Operation Diamond (, ''Mivtza Yahalom'') was an operation undertaken by

Mossad The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations (), popularly known as Mossad ( , ), is the national intelligence agency of the Israel, State of Israel. It is one of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community, along with M ...

. Its goal was the acquisition of a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

-built

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (; NATO reporting name: Fishbed) is a supersonic jet fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Its nicknames include: "''Balalaika''", because its planf ...

, the most advanced Soviet fighter plane at that time. The operation began in mid-1963 and ended on August 16, 1966, when an

Iraqi Air Force The Iraqi Air Force (IQAF; ) is the aerial warfare service branch of the Iraqi Armed Forces. It is responsible for the defense of Iraqi airspace as well as the policing of its international borders. The IQAF also acts as a support force for t ...

MiG-21, flown by the Iraqi Assyrian defector Munir Redfa, landed at an air base in Israel. Israel and the United States were able to study the design of the plane.

History

MiG-21 production began in 1959, and Egypt, Syria and

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

received numerous planes.

The first two attempts

The first attempt to acquire the aircraft was conducted in Egypt by Mossad agent Jean Thomas. Thomas and his group were ordered to find a pilot, who for $1,000,000 would agree to fly the plane to Israel. However, their first attempt was unsuccessful. The Egyptian pilot they contacted, Adib Hanna, informed the authorities about Thomas' interest in the MiG. Thomas, his father, and three other people were arrested and charged with espionage. Thomas and two others were hanged in December 1962. The other three members of the group received long prison terms. The second attempt also failed. Mossad agents ended up assaulting two Iraqi pilots who refused to cooperate with them, in order to keep them quiet for some time.

Success

In 1964, a Jewish Iraqi, Yusuf, contacted Israeli personnel in

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

, as Israel and Iran still had diplomatic relations. Yusuf, since 10 years of age, had been working as a servant for a

Maronite Christian Lebanese Maronite Christians (; ) refers to Lebanese people who are members of the Maronite Church in Lebanon, the largest Christian body in the country. The Lebanese Maronite population is concentrated mainly in Mount Lebanon and East Beir ...

family. His girlfriend's friend was married to an Iraqi pilot named Munir Redfa. Redfa was annoyed that his Christian roots prevented his promotion in the military. He was also upset that he had been ordered to attack Iraqi

Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

. Yusuf believed that Redfa was ready to leave Iraq. A female Mossad agent befriended Redfa, and he told her that he was forced to live far away from his family in

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

, he was not trusted by his commanders, and allowed to fly only with small fuel tanks because of his Christianity. He also expressed his admiration towards Israelis, "few against so many Muslims". Redfa was persuaded to travel to Europe to meet with Israeli agents.

Meir Amit Meir Amit (; 17 March 1921 – 17 July 2009) was an Israeli politician and cabinet minister. He served as the Chief Director and the head of global operations for Mossad from 1963 to 1968, before entering into politics and holding two ministerial ...

himself observed the meeting between Redfa and an intelligence officer, using a peep-hole. Redfa was offered $1 million, Israeli citizenship, and full-time employment. Redfa demanded that his relatives be smuggled out of Iraq, which Israel agreed to do. Later Redfa traveled to Israel to see the airfield he was going to use to land the plane. He also met with the commander of

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; , commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial and space warfare branch of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Indep ...

, Major General Mordechai "Mottie" Hod. They discussed the dangerous flight and its path. Numerous Mossad agents were sent to Iraq to assist the transfer of Redfa's wife Betty, their two children aged three and five, his parents and a number of other family members out of the country. Betty and their two children went to Paris for what she thought was a summer vacation. Redfa, who promised to prepare her for what was going to happen, told her nothing. When Betty was contacted by a Mossad agent, who had her new Israeli passport, she initially became very upset and threatened to contact the Iraqi embassy, before she calmed down. The other family members were taken to the Iranian border, where Kurdish

guerillas Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, Partisan (military), partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include Children in the military, recruite ...

helped them to cross into Iran, from where they were taken to Israel. The opportunity to defect came about on August 16, 1966. While Redfa was flying over northern Jordan, his plane was tracked by

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

. The Jordanians contacted Syria but were reassured that the plane belonged to the Syrian air force and was on a training mission. When Redfa's plane reached Israel, he was met by two Israeli Air Force

Dassault Mirage III The Dassault Mirage III () is a family of single/dual-seat, single-engine, fighter aircraft developed and manufactured by French aircraft company Dassault Aviation. It was the first Western European combat aircraft to exceed Mach 2 in horizont ...

s, which escorted him to a landing at Hatzor. Later at a press conference, Redfa said that he had landed the plane on "the last drop of fuel".

Aftermath

Soon after his defection, Redfa's MiG was renumbered

007 The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

, reflecting the manner in which it had arrived. Within a few weeks the aircraft took off again with Israeli test pilot Danny Shapira at the controls, on the first of many test flights. The jet's strengths and weaknesses were analyzed and it was flown against IAF fighters. This offered a path to give Israeli pilots sufficient knowledge and practical experience to effectively counter that aircraft type. In May 1967 director of

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

Richard Helms Richard McGarrah Helms (March 30, 1913 – October 23, 2002) was an American government official and diplomat who served as Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) from 1966 to 1973. Helms began intelligence work with the Office of Strategic Ser ...

said that Israel had proven that it had made good use of the aircraft, when on April 7, 1967, during aerial battles over the

Golan Heights The Golan Heights, or simply the Golan, is a basaltic plateau at the southwest corner of Syria. It is bordered by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the west, the Anti-Lebanon mountains with Mount Hermon in t ...

, the Israeli Air Force brought down 6 Syrian

MiG-21 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (; NATO reporting name: Fishbed) is a supersonic jet aircraft, jet fighter aircraft, fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan, Mikoyan-Gurevich OKB, Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Its nicknames in ...

s without losing any of its Dassault Mirage IIIs. In January 1968, Israel loaned the MiG to the United States, which evaluated the jet under the HAVE DOUGHNUT program. The transfer helped pave the way for the Israeli acquisition of the

F-4 Phantom The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is an American tandem two-seat, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor and fighter-bomber that was developed by McDonnell Aircraft for the United States Navy.Swanborough and Bowers ...

, which the Americans had been reluctant to sell to Israel.

In popular culture

The film '' Steal the Sky'' (1988) is based on Operation Diamond."Steal the Sky."
''Military Aviation Movie List''. Retrieved: 2021-12-13.

References

{{MiG-21 family

Diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of e ...