could help by allowing the United States to take the Ethiopian Jews
out of the refugee camps. The Sudanese official found this line of ar-
gument appealing and moves were made to arrange a rescue opera-
tion. Later that year Krieger visited Israel to update the Israeli gov-
ernment that an understanding had been reached. The refugee affairs
coordinator at the U.S. embassy in Khartoum, Jerry Weaver, met with
Sudanese vice president and security chief Omar Tayeb and secured
his agreement to a plan for evacuating the Ethiopian Jews.
According to the plan, the Mossad and the Sudanese secret police
devised the secret operation, known later as the Moses Operation. It
lasted from 21 November 1984 to 5 January 1985. Every night during
that period, except Fridays, the Sabbath eve, buses picked up groups
of about 55 Ethiopian Jews from the refugee camps and took them to
Khartoum where they boarded Boeing 707s of Trans European Air-
lines owned by George Mittelman, a Belgian orthodox Jew. The
Mossad had persuaded him to undertake this mission. Eventually 36
flights carrying approximately 220 passengers flew first to Brussels
and then on to Tel Aviv. Altogether 7,800 Ethiopian Jews were rescued
by this method. However, as news of the airlift leaked out, with sub-
sequent confirmation by the Israeli government, the Sudanese ordered
a halt to the operation. Sudan as an Arab country could not allow its
image in the Arab world to be one of assisting in enlarging the Jewish
population in Israel.
U.S. officials considered the resumption of the Moses Operation.
On 3 March 1985 Vice President George Bush met with Numeiri.
The latter was reluctant to resume the operation. Instead, he agreed to
a quick, one-shot secret U.S., not Israeli, operation, in which the
flights would not go directly to Israel. The result was that the United
States released to Sudan, within a week, $15 million out of a prom-
ised $200 million, the remainder was remitted later. Then Bush dis-
cussed with Weaver and the head of the Central Intelligence Agency
in Khartoum how to execute the rescue mission of the remaining
Ethiopian Jews in Sudan. To avoid any possibility of disclosure, Pres-
ident Ronald Reagan wanted the operation to be carried out within
three or four days. Weaver took an embassy plane to check out the
runway of a remote airstrip near Gedaref, midway between the camps
where most of the Ethiopian Jews were living, and found that it was
fit for landings and takeoffs.MOSES OPERATION/MIVTSA MOSHE• 18906-102 (03) H-P.qxd 3/24/06 7:25 AM Page 189