All language subtitles for Damian.Lewis-Spy.Wars.S01E08.Exodus.WEB.h264-CAFFEiNE Eng

Lewis: Every covert operation
needs a watertight cover story.

On a top secret humanitarian
mission in the 1980s,

One small group of
deep cover operatives

Lived their lie so convincingly,
their cover became reality.

This is the story

Of how mossad sent undercover
agents into enemy territory

To secretly repatriate
the lost tribe of israel.

It's one of the most
daring rescue missions

In the history of espionage.

(dramatic music)

(guns firing)
(people screaming)

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music)

Limor: I was an officer in
the paratroopers brigade.

They are a fighting unit.

I took part in four wars.

And one day, I got a letter
asking me for a interview.

I got caught in this trap that
is called intelligence work.

Lewis: In the late 1970s,

A former captain in the
israeli army, dani limor,

Was recruited by mossad.

Meaning the institute in hebrew,

Israel's national
intelligence agency

Had built a
formidable reputation

For its global
covert operations.

Limor: I wouldn't do it today
(chuckling) probably.

But at the time, I was young,

And you know, join the
mossad and see the world.

So, that's the thing,
I saw the world.

Lewis: To this day,

Virtually all of limor's
undercover assignments

Remain classified,
but their successes

Made him one of mossad's most
highly regarded field agents.

Halevy: Dani was what we used to
call in the mossad mavericks.

In other words, they didn't
always work by the book.

He got latitude which
I didn't give others.

(camera shutter clicking)

Lewis: In 1980, efraim
halevy, the man who would go on

To become the ninth director
of mossad, was a rising star,

And had been promoted to
head up limor's division

In tel aviv.

(camera shutter clicking)

Halevy had just taken command
of an extraordinary mission:

To repatriate a community of
jews known as the beta israel,

Or israel's lost tribe.

Halevy: Ever since israel
came into being,

It became part of the
mandate of the mossad

To be ready to enter an
operation with very short notice

In order to save
communities of jews

Who are under threat
of annihilation

Wherever they might
be on the globe.

(exotic music)

(camera shutter clicking)

Lewis: This ancient
tribe of over 80,000 jews

Were the descendants of
those who had fled jerusalem

More than 2,500 years ago.

Now they were over
1,500 miles from israel,

In an enclave of around
500 impoverished villages

In a remote area of
ethiopia in east africa.

Limor: Until 150 years ago,

They believed that they were
the last surviving jews.

They didn't have any contact
with other jewish communities

In the world.

Lewis: In 1977, israel
offered the lost tribe

The automatic right of
return to the jewish state.

But very quickly,

It became clear that they
were not going to be allowed

To leave africa peacefully.

By the late 1970s,

The brutal civil war that
had erupted in ethiopia

Would take the lives of
almost 1.5 million people.

(camera shutter clicking)

(soldiers chattering
in foreign language)

Desperate refugees fled north
to united nations' camps

That had sprung up along the
border with neighboring sudan.

(camera shutter clicking)

Among them was a small group
of the lost tribe of israel

Determined to reach the
promised land at any cost.

(dramatic music)

Lewis: Mali
fadela fled her home

With her pregnant mother,
stepfather, and brother.

As they traveled
hundreds of miles

From the ethiopian interior
to the sudanese border,

Approximately 1,600
people lost their lives

From illness or exhaustion,

Many at the hands of
thieves and robbers.

(foreboding music)

Halevy: Sudan was
an enemy country.

Lewis: As a member
of the arab league,

The hard-line islamic
sudanese government

Had sent troops to
support israel's enemies.

Simply being jewish
was risky here,

And more and more jews
were arriving by the day.

(camera shutter clicking)
(somber music)

Halevy: There were close
to more than

A million refugees in sudan.

We had to do things quickly.

Lewis: In the
spring of 1980,

Efraim halevy made his move.

He turned to a man he
believed had what it took

To set up an undercover
mission in hostile territory:

Maverick multilingual undercover
specialist, dani limor.

Limor: Okay, for us to operate
in an arab country can be done.

But we are talking about
moving ethiopian jews.

It's a very difficult
and dangerous situation.

