whenever it was decided to reactivate the operation. They generally
worked in pairs, but sometimes in larger squads as well. On one such
foray, over several stormy nights in the winter of 1972, the Naval Com-
mando fighters made their way to the Syrian coast in an Israeli Navy
missile craft. Upon reaching their destination, they disguised them-
selves in kefiyahs, while under their clothes they kept handguns con-
cealed. They were awaited on shore by a former naval commando who
was at the time the liaison of the Mossad in Syria under the pseudonym
“Yonatan.” For the first two nights of their stay in Syria, they wandered
around Damascus at great risk to their own safety. On one occasion, a
Jewish storeowner in the market approached a couple of disguised
commando fighters and asked them in Hebrew, “You’re ours, aren’t
you?” The fighters, of course, did not respond to the question.
The task of the Mossad liaison living in secret in Syria was to
arrange periodic clandestine meetings with candidates for departure
from Syria. For the purpose of the exodus meeting, points on the
shore were fixed. At times, when the fighters suspected that Syrian
security personnel were present at the meeting place, the rendezvous
was changed at the last moment. From the shore, the group was taken
to an Israeli Navy ship anchored offshore and then onward to Israel.
Those who went were for the most part 15 to 20 years old.
At times the Mossad operatives and the naval commando fighters
entered Syria by air from various cities in Europe. Sometimes the
Jews were taken out of the country across the land border with
Lebanon via a drug smugglers’ route. Sometimes the base for a foray
into Syria was a certain apartment in Beirut, where the liaison was the
Mossad agent Yitzhak Shoshan, a veteran Arab impersonator from
the time of the Arab Platoonof the Palmah, who had lived secretly
in Beirut for about two years at the time of the operation.
The Israeli government invested many resources in the Blanket
Operation, which in sum succeeded in bringing only a few dozen
young Jews to Israel. The participants made the Syrian capital almost
their home, while taking enormous risks. Moreover, this was just a
few years after the capture and execution of the Israeli spy in Syria
Eli Cohen.BLUMBERG, BINYAMIN (1923– ).Blumberg served in the intelli-
gence community of prestate Israel. After the establishment of the state,BLUMBERG, BINYAMIN•4906-102 (02) A-G.qxd 3/24/06 7:23 AM Page 49