Wikipedia's first sentence called it “iraqi fighter pilot”. Today it says “redirect from a page that was merged into another page”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “Redfa's MiG-21, the subject of Operation Diamond , at the Israeli Air Force Museum in Hatzerim Captain”. It now reads “Redirect to: Operation Diamond#”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2010 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2010
Munir Redfa (1934–1998) ( ) was an Iraqi fighter pilot , of Assyrian origin, who defected to Israel in 1966 by flying a MiG-21 of the Iraqi Air Force.1 In what is considered as one of the Mossad 's most successful operations, Redfa's entire extended family was smuggled safely out of Iraq to Israel. The MiG-21 fighter was evaluated by the Israeli Air Force and was later loaned to the United States for testing and intelligence analysis. Knowledge obtained from analysis of the aircraft was instrumental to the successes achieved by the Israeli Air Force in its future encounters with Arab MiG-21s. Redfa's defection was the subject of the movie Steal the Sky .2Redfa was born Munir Habib Jamil Rufa ( ) ( sic ) in 1934 to an Assyrian family belonging to the Syriac Orthodox Church from Mosul . He was the second of nine children. Like many other Assyrians, his family fled to Iraq as part of the Christian migration from southeast Turkey and Iran's northwestern mountains (specifically Urmia , fleeing the Assyrian genocide ). At the time of Redfa's defection, a press conference was held during which he indicated that he had suffered from religious and ethnic discrimination in Iraq and that he did not feel that it was his home and requested asylum in the United States. Although he was reunited with his family in Israel he did not re-emigrate to the US, contrary to his declaration, and he received Israeli citizenship. He and his family shortly thereafter moved to another western country. Shortly after Redfa's defection, Iraqi Christians were not allowed to join the air force per orders from Iraq's president then. This order was still true until the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.3
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 366388986.
The opening as it stood in 2015 8 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Munir Redfa ( , born Munir Habib Jamil Rufa ( ) (1934 – c. 1998 ) was an Iraqi fighter pilot who defected in 1966 by flying a MiG-21 of the Iraqi Air Force to Israel. In what is considered as one of the Mossad 's most successful operations, Redfa's entire extended family was smuggled safely out of Iraq to Israel. The MiG-21 fighter was evaluated by the Israeli Air Force and was later loaned to the United States for testing and intelligence analysis. Knowledge obtained from analysis of the aircraft was instrumental to the successes achieved by the Israeli Air Force in its future encounters with Arab MiG-21s. Redfa's defection was the subject of the movie Steal the Sky . Redfa died sometime around 1998 of a heart attack.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 622167719.
The opening as it stood in 2020 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Redfa's MiG-21, the subject of Operation Diamond , at the Israeli Air Force Museum in Hatzerim Captain Munir Redfa ( , ), born Munir Habib Jamil Rufa ( , ) (1934 – c. 1998 ) was an Iraqi fighter pilot .After Qassim's coup, Redfa was one of only five pilots the new regime trusted to continue serving with the sole Iraqi unit operating the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 , 11th Squadron .Redfa defected in 1966 in " Operation Diamond ", flying a MiG-21 of the Iraqi Air Force to Israel. In what is considered as one of the Mossad 's most successful operations, Redfa's entire extended family was smuggled safely out of Iraq to Israel. The MiG-21 fighter was evaluated by the Israeli Air Force and was later loaned to the United States for testing and intelligence analysis, as part of " Have Doughnut ". Knowledge obtained from analysis of the aircraft was instrumental to the successes achieved by the Israeli Air Force in its future encounters with Arab MiG-21s. Redfa died of a heart attack around 1998.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 937254696.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Iraqi pilot who defected to Israel Redfa's MiG-21, the subject of Operation Diamond , at the Israeli Air Force Museum in Hatzerim Captain Munir Redfa ( , ), born Munir Habib Jamil Rufa ( , ) (1934 – c. 1998 ) was an Iraqi fighter pilot . After Qasim 's coup , Redfa was one of only five pilots the new regime trusted to continue serving with the sole Iraqi unit operating the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 , 11th Squadron . Redfa defected in 1966 in " Operation Diamond ", flying a MiG-21 of the Iraqi Air Force to Israel. In what is considered one of the Mossad 's most successful operations, Redfa's entire extended family was smuggled safely out of Iraq to Israel. The MiG-21 fighter was evaluated by the Israeli Air Force and was later loaned to the United States for testing and intelligence analysis, as part of " Have Doughnut ". Knowledge obtained from analysis of the aircraft was instrumental to the successes achieved by the Israeli Air Force in its future encounters with Arab MiG-21s. Redfa was an Assyrian, adherent of the Chaldean Catholic Church . Redfa died of a heart attack around 1998.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1177029243.
The opening as it stood in 2025
Iraqi pilot who defected to Israel Redfa's MiG-21, the subject of Operation Diamond , at the Israeli Air Force Museum in Hatzerim Captain Munir Redfa ( Arabic : منير ردفا , Syriac : ܡܘܢܝܪ ܪܕܦܐ ), born Munir Habib Jamil Rufa ( Arabic : منير حبيب جميل روفا , Syriac : ܡܘܢܝܪ ܚܒܝܒ ܓܡܝܠ ܪܘܦܐ ) (1934 – c. 1998 ) was an Iraqi fighter pilot . After Qasim 's coup , Redfa was one of only five pilots the new regime trusted to continue serving with the sole Iraqi unit operating the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 , 11th Squadron . Redfa defected in 1966 in " Operation Diamond ", flying a MiG-21 of the Iraqi Air Force to Israel. In what is considered one of the Mossad 's most successful operations, Redfa's entire extended family was smuggled safely out of Iraq to Israel. The MiG-21 fighter was evaluated by the Israeli Air Force and was later loaned to the United States for testing and intelligence analysis, as part of " Have Doughnut ". Knowledge obtained from analysis of the aircraft was instrumental to the successes achieved by the Israeli Air Force in its future encounters with Arab MiG-21s. Redfa was an Assyrian, adherent of the Chaldean Catholic Church . Redfa died of a heart attack around 1998.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1288873764. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “iraqi fighter pilot”. Today it says “redirect from a page that was merged into another page”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “Redfa's MiG-21, the subject of Operation Diamond , at the Israeli Air Force Museum in Hatzerim Captain”. It now reads “Redirect to: Operation Diamond#”. Read the current article and compare.
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Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2010, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
iraqi fighter pilot
Now
redirect from a page that was merged into another page
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