Lewis: So when dani
limor entered war-torn sudan,

He used the cover of a french
speaking anthropologist,

An identity that would allow him

Through countless
military checkpoints

And on to the refugee camps.

Limor: I had to play my
cover, you know.

If you get caught and they
find out who you are really

Behind that passport
that you using,

If they find out that you are
an israeli, well, probably,

(chuckling) they will hang
you from the highest tree.

(suspenseful music)

Lewis: At the border camps,

Limor discovered
the united nations

Wasn't just dealing with
those fleeing a civil war.

(camera shutter clicking)

A bitter drought had
triggered the worst famine

In living memory.

(camera shutter clicking)

Limor: I mean, they
called it camp,

But actually it was
some huts or tents

With no drinking water,
healthy, no food, no hygiene.

(camera shutter clicking)

People were actually
really starving.

(camera shutter clicking)

Lewis: More than a repatriation,

This was now a
humanitarian crisis.

Limor believed the safest way

To transport potentially vast
numbers of ethiopian jews

To israel would be by sea.

Limor: Sudan has a coast on the
red sea and we too, israel too.

So, once you reach the sea,
you can go up to israel.

Lewis: Mossad code
-named the mission

Operation brothers.

It would need to be
timed to perfection.

The israeli navy would
anchor the bat galim

In safe international waters
off the sudanese coast.

Mossad's undercover
agents led by dani limor

Would secretly transport
thousands of jews

From the sudanese refugee
camps to the coast.

Israeli navy seal teams
would transfer them

From the shore to the
vessel, and on to israel.

(dramatic music)

It was an audacious plan

That would require approval
at the highest level.

Halevy: We had to speak
not just to the navy.

This needed to be presented
to the prime minister.

But we did, and we
were all sort of fired

By this very, very deep and
very, very basic, I'd say,

Urge to save human lives.

Lewis: Secretly repatriating
the jews of ethiopia

To israel would be
mossad's most challenging

And dangerous mission yet.

(guns firing)
(people screaming)

(gentle music)

Dani limor's first challenge

Was to find a way to
transport the ethiopian jews

1,750 miles along the
meandering desert roads

To the coast, undetected.

Limor: Of course I was
excited by the idea.

But I didn't yet know exactly
how it was going to work.

Lewis: Now
limor needed a base,

A place where his team
wouldn't attract attention,

Where trucks and boats
wouldn't raise suspicion.

Scouting for potential
landing sites

For the israeli navy seals,
something caught limor's eye.

Limor: It was very hot, maybe
50 degrees in the shadow,

But there is no shadow.

It seemed to us like
a mirage, you know,

Some houses lying in
the sun, near the water.

But actually it was a hotel.

(dramatic music)

There was a guy,
a local bedouin,

And I started asking
him, "what's this?"

He explained to me
the whole story.

Lewis: The remote
arous holiday resort,

With its 15 or so beach houses
overlooking the red sea,

Was a scuba diver's paradise.

But with poor road access
and lack of running water,

The resort had lain
abandoned for years.

Limor: Immediately it was clear

That was a solution
for our problem.

Because if we can
use that hotel,

The whole team would
be diving instructors.

Now, these diving instructors,
they can be at the same time

Driving the vehicles,
protecting the people

That we are transporting, and
so it's the perfect cover.

Lewis: Limor had found the
most precious asset

Of any secret operation,
a watertight cover story.

Mossad was about to branch
out into the hotel industry.

(dramatic music)

By the autumn of 1981,

Dani limor was deep
into the transformation

Of the abandoned
arous holiday resort

Into the israeli intelligence
agency's undercover base.

Limor: You know, you would need
to repair some things,

But still it was in
pretty good shape.

Now I have the perfect cover,
I needed to recruit a team.

Halevy: The challenge was
to find personnel

Who had the expertise

Not just to run a hotel,

But you had to have a
qualified diving instructor.

And there was
nobody in the mossad

Who was a diving instructor.

And we needed a
diving instructor

Not in a couple of years,

We need a diving instructor now.

Lewis: Halevy considered
an unprecedented step.

Halevy: We needed to approach
people outside the mossad

And train them.

Lewis: So he turned first

To israeli special
forces operatives.

In the early 1980s,

Retired navy seal rubi viterbo
was running a dive school

In the resort town of nuweiba
on the sinai peninsula.

