from the SEALs in getting ashore, only one required direct co-ordination with us. This was an attack on a DFLP building a mile or so away in southern Beirut, led by Amnon Lipkin, the friend whose unit had faced one of the toughest battles at Karameh. Amnon’s paratroop force would land with us and also pile into Mossad rental cars. Our attacks would begin at the same time, with the maximum prospect of retaining the advantage of surprise. When and if we both completed the operations and got away safely, we would meet up again on the seafront.
From our first meeting, the morning after Dado gave me the go-ahead, I realized I would have to make at least one change to the plan to rely on the core Sabena team. There was no way, after his exclusion from the hijack rescue mission, that I could refuse Yoni when he pressed to be included. I added him to Mookie Betzer’s force. I put the other two attack teams under a pair of young officers named Amitai Nachmani and Zvika Gilad. Both were self-confident, natural leaders. Both had other qualities I also knew we’d need: focus, and calm. I would take charge on the street outside the targeted apartments, along with Amiram Levin. With us would be Dov Bar, a Shayetet 13 officer, and our medic, Shmuel Katz.
In the hangar at the sayeret base, we made mock-ups of the layout of the apartments, using bedsheets for the walls and adjusting the dimensions as further bits of intelligence came in from Mossad. But the real work involved simulating the whole operation, from the moment of our landing on jet-black rubber dinghies piloted by the SEALs. We found a new building development in north Tel Aviv with a pair of apartment blocks under construction. For two nights, we ran through the whole thing: setting off in the dinghies from a missile boat off the Israeli coast before midnight, meeting up with our Mossad drivers on shore, making our way through the center of Tel Aviv to the apartment complexes and simulating the attack. I wanted to ensure we could pull off the whole thing without anyone raising an alarm. The one problem came during the second run-through. A policeman drove by as we were “attacking” the apartments. Dado managed to convince him that reporting us to his superiors would not be an especially good idea.
In our debriefing discussions after that exercise, Dado identified a major problem I’d overlooked. We would be entering Beirut dressed as civilians. Once we got to the top end of Rue Verdun, we planned to approach the apartments as if we were party-goers returning from a night on the town. “It doesn’t look right,” Dado said. “More than a dozen party people walking, all men?” Mookie
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