Mossad: Secret Service of Israel | Ep 1 | Full Documentary

Mossad, one of the most effective secret services in the world, its job to prevent another Holocaust.

You cannot have a true reading of the history of Israel, the history of the whole world, without understanding the secret history of its intelligence services.

Mossad licensed the spy to manipulate and to kill the Hezbollah commander who was killed in a bomb attack, assassination of a leading Iranian nuclear scientist.

Mossad impacts global politics with spectacular operations.

Has been involved in every major incident in this region for the past 50 years, feared, powerful, controversial.

Dubai, 2010, images straight out of a spy story, surveillance cameras in a hotel lobby recalled how Mossad agents posing as tourists latch onto their target, a leading exponent of Hamas, a Palestinian militant organization.

Hotel on January the 19th, within hours of his arrival, he was killed in his room.

Dubai’s police chief says he’s certain Mossad is responsible.

In the eyes of Mossad, Al-Mabhouh was instrumental in procuring missiles for Hamas intended to kill Israelis, yet does this justify murder?

Operations like the one in Dubai are in line with Israel’s strategy of self-defense.

Since its founding days, the Jewish state has fought several wars against neighbors who have denied its right to exist.

In this fight for survival, Mossad is tasked with waging an invisible war, clandestine surveillance, assassinations, sabotage.

When you have the horrors of the Holocaust and the current security challenges which are perceived as existential, your mindset is left with one choice: rise and kill first.

And the ones who are keeping you safe, risking their own lives, are the people from the Mossad and the rest of the Israeli intelligence.

The operation in Dubai is only partly successful.

The liquidation of Al-Mabhouh may have gone according to plan, yet Mossad is publicly exposed.

Its agents barely managed to get out of Dubai.

Mossad denies any involvement, albeit rather half-heartedly.

Looks like whoever planned it did a good enough job and took that into account; it excites the imagination, don’t you think?

The Israeli government too leaves room for speculation, there’s no confirmation, no denial.

See, I think that you saw too many movies about James Bond and I prefer you to see more movies, more serious foreign.

However, even the near failure in Dubai transmits a strong signal.

I think it sent out a broader message that Israel had a long reach and it would do what it felt was necessary in order to ensure the security of the state of Israel and the citizens of the state of Israel.

Every action ascribed to Mossad, whether rightly or wrongly, enlarges its myth and thereby helps to protect Israel.

The legend of Mossad as an all-powerful arm is carefully cultivated with a view to deterring any potential enemy.

The conspiracy outlook is very much deeply embedded within the Arab world.

Time and again, you see this aspect of glorification, demonization, using it for, you know, political purposes.

I don’t know if it will surprise you, but there are many people in the Arab world who seriously argue that Mossad was behind 9/11.

The Israeli intelligence did not aim to create a myth, this was a byproduct of their strict policy of clandestine secret espionage in operational work.

Now, in time, they saw that it serves them very well.

Mossad’s official label is Institute for Information and Special Operations.

Since 1951, it’s been charged with keeping Israel from harm, and since then, Mossad has become a household word the world over.

Its daring exploits have made it one of the most publicized secret services ever.

According to estimates, however, Mossad employs merely 3,000 people, a tiny establishment compared to the CIA, which can call on up to 23,000 operatives.

Yet in terms of demography, Mossad is a giant when comparing the size of the two countries’ respected populations; it’s about five times bigger than the CIA.

Today, Israel invests considerably in Mossad, yet the value of well-aimed discrete measures of protection was recognized at an early stage.

Israel’s secret services originated from Jewish underground activities in Ottoman Palestine at the end of the 19th century.

The first Jewish immigrants from Europe set foot on the land of their forefathers, then under Turkish rule.

In 1917, during the First World War, British troops oust their Turkish opponents.

The government in London pledged to create a Jewish state after the war, yet one year before, the Arabs too had been promised a state of their own.

Decades of conflict will follow.

By then, the Jewish community has acquired considerable stretches of land in Palestine, their settlements come under attack by outraged Arabs.