He received an unexpected call.

Viterbo: Dani approach me and
he told me a funny story

About saving jews from africa.

I never ever participated
in a clandestine operation.

But we are not going
to kill anyone.

We are not going
to plant any bombs.

We are going actually
to save people,

So I had a good
feeling about it.

Lewis: By the end of 1981,

Viterbo was in the sudan as a
mossad clandestine operative.

(dramatic music)

Over the next few months,
limor recruited his team,

Men who would need to abandon

Their former lives
and identities

And take on entirely new ones.

But he realized a resort
staffed exclusively by men

Would arouse suspicion.

Limor: I had the idea to look
for a female member of the team.

A woman gives you legitimacy,
the presence of a woman.

When you are doing this type
of operational activity,

Which of course is very sexist,

But that's how
people look at it.

Lewis: Viterbo suggested
limor contact a former pupil

From his sinai dive school.

Viterbo: She is a woman
of the sea.

She was like the perfect
person for the job.

Lewis: When mossad
made their approach,

Yola reitman was leading
a jet set lifestyle.

Reitman: I was working for
el al, the airline,

Which took me all over
the world of course,

So this was my life.

And I was spending a lot of
time in eilat, I was diving.

I had a boat there, sailing
a lot, having a great time.

Lewis: It fell
to efraim halevy

To assess whether
reitman had what it took

To become an undercover
intelligence agent

Almost overnight.

Halevy: I met her at a cafe in
tel aviv and I spoke to her,

And she impressed me as a
very, very complex character.

And then I had to say yes or no.

And I said yes.

Reitman: The identity I
got was a german,

Which was natural because
my mother tongue is german.

You know, it is like playing
in a movie or something.

You have to assume a role,

You have to assume somebody
else's personality, identity.

I felt confident that
I could play a part.

Lewis: In 1982,

Yola reitman became a
mossad undercover agent

And manager of hotel arous,
mossad's scuba dive resort.

(camera shutter clicking)

Viterbo: We made a brochure, we
advertised in magazines,

And we approached
some diving groups.

And people came,
and they loved it.

Reitman: They were excited

Because they had no other
place like that in the sudan.

And they started coming
very often and regularly.

Lewis: Yet
behind the scenes,

The resort was a
fully functioning

Mossad undercover unit

With a daunting secret
mission to undertake.

Reitman: We had, of course,
our special radios

To communicate
with headquarters.

All our hiding places
were ingenious, you know.

There was radio hidden in
one of the oxygen tanks.

I mean, imagine,
you're in a movie.

Wow, james bond,
that was like it.

Lewis: Privately, many in
mossad had deep reservations

At the idea of
involving civilians

In such a crucial and
dangerous operation.

Halevy: This was unheard of.

We gave them very superficial
training and we sent them off.

I realized that if
people were caught,

We would never get back alive.

There's no halfway here.

Either you do or you don't.

Lewis: By now,

The camps on the sudanese
border with ethiopia

Were overwhelmed by
thousands of people

Fleeing famine, war,
and persecution.

Meanwhile, dani
limor and his team

Of deep cover agents waited
at the resort for the go-ahead

To exfiltrate the lost tribe
of israel back to tel aviv.

Timing would be everything.

Once the agents at the
hotel received word

That the israeli warship had
set sail for the rendezvous,

They had just three days to
initiate operation brothers

And smuggle their jewish
brethren from the refugee camp

To the sudanese coast.

(dramatic music)

Under the pretense of
collecting supplies,

Limor lead a convoy of trucks
on a 1,100-mile round trip

To the refugee camp.

Limor: We'd drive the whole day.

We would reach the
camps at night.

And at the prearranged place,

We would meet some of the jews.

Lewis: At dusk, mali and
her family received word.

It was time to go.

(people chattering
in foreign language)

Limor: It was incredible.

You really felt that something
big is going on here.

They trust you
completely, you know,

They really, they put
their lives in your hands,

And that's not an easy feeling.

Lewis: But almost
immediately,

There was a problem.

Far more refugees had gathered

Than the 200 spaces that
were available on the trucks.

Viterbo: I felt bad because I
knew that some people

Are not going to be evacuated,

And they'll have to stay
to the next pick up,

And god knows when this
opportunity will come.

