$ 1 million spy, Iran’s gesture in Mossad, the end of “Operation Diamond” …

In March 1963, a new director was appointed to Israel’s Mossad foreign intelligence service. Meir Amit began his career by meeting with representatives of various agencies in the country, including the military. Military The weather The commander of the Air Force, Ezer Weissman, the future president of the country, expressed his concern at a meeting with the Mossad chief: the supply of some Arab countries with the latest Soviet-made MiG-21 fighter jets.

These supersonic aircraft have been in production since 1959. Moscow has been supplying Egypt, Syria and Iraq with MiG-21s since the early 1960s. The countries mentioned were enemies of Israel and one day they were likely to fight. That’s it according to and the new planes, or rather the fact that they knew nothing about them, worried Weissman.

To successfully fight the MiG-21s, it was necessary to know what they were capable of, their flight characteristics. These were confidential information. Weissman also said in a meeting with Meir Amit that the solution to the problem was to seize one of the planes. Only Mossad could do that.

Meir Amit understood that, in the course of the modern war weather capturing the advantage is at least half of the victory. That’s why it’s important to get acquainted with the MiG-21, which the Arabs are increasingly acquiring and weaknesses had to be learned.

Instructed by their directors, Mossad analysts devised a plan on how to seize the plane. It was clear that, The fact that the Israelis stole the MiG-21 was a fantastic version. The most reasonable option is to capture one of the local pilots in these Arab countries and was to hijack the plane through him.

Egypt was first chosen to carry out a special operation called Operation Diamond. But even in return for a generous reward, it was not easy for Israel to find an Arab pilot who would agree to hijack the plane. Unexpectedly, interesting information came from Paris.

In late 1964 France said a person entering the Israeli embassy in the capital that, If Jews are interested in a MiG-21, they should contact Joseph in Baghdad and gave a phone number for this. Information about the incident was soon passed to Meir Amita.

The offer was as dangerous as it was tempting. It could be a trap. In that case, the caller will be handed over to the Iraqi special services and there would be no chance of survival. After much deliberation, it was decided to take a risk. The spy to be sent to Iraq was also told how dangerous the issue was and was given the opportunity to make a choice. The agent agreed to go to Baghdad.

But this was not a trap. The person I wanted to meet was a Jew in his 60s and From childhood he served in a wealthy Christian-Assyrian family. Munir Redfa, a 30-year-old member of the family, served in the Iraqi Air Force. Redfa, who had some experience in the USSR, was the pilot of the best MiG-21.

According to Joseph according to, The Iraqi government’s increasingly discriminatory policy toward Christians has caused discontent in the family, especially in Munir. Despite being one of the best pilots in his country, his career prospects were limited. Moreover, starting in 1961 and Due to the ongoing Kurdish uprising, Iraqi pilots were often sent to bomb Kurdish villages. Munir Redfa was not happy about that either.

The information was promising enough and Mossad decided to work in this direction. He met Redfa in Paris in 1965 and he was even taken to Israel for a day. All plans for the operation were discussed with him here. Redfa demanded £ 500,000 in exchange for hijacking the plane that, which was equivalent to $ 1 million at the time. Another condition of the pilot was the expulsion of his entire family from Iraq. Israel has accepted these conditions.

Prepare the details of the operation and took another year to implement. Munir’s uncle first went to Switzerland for “treatment”. Here, part of the money promised to Redfa was transferred to his account.

Then his wife and two young sons went on a tourist trip to Paris. Some claims according tothe woman was unaware of the issue and The Mossad agent met him in New Israel your passport was anxious to present. He had to be persuaded not to apply to the Iraqi embassy.

For the evacuation of other family members, the leader of the rebel Kurds Mustafa Barzani and then the help of Iran, which had good relations with Israel, was needed. A family going on a picnic in the foothills in the summer heat and Two servicemen were flown to Iran by helicopter.

On August 16, Redfa took off for a training flight. Shortly afterwards, he turned south and flew over Jordan to Israel. Israel weather Two Mirage III aircraft in space snowhe shouted. They were sent by the new Air Force commander Mordechai Khod. Iraqi plane to pilots unaware of the operation snowThe Hatsor was instructed to escort him to the air base. The chassis of both planes were open and this was a sign for Redfa.

Shortly after the escape, Munir Redfa held a press conference. At that time, of course, it was not disclosed that Israel was conducting a special operation to steal the MiG-21. The pilot’s own decision, the Iraqi government to the Christians and presented as a manifestation of dissatisfaction with his policy towards the Kurds.

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The Israeli Air Force has finally begun to study the characteristics of the aircraft they acquired. In addition, the MiG-21 and Training battles were held between Israeli-owned Mirage III aircraft. The Jewish pilots were trained to shoot both the MiG and to defend themselves from attack.

During the Six-Day War, which began in June 1967, Israel won all of the air battles without exception. In addition to the high combat readiness of Jewish pilots, the results of Operation Diamond, one of Mossad’s most successful operations, also played an important role in this factor.

Meanwhile, the Americans also wanted to get acquainted with the MiG-21. They often came across this plane in war-torn Vietnam and the result was not always heartwarming. But the Israelis agreed to give the plane to the Americans: Washington would agree to sell them F-4 Phantom.

That’s the point that, Until then, the United States can be said to be Israel that, did not sell weapons. And all military aviation France consisted of aircraft manufactured. But two days before the start of the Six-Day War France imposed a moratorium on arms sales to both Israel and Arab countries. The Arabs were not too worried. In their arsenal are French-made equipment and The weapons were few, the main supplier was Moscow. Israel was severely affected by the moratorium. Now he had to find a new arms supplier.

On the other hand, the Americans had to change their policies. The leaders of the Arab countries could not admit that they were the only ones to be defeated in the Six-Day War by Israel. They stressed that the United States also helped Israel. As a result, anti-American sentiment spread in those countries. This prompted Washington to change its Middle East policy and move closer to Tel Aviv. To sell the F-4 Phantom to the Jews according to they agreed.

The MiG-21 was returned to Israel after being studied by the Americans. Here he was given the number 007 and It is still housed in the Israeli Air Force Museum.

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Munir Redfa’s family could not get used to Israel and Mossad gave them new names in the West Europe to one of the countries (most likely that, Helped to move to Italy). The former pilot died of a heart attack in 1998 at the age of 64.