A clandestine movement is formed to strike back and to prepare for the formation of a Jewish state.

It was obvious that the Jews in Palestine were a minority and could only muster limited military forces, and so having information and intelligence early on was a major asset.

Information helps to win wars and also to win peace.

That is why intelligence services are as important for Israel today as they were back then, to forestall attacks and to promote political developments.

The Jewish underground organization, Haganah, soon operates a net of informers among Arabs and Britons alike.

But Haganah also smuggles guns into Palestine, as well as Jewish immigrants from Europe who are fleeing the Nazis.

Britain, as the mandatory power, restricts immigration to Palestine, attempting to pacify the Arabs, yet ever more Jews from Hitler’s Europe seek refuge in the Middle East.

A good many Mossad agents learn their trade in the ranks of Haganah.

One of these veterans is Shmuel Goren.

We went and threw a Molotov bottle to an Arab in Haifa and we were caught by the police, and they found in my pocket a pistol.

I was jailed three days in the, in the British, in a police station.

The British authorities decide to put the squeeze on Haganah; raids on suspected gun caches amounted with ever-increasing frequency.

Yet now, Jewish infiltration of the security forces pays off.

And there came somebody and told us that if the British sergeant will ask you what are you doing here, you just tell him that you don’t know; we were caught in the street, and the sergeant was operated by the Haganah because they gave him money, or maybe I think that his wife was Jewish, I don’t remember.

There is, but he worked for us and he saved us, so this was my first experience in this kind of business.

With the end of World War II, the situation in Palestine takes a turn for the worse.

Hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors are looking for a safe haven.

Great Britain refuses to suspend the restrictions on immigration; in view of this, Jewish activists are determined more than ever to fight for an independent Jewish state capable of offering protection to their kin.

Radical splinter groups target British institutions.

One of their leaders is Menachem Begin, a future Prime Minister of Israel.

They blow up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, the seat of the British administrative headquarters; 91 people die.

In 1947, Britain announces a withdrawal from its mandate.

The U.N. decides on the partition of Palestine.

The resolution or polished act was adopted by search history books; the Jewish state colored light, the Arab state dark, Jaffa to go to the Arabs, Jerusalem internationalized.

The vision of a Jewish state has become a reality; by now, a third of Palestine’s population is Jewish, yet the U.N. resolution that caused them 56% of the land.

The immediate consequence is an irregular war.

The Arab world is bent on averting a Jewish state.

The surrounding countries support the fight of the Palestinians against the Jews; it’s the hour of Haganah.

Back in the 1920s, David Ben-Gurion, the chairman of the Jewish community in Palestine, helped to raise Haganah; he’ll become Israel’s first Secretary of Defense and Prime Minister.

The proclamation of the state of Israel on May 14, 1948, triggers a military response by its Arab neighbors.

That same night, six Arab states declared war on Israel on three fronts.

Their armies advanced into the former British mandate, their objective to crush the new Jewish state once and for all.

In terms of troop strength and equipment, the Arab alliance is vastly superior to the Israeli forces.

Their soldiers have yet to learn the rules of conventional warfare, but the former underground fighters are well-organized and highly motivated.

The young men and women of Haganah know exactly how to achieve maximum effects by limited means.

When Israel was declared in 1948, the population was around 650,000; demographically, it was very small compared to the surrounding Arab states.

And Ben-Gurion, as I say, was very, very keen to ensure that intelligence becomes a force multiplier for a state which was resource-poor and relatively weak, not just in forewarning but equally in carrying out operations which strategically can benefit the newborn states.

Their strength lies in collecting and evaluating intelligence, and they have a clearly defined aim; as for their enemies, it’s quite the opposite.

The Arab rulers are above all else determined to look after their own interests first.

In July 1949, Israel has won its first war against its neighbors; the prime lesson drawn from this conflict is that intelligence about the enemy is a war-deciding asset.

The need for an effective secret service is obvious.

