May 24 and 25 are the 27th anniversary of Israel's "Operation Solomon" in 1991 which saved 14,325 Ethiopians from the turmoil their country was experiencing. The operation used 35 aircraft over only 36 hours to make its rescue flights. This added to the 8000 brought in 1984 during Operation Moses, and the 500 brought in 1985 through Operation Sheba, which were halted after being discovered by the government of Sudan. "The operation ended when it became public and the ... government of Sudan forced a halt to the flights. Not all of the Ethiopian Jews who wanted to leave had been evacuated."(1)
Operation Solomon finally gave them the chance to be reunited, and the descendants of these people who kissed the ground, today are surely many tens of thousands and you can see them in faces all over Israel.
(1) Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training
