Operation Solomon; The Daring Rescue of the Ethiopian Jews

2005: Oxford University Press, New York. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. xv, [3], 279, [7] pages. Illustrations. Appendix 1, 2 & 3, Notes. Glossary of Names and Terms. Bibliography. Index. Inscribed by author on fep. The author is a professor at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. A specialist in Christian religious literature, in Jewish and Christian perceptions of one another, and in anti-Semitism, he has been a Visiting Scholar at Hebrew University, a Fellow at the National Humanities Center, and Senior Research Fellow at Wesleyan University. Spector describes the tense negotiations among Israelis, Ethiopians, and Americans, which became urgent as time ran low and the danger mounted. He highlights the secret deals and setbacks that nearly aborted the mission at the eleventh hour, even as Israeli jets sat on the runway in Ethiopia, waiting to take the Jews to the land for which they had yearned for. Recounting the story for the first time, Operation Solomon is a stirring account of a heroic rescue achieved in the face of daunting odds. "Operation Solomon" was one of the most remarkable rescue efforts in modern history, in which more than 14,000 Ethiopian Jews were airlifted to Israel in little more than a day. Stephen Spector offers the definitive account of this incredible story, based on over 200 interviews and access to confidential documents. Here is the dramatic story of the rescue of the dark-skinned Jews of Ethiopia. Spector recounts how 20,000 Jews were willingly lured from their ancestral villages to Addis Ababa, expecting to be taken from there to the Holy Land. They became pawns in a struggle between the Israeli government and Ethiopia's dictator, who tried to coerce Israel into selling him weapons he needed in a war against rebels. In the resulting stalemate, the Jewish community was forced to live for nearly a year in hovels, vulnerable to the dangers of the city. The imminent collapse of Addis Ababa, with the rebels closing in on the capital, raised the threat of bloody street fighting or even a genocidal attack on the Jews.