Houses once owned by the German Templars, a Christian group in Tel Aviv, become the first headquarters in the direct neighborhood of the government of David Ben-Gurion.

Today, Israel can call on three secret services.

Aman comes first in terms of staff and budget; its brief is to spy on the enemy’s armies.

Number two, and considerably smaller, the inland security service Shin Bet; it’s responsible for counter-espionage and anti-terror operations, as well as for the protection of the government and Israeli institutions.

Yet best known of the three is Mossad; it’s tasked with secret activities abroad with a view to protecting not only the citizens of Israel, but Jews throughout the world.

Their early years are marked by intense pressure; rapid expansion calls for much improvisation among the first operatives, former underground fighters like Shmuel Goren.

We didn’t have the faintest idea; there was no one to tell us how to run this sort of thing.

Nevertheless, we had to adjust to the new situation and organize everything from scratch since there were so many challenges at the same time.

Right from the start, Israel’s spies are not only tasked with collecting intelligence but also with conducting special operations; it’s a strategy derived from irregular warfare to weaken the enemy without risking open confrontation.

The Jewish state must conserve its resources; Mossad becomes the spearhead of this policy.

Isser Harel, head of Mossad since 1952, even begins to recruit former radical underground fighters who were declared enemies of David Ben-Gurion to offer them a job that would allow them a proper existence as well as to keep them from becoming politically active, and of course, to tap into their special talents.

Um, I think some of them were tough killers with experience in terrorism and assassinations.

David Ben-Gurion intends to build a democracy along Western models; he had the feeling of constant threat, soon calls for compromises.

Ben-Gurion spoke about democracy, but he was not such a, I would say, an executioner of democracy, and so when establishing the intelligence community, he insisted on 100% secrecy, not even pronouncing the names of the organization, so not acknowledging their existence.

If you do not acknowledge the existence, you don’t need to obey any rules.

The state of emergency declared by Ben-Gurion in 1948 is still in effect; for the Israeli forces and Mossad, this means walking a tightrope to act in accordance with democratic rules and the law and to effectively safeguard the security of the state at the same time.

For the most secret services try to procure data which is supposed to be protected; by doing so today, at the very least, infringe the laws of the countries involved.

Um, so every intelligence service has to weigh the risks to determine whether a specific operation is worth the end result; it’s an assessment that is doubtlessly handled differently in Israel than with us.

Is under immense pressure to deliver; it must prove its worth for the protection of Israel, and this means it must produce results.

Is much more prepared to take risks than, for example, other western or Central European services.

The clandestine experience has left its mark on Mossad; during the early years, it operates successfully behind the curtain until overnight a spectacular operation reveals its prowess to the world.

Jerusalem, 1961, the trial of the man who managed the Holocaust, Adolf Eichmann.

The year before, Mossad agents kidnapped the former SS man in Argentina; a sensational coup.

Eichmann was one of the key organizers of the Holocaust; after the war, he manages to escape to Buenos Aires, where he lives a shrouded existence under a false identity.

When Mossad is tipped off about his whereabouts, a 67-strong team is sent to South America; Mossad agent Rafi Eitan is in charge of the operation.

We were in a hideout close to his home; I went up to him saying “momentito, señor” and tackled him to the ground, and then we pushed him into the car.

Our first question was, “what’s your name?”; “Ricardo Clement,” he replied.

Ricardo Clemente, oh, that was the name by which he lived in Argentina.

Eichmann, a few seconds later, he said, “I’ve been expecting this moment day and night, I knew you Israelis would find me someday.”

He wouldn’t have posed a problem to put a few bullets in his head right there and then, no problem at all; it would have been even easier for the team and less risky, but no, David Ben-Gurion had expressly ordered that Eichmann must be brought to trial as he said, “this is not the law of the jungle.”

This “no jungle” was used in the case of Adolf Eichmann.

Ben-Gurion ostentatiously seeks out the public, since many Holocaust survivors accuse him of displaying too little interest in their ordeal, and indeed, hunting Nazis is not among the top priorities of the Israeli government.