Lewis: The team now had
to smuggle their human cargo

For a journey of 560 miles

Across a heavily
militarized country

In the throes of a
brutal civil war.

Viterbo: The head of
the mossad said,

"you are going to do
the most difficult job.

"it's not smuggling money
or weapons or drugs.

"it's smuggling people.

"it's really, really dangerous."

We had to pass about
five road blocks

Which were actually meant
to stop any such activity.

So I knew that I
have to be sharp.

Limor: The sudanese security
services were very sensitive

To what people are
doing inside sudan.

They had orders to intercept,
to stop any and every vehicle.

Lewis: If the army guards
at any one of the roadblocks

Suspected something
wasn't right,

Then not only would everyone
on board be slaughtered,

But the entire operation
would be blown.

(dramatic music)

But dani limor had a plan.

Limor: I developed a system.

When I reached the checkpoint,

And start chatting
with the guards.

I don't offer any bribes,
but they are there.

If you want it, you can take it.

Some cigarettes if they
wanted, or some biscuits.

And then they see one
of the lorries coming.

And then they want to go
to the road to stop them.

I said, "no, no,
this is my people."

"oh, okay, is your
people, okay."

Lewis: At the dive resort,

Yola reitman waited
for confirmation

Limor was through the
last of the roadblocks

Before signaling the
israeli naval vessel

They were ready to go.

Reitman: I would make the
radio connection

Between the coming
cars and the ship.

You hear nothing, but you
see those shadows approaching

Because our navy seals have
this way of approaching

Very quietly, it was incredible.

Lewis: More than 2,000 years

After their ancestors
had fled jerusalem,

Around 200 members of
the lost tribe of israel

Were returning to the holy land.

Viterbo: I felt so good.

I knew that I'm giving
these people hope.

I knew that they are longing
many, many, many years

To go to jerusalem, and
now I'm their chance.

Reitman: It was mind-blowing.

(camera shutter clicking)

It's like, you know, you are
looking at a piece of history.

Lewis: Six months and
four missions later,

Mossad had smuggled 800
men, women, and children

To the safety of the navy's
warship, and on to israel.

But their mission to evacuate
the rest of the tribe by sea

Was about take a dramatic turn.

By spring 1982, dani limor and
his team of mossad operatives

Under the cover of running
a scuba diving resort

Were preparing for
their fifth exfiltration

Of ethiopian jews.

(camera shutter clicking)

The arous resort was now
such convincing cover

That mossad was making a hefty
return on its investment.

Reitman: I remember vividly, the
money started pouring in.

I sent a telegram
to headquarters,

"we're in the money!"

I was completely excited
about it, you know,

How successful we are.

Lewis: The profits had
gone up, but so had the risks.

Limor: There was a lot of
smuggling going on

From sudan to saudi arabia.

And we knew there were
some sudanese army patrols,

So we had to move very quickly.

(dramatic music)

We started as usual, like
every other operation.

It was a big one.

I think we had almost 200 people
we had brought at the time.

Viterbo: There were two navy
seals on each boat

Armed to their teeth.

We had no weapons at all.

Suddenly the lookout
said, "we've got company."

I see a group of people, very
clearly armed, approaching.

Lewis: It was a
sudanese army unit

Patrolling the
shoreline for smugglers.

Limor: We decided to get
the hell out of there.

15 of the 16 boats were
already in the water,

But one boat got
stuck on the beach.

The soldiers were
really getting nearer.

And then one of
them saw the boat.

(gun firing)
(people screaming)

And he shot with
his kalashnikov.

Viterbo: We heard gunshots and
people shouting in arabic.

"hands up, hands up."

Limor: To gain some time, to let
the boats evacuate the beach,

I ran towards them.

(men grunting)

And then I started shouting.

What are you doing? Crazy?

Limor: Are you crazy?

These people are tourists.

The whole thing was
not very convincing,

The shouting, but he
understood I was in charge.

In those conditions, the
best defense is offense.

Lewis: Limor's
bluff had worked.

That night, more than
170 ethiopian jews

Escaped to the israeli
vessel unharmed.

But mossad was shaken
by the narrow escape.

