Raffi Berg, Red Sea Spies

Raffi Berg, Red Sea Spies: The True Story of Mossad’s Fake Diving Resort

With Special Guest Former Mossad Commandor Dani Limor

Inspired the Netflix drama, The Red Sea Diving Resort!

In the early 1980s, on a remote part of the Sudanese coast, a new luxury resort opened for business. Catering to divers, it attracted guests from around the world. Little did the guests know that the staff members were undercover spies, working for the Mossad, Israel’s secret service. Written by longtime BBC Middle East correspondent Raffi Berg, this page-turner tells the true story that inspired the recent Netflix drama The Red Sea Diving Resort. What began with one cryptic message pleading for help turned into the secret evacuation of thousands of Ethiopian Jews and the spiriting of them to Israel.

Raffi Berg is the Middle East editor of the BBC News website. A journalist for nearly 30 years, he has a particular interest in events in Israel, from where he has reported extensively in times of war and peace. He graduated in Modern and Medieval History from the London School of Economics, and was a student of Jewish and Israel studies at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Raffi is based in London, where he lives with his family.  

Dani Limor served 25 years in the Mossad, with activities including leading the secret operation which evacuated Ethiopian Jews from Sudan to Israel at the command of Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Before joining the Mossad, he was an officer in the Israeli paratroopers and he has fought in four of Israel’s wars. He is a founder of the Nachshon School for Social Leadership and is currently mapping emerging Jewish communities around the world for the Ministry of the Diaspora.