Nazis were executed in Israel after the war; no matter what was alleged later on, Israel did not actively search for Nazis, and neither did Israel and West Germany have just begun to establish official relations.

For the leaders of the two young states, pragmatism is paramount, and this calls for leaving behind the past as far as possible.

However, in the cabinet of German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, there is Hans Globke; the head of the federal chancellery has a Nazi past, a topic that might cause trouble if mentioned during the Eichmann trial.

Eichmann was in some contact with Globke, and um, Globke was aware of the existence of Eichmann in Argentina; I think that the people who remained in the executive branch of West Germany didn’t want people to speak about their past.

The German government insists that Globke’s name be left out of the trial; as it turns out, Germany’s federal intelligence service, the BND, as well as the CIA, have been well aware of Eichmann’s hideout in Argentina for some time.

But still, it’s a huge boost for Israeli self-confidence that a leading Nazi criminal has been caught by one of their own services.

The capture of Adolf Eichmann is still counted among Mossad’s greatest achievements, even given the fact that Mossad director Harel had been informed of Eichmann’s whereabouts several years earlier, though receiving information didn’t see the potential of, um, you know, looking and hunting and bringing to justice or killing Nazi war criminals; he had other things to deal with and he didn’t see it; only afterwards did he realize the magnitude of the publicity and the myth that such an operation can create.

The Eichmann trial makes headlines throughout the world; it’s Mossad, it becomes the foundation of its myth, telling Israel’s enemies, “our agents may strike anywhere.”

It made us proud of ourselves; we, the Jews, had shown to the world, “you try to annihilate us, and now what? We are here, the Jewish people lives and exists.”

After Eichmann, only one other Nazi criminal is apprehended by Mossad during the 1960s.

Mossad agents infiltrate the countries of Israel’s Arab neighbors in a series of risky operations; the premise, another attack on the Jewish state may be imminent at any time.

Since 1949, Israel has occupied land which the U.N. had accorded to the Palestinians.

Using sophisticated cover stories, Mossad agents managed to get access to the highest circles of their Arab enemies; from there, they recruit further agents and informers, often voluntarily supported by the residents of the local Jewish communities.

At Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv, agents are briefed about operations abroad; potential recruits are comparatively easy to find.

Israel is full of immigrants who’ve left the countries of their origin only recently, immigrants coming to Israel from all over the world, and in this sense, it was easy to take someone who comes from Germany or from Egypt and send them back to Germany or to Egypt or wherever it is; he is a typical.

So, getting agents undercover was very easy for the Mossad.

The state of Israel offers protection to those who feel threatened in the countries of their birth; driven by idealism, many immigrants are willing to serve Mossad and their new homeland.

Salaries were very low back then, and the risk was always gigantic; every agent knew that an arrest would lead to extensive torture and painful deaths.

In 1961, Mossad succeeds in planting an agent in Cairo’s high society.

Egypt, Israel’s arch-enemy, is now being spied upon by a man posing as a German horse breeder.

As a matter of fact, he’s an Israeli citizen by the name of Wolfgang Lotz, born in Mannheim in 1921; he successfully acted the man about town, lavishly hosting the Egyptian elite; he collects important snippets of intelligence.

He looked German; he had the advantage of actually not having been circumcised; he was born of a Jewish mother and a Christian father, had immigrated to Palestine when the Nazis came to power in 1933, had fought with the newborn IDF in the war of independence.

He was able to set himself up undercover as a former German Wehrmacht officer in the Africa Corps.

The BND, Germany’s federal intelligence service, lends a hand in creating the cover story of Wolfgang Lotz; he spends several months in Germany to prepare for his part as a veteran of the Wehrmacht.

In return, he will report on the schemes of die-hard Nazis in Egypt.

Should the Egyptians smell a rat, the BND would help by maintaining the charade of Lotz being a German agent, and indeed, when Lotz is arrested in 1965, the deal between Mossad and the BND saves his life.