Viterbo: I had a
radio communication

With somebody from the mossad

On the boat and I heard an
order to evacuate the hotel.

I told dani, "look, I heard
evacuation, evacuation now."

He said, "I heard it too."

(dramatic music)

Limor: Headquarters were worried
that we had been exposed

And that we might be
arrested, interrogated.

I thought that if we
follow orders to the letter

And we evacuate,
abandon the hotel,

Then we would have to wait now

Until a new operation is
formed and a new cover is made.

That is not done in 24 hours.

That takes time.

Lewis: It had taken limor almost
a year to set up the hotel

As a viable cover
for the operation.

And he wasn't about
to give up it up now.

Dani limor stood his ground

And defied a direct order
to close down the operation.

24 hours later, limor was
at the mossad headquarters

In tel aviv making his
case to efraim halevy.

Limor: The only strategy
in cases like this,

We are talking professional
people, head of the mossad,

Head of the division,

They either trust you and
your judgment or they don't.

Halevy: I didn't decide to
stop the operation.

But I decided to wait a little.

Take shall we say
pause for reflection.

Lewis: The agents
and the resort could stay

For the time being.

But there would be no
more evacuations by sea.

Mossad would have to
think of another way

To get the lost tribe
of israel home and fast.

(dramatic music)

They opted for a new
and daring strategy:

To get them out in
larger shipments by air.

The new plan was to deploy
c-130 transport planes

To secretly airlift the lost
tribe from the sudanese desert

Direct to tel aviv.

131 squadron had earned
a fearsome reputation,

Flying israeli paratroopers
in to kill terrorists

Involved in the air France
hijacking of July 1976.

Limor: As a former paratrooper,

I used to jump from
those planes,

And I was excited by the fact

That we could really move
a lot more people.

Reitman: The aircraft could land
much, much nearer the camps

And we wouldn't have
such a long drive,

A dangerous drive to the shores.

And this was a huge advantage

For the aircraft over the boat.

Lewis: The hostility

Between israel and
muslim-majority sudan

Meant the pilots of 131 squadron

Would be flying directly
into enemy airspace.

To avoid being shot down,

They would have to
fly below the radar

And in the dead of night.

Eden attias was one
of the crack pilots

Selected for the mission.

Attias: Almost 2/3 of it is
above hostile territory.

And we needed to do it
without being exposed

Not on the way in,
not on the way out.

And the way to do it's
to go very low altitude,

Like 300 feet.

You are landing on a dust field

And it's the middle of nowhere,

And you need to be there in
like plus or minus 13 seconds

That more or less
the level of accuracy

That was being expected.

So it's very challenging
for the pilot.

(dramatic music)

Lewis: Before the
flights could begin,

Limor and his team needed to
undertake the critical task

Of identifying the secret
desert landing sites.

Viterbo: We start in the desert

To find and improvise
a landing strip

To be exactly 1,500 meters
long and about 10-meter wide.

No obstacles, no
trees, no big rocks.

And it's on my shoulder again.

One of the pilots talked to me,

"are you sure you know
what you are doing?"

I said, "no, this
is my first time.

"there's a first
time for everything."

Lewis: In the camps, with
the rescue missions on hold,

Ethiopian jews began to think

They had been
abandoned by israel.

(camera shutter clicking)
(dramatic music)

Halevy: Is it true that the cost
of freeing 10,000 people out

Was worth the price of
sacrificing two or 3,000 people?

I don't know the answer to that.

Only one being knows the answer
to that, and he's in heaven.

Lewis: Finally, in may 1982,

With secret landing
sites identified,

Mossad's operatives
on the ground

Were ready to resume
operation brothers.

Now limor's agents wouldn't
just be managing a dive resort.

They'd be operating a
clandestine airline too.

(men chattering on radio)

An israeli c-130 transport plane

Took off from air
force base 27 in lod

Heading for a secret
location in the sudan.

The fate of those in the camp
now depended on the agents

Successfully guiding
the israeli air force

To land in the heart
of the sudanese desert.

Limor: In an aerial operation,

You cannot allow
yourself to be late.

Everything had to be timed
very, very accurately.

Lewis: Once the planes
approached sudanese airspace,

Limor's team had
just a few hours

To make it more than 120
miles across the desert

From the camps to
the landing sites.

