The unassuming Beretta Model 71 was the pistol of choice for some of Israel’s best units

The Beretta Model 71, or M71, is an unassuming pistol. It chambers the meek .22LR, a seemingly outdated round by modern standards that’s known for being one of the best rounds to teach kids to shoot with. The diminutive rimfire round has hardly any recoil and is dirt cheap. It’s not a caliber you’d typically associate with the military or police forces, but the Beretta Model 71 and the .22LR have a long history of martial use in Israel.

Entering production in 1958, the Beretta Model 70 series featured a number of models that could be chambered in .22LR, .380 ACP, or .32 ACP. The Beretta Model 71, often called “The Jaguar” in Beretta marketing, is a very simple pistol. It’s a compact, straight blowback-operated gun that fires from a single-stack magazine. The gun uses a single-action-only, hammer-fired design.

In terms of gun design, the blowback operation is as simple as it gets. Some might even call it crude. A blowback system utilizes the rearward pressure created by the bullet leaving the case to operate the gun. A combination of slide weight and a recoil spring ensures the action remains closed until the bullet exits the barrel, but it is not a locked-breech firearm like most military pistols.

In larger calibers, a blowback system creates increased recoil, but due to the diminutive .22LR, there really isn’t a way to produce a semi-automatic action that isn’t blowback operated. The .22LR doesn’t impart enough energy to overcome a locked breech and operate reliably.

Why the Israel used the Beretta Model 71 and the .22LR

The Beretta Model 71 was not used by regular military forces. Rather, it was fielded by Israeli elite forces, including the Mossad and the Sayeret Matkal; it was also used by Israeli air marshals.

The Beretta Model 71 and the .22LR cartridge offered a unique combination of features they found to be useful for special situations.

First, they required a compact firearm and the Model 71 was quite compact for the era. Although there existed smaller guns that would be easy to conceal, they weren’t easy to shoot; the Beretta Model 71 struck a great balance between compactness, light weight, and ease of shooting.

The .22LR in the Model 71 has almost no noticeable recoil and is very easy to shoot accurately. A direct blowback gun with a fixed barrel makes for an excellent suppressor host. Suppressed pistols can be finicky, but fixed barrels remove reliability issues. The .22LR is also a round that’s easier to suppress than most centerfire calibers.

For sky marshals, in particular, the use of the .22LR was intended to reduce the potential for overpenetration and collateral damage. The .22LR is less likely to overpenetrate a target or cause excessive damage in the event of a miss.

Related: What is Israel’s Iron Dom and how does it work?

Israeli sky marshals

The Israelis kept their Sky Marshal program close to the chest, keeping it a secret to avoid alerting hijackers to a potentially armed and trained sky marshal.

One of the most famous examples of the Model 71 being used was by a Sayeret Matkal operator turned sky marshal named Mordechai Rachamim.

In 1969, Rachamim was aboard an Israeli aircraft departing from Zurich. Before take-off, the plane was attacked by four Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorists armed with machine guns and bombs. The terrorists injured several people and ultimately killed the co-pilot, who died of his wounds a month later.

Rachamim engaged the terrorists from the plane’s cockpit window but soon left the plane to take the fight to the attackers. He fired all nine rounds from his Model 71 and killed one of the terrorists. The fight ended when Swiss security forces arriving and arresting the remaining terrorists and Rachamim as well. He was cleared of all charges.

Sabena Flight 571

That wasn’t the last time Mordechai Rachamim and the Beretta Model 71 would be called to action. Rachamim would later return to the elite Sayeret Matkal and would be called to respond to the hijacking of Sabena Flight 571 by four members of the Black September terrorist organization.

Rachamim’s knowledge of planes made him a smart choice for the team. It also made him the point man for the eventual covert breach that took out four terrorists down and save over 100 hostages.

Rachamim and his comrades stormed the plane armed with Beretta Model 71 pistols. The team engaged in a ferocious gun battle, firing enough to cause Rachamim to reload. Rachamim killed one terrorist and a comrade killed another. The team subdued the two others and saved the passengers. Future Israeli prime ministers Ehud Barak and Benjamin Netanyahu were also members of the Sayeret Matkal team that engaged the terrorists.

Related: Why is the Glock 19 pistol the favorite of the world’s most elite forces?

Operaio Wrath of God

After the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, Mossad began Operation Wrath of God a targeted assassination campaign across the world against members of Black September, who had perpetrated the attack.

On October 16, 1972, two Mossad operatives assassinated Abdel Zwaiter in the lobby of his apartment in Rome. The two shooters fired 11 or 12 rounds into the man. The assassins believed Zwaiter was the head of Black September in Rome. In reality, Zwaiter had no connection to Black September and Mossad murdered an innocent man.

Mossad’s operations are naturally covered in secrecy. I can’t confirm the Beretta Model 71 was used in this specific operation, but it’s highly likely, since we know Mossad used the .22LR during Wrath of God and that Mossad fielded the Model 71.

The Jaguar is unusual for a military firearm. It’s small, fires a small caliber, and doesn’t seem like a fighting weapon. For the Israelis, it was a handgun that filled a specific niche at a particular time.

The Model 71 has been out of production since 1985 but is popular amongst .22LR enthusiasts, and its use by Israel has propelled the pistol into a spotlight that is unlikely to ever fade.

Feature Image: Sayeret Matkal gets a new commander, May 2024. (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)

Read more from Sandboxx News

• How the military has influenced fashion through the decades
• How Green Berets jumped from planes with a man-portable atomic bomb during the Cold War
• The Navy’s plan for its next trainer jet shows how carrier aviation has changed
• How an F-15E scored its only air-to-air kill… with a bomb
• ‘Warfare’ shows the brutal reality of combat for an elite unit