Haapalah / Aliyah Bet

Abraham Rabinovich, an Israeli journalist, provided a thorough account of the Israeli move to bolster her naval defense capability through the acquisition of high-speed torpedo boats mounted with sea-to-sea missiles, which were built by the French.
In the middle of the project the French government put an embargo on arms to the Middle East.
On Christmas Eve, 1969, in response, the Israelis launched a quasimilitary operation to rescue the five boats from a French shipyard and bring them to Israel.
A follow-up described the vessels' role in the 1973 Arab-Israeli conflict.