Israel Stormy Skies for a Refugee Airlift

Ethiopian Jews become embroiled in an international furor

For a few days the mood was jubilant. The Falashas had come, and on street corners and in coffee bars Israelis excitedly discussed the rescue operation that had airlifted thousands of starving Ethiopian Jews from refugee camps in Sudan and brought them to the Promised Land. Declared one proud Israeli: "The rest of the world is talking about the famine in Ethiopia, and we are doing something about it. It makes me feel good." But two days after the covert seven-week mission, code-named Operation Moses, became public knowledge, it came to an abrupt halt. Just before a plane carrying some 200...

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