[3] In 1991, the sitting Ethiopian government of Mengistu Haile Mariam was close to being toppled with the military successes of Eritrean and Tigrayan rebels, threatening Ethiopia with dangerous political destabilization.

The decision of the Ethiopian government to allow all the Falashas to leave the country at once was largely motivated by a letter from President George H. W. Bush, who had some involvement with Operations Joshua and Moses.

[2] Also involved in the Israeli and Ethiopian governments' attempts to facilitate the operation was a group of American diplomats led by Senator Rudy Boschwitz, including Irvin Hicks, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs; Robert Frasure, the Director of the African Affairs at the White House National Security Council; and Robert Houdek the Chargé d'Affaires of the United States Embassy in Addis Ababa.

Boschwitz had been sent as a special emissary of President Bush, and he and his team met with the government of Ethiopia to aid Israel in the arranging of the airlift.

In addition, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Herman Cohen also played an important role, as he was the international mediator of the civil war in Ethiopia.

[7] In response to the efforts of the diplomats, acting President of Ethiopia Tesfaye Gebre Kidan made the ultimate decision to allow the airlift.

[9] The negotiations surrounding the operation led to the eventual London roundtable discussions, which established a joint declaration by the Ethiopian combatants who then agreed to organize a conference to select a transitional government.

Israel, which had a gradual plan for this operation, and the US were given a graphic report from Pollack that informed both countries of the terrible conditions that the Ethiopian Jews were living in.

[7] In order to accommodate as many people as possible, airplanes were stripped of their seats, and due to the low body weight and minimal baggage of the refugees, up to 1,086 passengers were boarded on a single plane.

This made more vehicles available for the mission, as Jewish religious law permits breaking the Sabbath traditions for saving lives.

Estimates in 2006 suggested that up to 80 percent of adult immigrants from Ethiopia are unemployed and forced to live off national welfare payments.

Nevertheless, the younger generations of Ethiopian Israelis, who have grown up and been educated in Israel and possess graduate degrees and more forms of formal training, still have a disproportionate amount of trouble finding work.