Arno Rosenfeld

Operation Babylon

Operation Babylon is the story of Shlomo Hillel and his efforts to get Jews from Iraq into Israel.

Jews came under increasing duress in Iraq during the time he was active for several reasons. The first is

that the British, who had significant influence in the country, were trying to negotiate a new contract

with the Iraqi government which would continue their state of significant influence. There was much

anger about this within the Iraqi populous and the government worked, sucessfully, to turn that anger

against the Jews. The second reason, is that as Israel attained nationhood, hostilities increased against

the Jews of Iraq. Zionism and Judaism were looked at as the same thing even when they were clearly

not. Hillel worked as a member of the Mossad and found many creative ways to get the Jews safely

into Israel, even against great obstacles as diverse as being arrested and convoys toppling in

sandstorms.

The smuggling of the Jews of Iraq started by organizing convoys of Jews into Israel with the

“Lords of the Desert” but this group proved unreliable. Palestine got caught up in Arab/Jewish violence

which distracted from the immigration efforts and Hillel became very frustrated with the Mossad as

they almost completely stopped bringing more Jews in. The Jews of Iraq are forced to pay independent

smugglers to bring them in, who charge large sums and were often unreliable. Hillel started bringing

Jews in via the airport in Tel Aviv. These operations were quite successful, though they did run into

trouble occasionally since the airport was run by the British who were under strict orders not to let any

Jews in. It was also difficult to get the Jews from the airport into Tel Aviv because the roads were very

dangerous.

In Iraq the conditions for Jews continued to decrease. When an assimilated Jewish businessman

was arrested on charges of funding Zionism and Communism, given an unfair trial and then hung
outside of his house, the Jews in the country find themselves becoming increasingly desperate. Hillel

makes plans to return to the country but realizes he can't get directly into Iraq so he instead travels to

Iran and sneaks into Iraq. He comes to the conclusion that if he can get Jews from Iraq into Iran they

will be safer and then arrangements can be made to get them into Israel. Finally he gets approval for

this from the Mossad and once he gets enough funding he starts sending planes with Jews into Israel.

The network that Hillel had been operating in Iran and Iraq eventually disintegrates, though he feels as

though the operation on the whole has been a success.

Many aspects of the book were quite fascinating. The dedication shown by Hillel to the cause of

saving the Jews of his native country was impressive. Before reading the book I knew very little about

the Jews of Iraq and the book did a good job of letting me in on some of the history of Jews in that

country. But I must say, what I found most interesting was not “Operation Babylon”, the most

intriguing part of the book for me, was Iran.

Today, Iran is an enemy and serious threat to Israel. However, in the book, it serves as, if not

quite a friend to the Jews, not an enemy. At the time, that meant something. All the large countries in

the Middle East declared war on Israel except for Iran. They allowed Jews to live there quite well and

while he occasionally ran into trouble, Hillel found it to be a comfortable place to run his operation out

of. I think it's important to understand the differences between Iran and other countries in the Middle

East. If we can understand the cultural differences between the countries we may be better able to

understand the threat that the different countries pose and how to best combat them.

Another thing that I found interesting was the ignorance that Hillel and the other people active

in the operation had about the places they were working. I remember a part in the book where Hillel is

describing how he was traveling in Paris with Ya'akov, a young man who had never left his kibbutz.

Hillel is talking about the decision to travel into Iran instead of Iraq and he says that he knew that Iran

had not declared war on Israel, but beyond that he didn't know where they stood on the country. I found

it odd that the man in charge of getting Jews safely out of Iraq didn't know all that much about the
politics of the area and that he was traveling with a completely clueless partner. It highlights the lack of

resources that both the Mossad, and Israel as a whole had at the time, and it serves as a testament to

what they were able to do with so little.

Much as Israel was able to overcome the odds and establish itself as a country, Operation

Babylon is an inspiring tale about the completion of a noble cause. While others were distracted with

“more important” issues, Hillel showed the spotlight brightly on the plight of the Iraqi Jews. Others

certainly played an important role in rescuing them, and Hillel could definitely not have done it alone,

but his determination is worthy of praise. He undoubtedly saved countless lives. His work is even more

impressive looking back, since when the Ba'ath Party took over they tried to kill the Jews of the

country.