Firearm History: Israel and the Beretta Model 71

The Firearm Blog's "Rimfire Report" this week discusses "Mossad’s Deadly Legacy with Beretta Model 71." The Model 71 "Jaguar" was part of the company's Model 70 series: "a downsized companion pistol line to complement the [then-]recently introduced 9mm Beretta M1951" as one author put it. Similar to the successor 80 series of pistols, the Model 70 series was offered in a variety of calibers including the Model 71 in .22 LR.

    It is a single action simple blow-back semi-automatic pistol featuring a fixed barrel, aluminum frame, and using an 8-round magazine, comparable in size to the Walther PPK/S or a S&W snub-nosed J-frame. The writer of the TFB article observed that "[t]he grip dimensions combined with the nearly one-pound weight of the firearm, a straight-back trigger pull, and its small dimensions make for a very comfortable shooting experience." On the other hand, "[t]he Model 71 works a lot like most any other single-action only firearm, but it does however feature an oddly placed magazine release [i.e., a European style release near the bottom-rear of the left grip panel], fairly crude iron sights, and worst of all, the pistol’s discontinuaton [sic] gives collectors a high asking price even for models in poor condition."

    But the reason for the pistol's popularity among collectors has less to do with any particular merits of the weapon but that fact that Israel's Mossad used it, including in several operations to murder PLO terrorist leaders living in various European countries; leaders who were believed to have been involved in the Munich Massacre at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games in which PLO and Black September terrorists slaughtered 13 Israeli athletes. As the author relates:

Swearing retribution on those who were deemed directly responsible for the attacks, primarily members of Black September as well as targets associated with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). These targets were hunted down between 1972 and the early 1990s with many of these targeted, covert assassinations using the Model 71 as the primary tool.

The sole example given in the article is the killing of "Wael Zwaiter who was suspected of having direct involvement and ties with Black September and the Munich Olympics attack."

While Zwaiter was in Rome, two Mossad agents tailed him and covertly assassinated him in his apartment stairwell by shooting him at point-blank range with 12 rounds of 22LR. We know that both agents fired shots and it's likely that one or both agents ran out of ammunition as these pistols can only hold a total of 9 rounds each. The agents essentially “mag dumped” the target at close range.

This is not too different from other types of Mossad hits. For instance, in the book Rise and Kill First the author recounts the attempted assassination of Ali Hassan Salameh in Norway in 1973. Salameh was believed to have been involved in the planning, recruitment of personnel, and perpetration of the Munich attack. A Mossad team tracking another known terrorist saw that terrorist meet with a man that they mistakenly identified as Salameh. After some period of reconnaissance, the team was ordered to kill the man. 

That night, the man and his girlfriend left their apartment and took a bus to a movie theater. The Bayonet team, in vehicles and on foot, did not let them out of their sight. At about 10:30, the couple left the theater and took the bus home. When they got off the bus, a gray Volvo stepped nearby, and shaul and Y., another operative, got out. The two drew silenced Beretta pistols and shot the man eight times before running back to the car and making off.

However, the man they had killed was not Salameh, but Ahmed Bouchiki, a Moroccan waiter; and the "girlfriend" was his pregnant wife. Salameh would not be hunted down and killed until 1979. While the book doesn't indicate the caliber of the weapons, it seems likely that they were using the Model 71 which was renown for being an excellent suppressor host.

More:

• "A love letter to the Beretta 71"--Guns.com.
• "The Assassin's Rimfire: The Beretta 71"--The Firearm Blog.
• "Beretta 71: Wet-Work Wonder"--SWAT Magazine.
• "Beretta Model 71 Jaguar"--Guns Magazine.
• "Epic 22 Pocket Pistol: The Beretta 71 Jaguar"--Guns.com.
• "Israeli Mossad .22 LRS: The Reliable Pistols of the Mossad"--Athlon Outdoors.