Even after his cover was blown, his real identity was closely shielded by both services, which in turn led to an extremely mild sentence for espionage and some other criminal activities in Egypt, and so quite soon, Lotz was shunted off to Germany as an allegedly German spy.

Lotz is merely sentenced to life; in 1972, he tells his story to the press, thereby adding further to the myth around Mossad.

If you have to take on the identity of another person and live this identity day in, day out, then you become this person, right into your thoughts and dreams; if you don’t manage this, you’re not suited for the part.

Had the Egyptians known that Lotz was a Mossad agent, he would have faced the death penalty.

That same year, another Mossad agent is exposed in Damascus; posing as a wealthy businessman, Eli Cohen has been successfully spying on the Syrian military leadership.

Just as he’s about to transmit his latest intelligence to Mossad, he’s arrested by the Syrians.

In contrast to Lotz, Eli Cohen has to pay the ultimate price; he is publicly executed.

Mossad reconsiders its strategy after the capture of Eli Cohen, the capture of Wolfgang Lotz in Egypt, which was a problem; I think that the Mossad became more prudent with regard to sending its own men to target countries.

It focused more on recruiting agents in the target countries, and it became evident that it wasn’t so difficult to get sources in Arab states.

Mossad decides to buy into access; its spymasters now supervise their human sources from a safe distance, often channeling considerable sums to them as a reward for their treason.

I was sitting at home in Israel; in the paper, I saw a picture of an Arab I knew; this country had captured him and hanged him.

I remembered my dealings with him; I thought, “am I to blame here?”

When he agreed to do it, he knew about the risks involved, well, he reaped the benefits he had hoped for; the possibility that it would happen was in the air, and it happened.

Anyone spying for the arch-enemy runs an enormous risk.

Yet time and again, Mossad succeeds in recruiting high-yield sources; often its operatives must hide their Israeli identity.

Most of the time, money is the decisive incentive, yet sometimes the reputation of Mossad may even prove a major help when it comes to persuading a potential source.

So people come to me, and they say, they ask me in Arabic because I’m fluent in Arabic, so they ask me if I am Mossad, and obviously I’m saying I’m not a Mossad.

So the next question they ask me is, “how can I join Mossad?”

Yeah, Mossad invests a lot into cultivating its informants and promises protection wherever possible.

As a result, there are numerous business-like relations in which money is traded for intelligence, often over decades.

There is no substitute for having a well-placed human source, but you’re going to have to complement it with this bigger task of finding ways of processing mountains and mountains of information so you can find out and identify that next threat that wasn’t high on your screen yesterday.

It’s a challenge that has not diminished since the early years, and sometimes even Mossad is blind, as in the summer of 1962, when Israel comes under a threat which Mossad had not foreseen.

Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser proudly presents his new missiles; his aim is to unite the Arab countries against the Jewish state.

Nasser claims that his rockets are capable of reaching Israel; it’s a shock for Mossad.

Its agent, Wolfgang Lotz, had not reported on any dramatic progress in the Egyptian missile program.

The reaction may not have been outright panic, but it wasn’t far from that; the Egyptian government and Nasser were boasting day in, day out, “we will chase the Jews.”

What’s particularly sensitive, Nasser’s missile program relies heavily on German experts who’ve been involved in the development of Hitler’s V2 rockets.

In Egypt, their Nazi past doesn’t speak against them; in the first decades after the foundation of Israel, fear of another Holocaust still looms large.

Mossad must act to stop Nasser’s rocket program.

Through the eyes of the Israelis back then, a few years after the Holocaust, all of a sudden there are these Nazi scientists from the rocket testing range in Peenemünde, the V1 and V2 projects, who had used concentration camp inmates for their work, and now they’re working for the Egyptians.

Heinz Krug, a German lawyer and arms dealer, is part of the setup in Egypt; his brief is to take care of the logistics of the project.

In the early 60s, he left Germany and settled in Cairo, bringing his family along; let’s have a good few old comrades from the Nazi era.

