLIX FILM THE RED SEA DIVING RESORT.

In the early 1980s on a remote part of the Sudanese coast, a new luxury holiday resort opened for business. Catering for divers, it attracted guests from around the world. Little did the holidaymakers know that the staff were undercover spies, working for the Mossad - the Israeli secret service.

Providing a front for covert night-time activities, the holiday village allowed the agents to carry out an operation unlike any seen before. What began with one cryptic message pleading for help, turned into the secret evacuation of thousands of Ethiopian Jews who had been languishing in refugee camps, and the spiriting of them to Israel.

Written in collaboration with operatives involved in the mission, endorsed as the definitive account and including an afterword from the then Mossad director, this is the complete, never-before-heard, gripping tale of a top-secret and often hazardous operation.

Editorial Reviews

Head of the Mossad 1998-2002, from his Afterword - Efraim Halevy

'The true and most accurate story of the Mossad’s Ethiopian Jewish rescue operation in Sudan ultimately over a period of around a decade has found a gifted and worthy author who deserves high praise for his monumental effort in unearthing so many key aspects that have never been publicly revealed till now.'

Operation Commander - 'Dani

'Raffi Berg has, for the first time, managed to accomplish the herculean task of rendering a complex, manifold, full of human diversity story into a credible, readable, dynamic, passionate and well-documented book.'

author of the Billion Dollar Spy - David Hoffman

'Secret missions, brazen deceptions and thrilling, clandestine operations – Red Sea Spies has it all. But it has something more important, too – a genuine human mission that made a difference.'

From the Publisher

'Berg's account of the operation—remarkable due to its duration, execution, and success—reads like a spy novel'

Kirkus Reviews

2020-01-12
The secret history of how Israel spirited thousands of Ethiopian Jews out of their war-torn country well before it became known in the world press.

Despite the vague and misleading title of this well-crafted investigative report, Berg, the Middle East editor of the BBC News website, tells an amazing story of the dogged behind-the-scenes workings of the Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence agency, from the late 1970s to the '90s. Largely ignored until Menachem Begin, a refugee of Nazi persecution, became prime minister of Israel in 1977, the Ethiopian Jews were a devout minority community whom some considered the descendants of the lost Tribe of Dan. They regarded Jerusalem as their spiritual home and followed the tenets of Judaism, such as circumcision, keeping kosher, and observing the Sabbath—although they still believed the Holy Land was occupied by the Romans. When their security was threatened by the outbreak of wars with Ethiopia's insurgent neighbors, the Jews became a political pawn between Ethiopia and Israel—the latter spurred by the determined Begin administration to get the lost Jews safely to Israel, by land, air, or sea, from 1979 onward. Led by Mossad and a team that included Ethiopian Jew Ferede Aklum, the Jews, often traded for arms, were spirited through the Arous Village "resort" in Sudan, which the Israelis essentially bought and reconfigured as a ruse for their efforts in the early 1980s. The careful duplicity with which the Mossad agents acted is a marvel to read, and Berg meticulously re-creates the detail and dialogue. Eventually, the U.S. became involved when the refugee crisis worsened in the mid-1980s. From the first secret airlift until 1991, writes the author, who includes helpful maps and a list of the significant characters, 28,695 Ethiopian Jews were transported to Israel, "about 80 percent of their entire community."

Berg's account of the operation—remarkable due to its duration, execution, and success—reads like a spy novel.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173347220
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	04/14/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos