Aliyah

When American forces liberated Iraq, there were 29 Jews in the whole country. Most were very old and scattered throughout the country. They had no social safety net and lived primarily on the generosity of those human beings that can be found everywhere who will offer comfort to those less fortunate than themselves regardless of race, class, religion, etc. However, they weren’t persecuted because they were obviously no threat to the regime. After we took over, a Jewish immigration agency from Israel came in and canvassed the 29 to see if any of them would like to immigrate to Israel. Twelve said yes. On this day, we had six of them. A representative from the agency met with Colonel Edwards at the IAC to discuss the possibility of getting them out. This person was accompanied by a younger man who served in US Special Forces, was Jewish, and now worked for this "agency" in Israel. We suspected that he was a Mossad (Israeli CIA) agent. This was a politically tricky situation. The UN didn’t know of this plan or the survey. Neither did the CPA, Amb Bremer, or the rest of the military. And any word of Jews leaving an Arab country for Israel would cause a diplomatic firestorm. The Colonel was briefed on this and we enthusiastically endorsed the idea. Everyone was in on the plan. We controlled the humanitarian airstrip that was located next to the Baghdad Airport. The Israelis would fly in a non-descript cargo plane. We would bring the Jews in an unmarked bus to the plane. We told no one. On the appointed day, a bus arrived at the IAC with the Jews. I rode in the bus. My job was to stand in the doorway of the bus, fully armed, and block the sight on anyone at a checkpoint that may want to look in and see who else was on the bus. I met each of the Jews. The youngest was an 8-year old boy and the oldest was a 99 year-old woman who was born when Iraq was part of the Ottoman Empire! She lived in Basra in a bombed out building that hadn’t been repaired since it was destroyed during Desert Storm. The Airport road was manned at two checkpoints by private contractor guards, who happened to be retired Ghurka soldiers from the British Army. As we approached the first checkpoint, the driver opened the door and the guard looked in. I had my sunglasses on and gave him the best bad-ass look I had. He nodded and smiled at me and waved us through. The same thing with the second and final checkpoint. In front of and behind the bus where our Hummers. Once we got to the airstrip, our man there met with the immigration agency folks and coordinated the boarding. The plane hadn’t arrived yet. So I waited on the bus with the Jews while my buddies took turns coming on and saying hello. They couldn’t speak English, but were obviously very grateful. The plane arrived and I disembarked from the bus and watched them drive up to the plane. We waited for them to offload and then headed for home. It was reported in the New York Times some time later by the Jewish Agency who didn’t elaborate as to how they got them out of the country. I got a copy of the news clipping. This was the best work that I did in Iraq, by far.