Viterbo: The same drill, but
this time it was different.

(speaking in foreign language)

We felt the sense of urgency

That we need to speed
up the operation.

There are many many
people waiting, suffering,

Dying in the camps.

Lewis: With the
israeli air force involved,

Up to 400 people
could be evacuated

At a time on two planes.

With space for just 200
people on the team's trucks,

It'd be standing room only.

Viterbo: They were climbing
from the side.

They were squeezing in my
lorry, which is eight by two,

That's it, it's undescribable.

Lewis: Mali and
her family had survived

A year and a half in the
camp's squalid conditions.

(dramatic music)

Viterbo: They safe, go, go, go.

The airplanes are
already in the air.

I have 200 kilometers
approximately to drive

Till the meeting point.

Lewis: At the landing site,

It was limor's job to
guide the planes in.

Limor: Usually we had about
between five and 10 minutes

From the moment we
reached the landing strip

Before the plane landed.

Attias: We communicate
in english,

And we kind of mimic
a truck driver.

Agent: Car 12,
car 12 from car 13.

Attias: So in all of this
very strict operation,

Everybody's stressed now,

Suddenly there is
this communication,

Colorful communication
with the ground.

Agent: Your
parking lot is ready.

Attias: Which, if someone
listening to this frequency,

Definitely wouldn't
connect it to an airplane.

Lewis: In the pitch black,

The pilots had only
night vision goggles

To aid their final approach.

Limor: You need guts.

What these guys do with
those huge airplanes,

They're like solo violinists.

And that was an experience
that I will never forget.

We were sitting in the car

And this huge monster
passes maybe, I don't know,

10 meters over your head,
you don't forget that.

You're trembling all over

And you have to retain
your juices. (laughing)

(camera shutter clicking)

(bright music)

Attias: In a hostile territory,

You want to minimize
your time on the ground.

Stopping, lowering the
ramp, putting 200 people in,

Bring security back,
closing the ramp,

Take off power, and we are out.

This was a matter of
less than two minutes.

Lewis: After
4 1/2 hour flight,

The c-130 touched
down in israel.

(camera shutter clicking)

From the summer of
1982 until the autumn of 1984,

Dani limor and his team
coordinated 17 separate airlifts

From the desert.

In four years, some estimates
place the number of people

Saved from starvation and
death in the camps at 12,000.

So far, in israel,

The media blackout about the
influx of refugees had held.

But by the beginning of 1985,

News that thousands
of ethiopian jews

Had made it to
jerusalem had leaked.

Mossad ordered the
immediate evacuation

Of the arous diving resort.

On the easter weekend of 1985,

Scuba diving tourists awoke
to find the hotel deserted.

Viterbo: I mean, if you ask
real mossad people

About the chances of such
an operation to go on

And continue without being
caught, without interference,

They would say it's almost
impossible, and we did it.

Limor: You know, we did
what we had to do

And we are proud
for having done it.

For me it symbolizes

The reason of the existence
of the state of israel.

Reitman: This was such a
unique experience.

When I got back, I didn't
speak to people about it.

I had friends who knew
me for so many years,

And they never had an inkling.

For 35 years, nobody
knew anything.

Lewis: Operation brothers

Became the role model
for a new series

Of intelligence-sponsored
humanitarian missions.

(dramatic music)

(camera shutter clicking)

Former director of the cia

And now u.S. Vice president,
george bush stepped in.

In secret talks with the
sudanese president mariam,

He brokered a series
of 28 covert airlifts.

(camera shutter clicking)

As the wider international
community woke up

To reports of the biblical
famine in ethiopia,

Operation moses flew
a further 6,000 jews

To israel via brussels.

Later, in may 1991,

Operation solomon evacuated
over 15,000 people to safety,

Setting a world record
with 1,067 passengers

Crammed onto a single flight.

(rooster crowing)

Today, there are around 130,000
jews of ethiopian descent

Living in israel.

Halevy: I'll tell you something
which sounds maybe facetious

But that's true.

I'm a little
humbled by all this.

It's a privilege to
be somehow involved

In this action in life.

It also gives a lot of
feeling of hope and confidence

That we will make it.

We will make it in
every sense of the word.

(bright music)

(dramatic music)