Overall, 35 Germans are working for Nasser’s missile program.

This was in no way a hush-hush affair of some people secretly passing over to Egypt to build rockets; there, those involved spoke quite openly about it and were even proud of it.

And nobody told us, “you’re not allowed to mention what Dad’s up to,” definitely not.

The German government too knows about the presence of its citizens in Cairo; Mossad agent Wolfgang Lotz even rubbed shoulders with them.

They had some knowledge about the missile project, but the truth was that all the different bits and pieces did not create an intelligence picture, and this is why they have done nothing, because they did realize that it happens; it was a huge intelligence fiasco.

Mossad soon finds out that Nasser’s missile program won’t get far without the Germans’ expertise.

Key figures of the program are targeted with parcel bombs; they kill five Egyptian workers; a German secretary, Hannelore Wende, loses her eyesight.

However, Mossad then decides on a different approach.

It’s easier to conduct operations against the missile specialists in West Germany.

Meanwhile, Heinz Krug and his family have returned to Munich; they probably picked him out because he was in charge of the logistics.

He organized the manpower, the material, and kept the whole thing running; he was the one who always tried to get them to work as a team, so he was practically the boss.

On the morning of September 23, 1962, Heinz Krug leaves the family flat for his office; it’s the last time his daughter Beata will ever see her dad.

Her mother later told her that he’d received threats.

What had happened, according to a Mossad agent, the scheme ran as follows: he had lured Krug into a trap using the cover of an Egyptian businessman; together with some fellow agents, he had overwhelmed Krug and abducted him to Israel where, so the story goes, Krug had been subjected to extensive interrogation.

At the same time, Mossad tried to put the blame on the Egyptians; there really wasn’t any actual motive for the Egyptians, since my father got along quite well with them, so this Egyptian angle didn’t make any sense at all, at least not for us.

Later on, it became ever clearer that like it or not, everything pointed to Israel, where they denied it, of course, in the beginning.

And her brother look into it for themselves; once they are old enough, they publish a book on their findings about the disappearance of their father.

Officially, the case of Heinz Krug has never been solved, and it seems it was not only Mossad with a vested interest in keeping matters this way.

We were sitting at the dinner table when the bell rang; there were two gentlemen who, according to their service cards, were German Federal Intelligence.

They told us to refrain from digging up all sorts of things and to stop chasing phantoms; that I should rather keep a low profile.

Since then, several versions of Heinz Krug’s disappearance have turned up; according to the latest research from Israel, Krug was finally killed by Mossad after a series of interrogations.

Yet even the most drastic measures cannot stop the missile program.

In May 1964, Mossad sniffs a new opportunity; former SS man Otto Skorzeny could prove to be a top-level informant since he has direct access to the leading figures of the rocket program.

Skorzeny is one of the most prominent old Nazis still alive, enjoying the protection of fascist dictator Francisco Franco; he leads the good life in Spain.

When I suggested recruiting to our head of operations, he said, “may hair sprout from the palm of my hand if you manage to do it.”

As you probably know, there have been some recent news stories that the people who kidnapped Eichmann are also looking for you; they can come and kill, well, receive some, you know, party line Julie, oh, how’s it deserve it?

Also, Skorzeny doesn’t seem to be worried, and why should he be, since he has struck a deal with Mossad?

Any Nazi anywhere in the world could be sure of whether or not he was a target.

The idea was to offer Skorzeny freedom from such fears; we said we wouldn’t touch him, on the contrary, we’d protect him.

It was a positive step that helped us reach every technician and every German official in Egypt, in Germany.

Time, Skorzeny’s contacts plus diplomatic pressure on the German government pay off; one after another, the German scientists leave Egypt.

By 1965, Nasser’s missile program has come to a halt.

He had the fight for the Holy Land merely enters a new phase.

The missile threat may have been eliminated, but Nasser has found a new and potent supporter.

Israeli intelligence services register a rising influx of Soviet weapons and instructors into the Arab countries surrounding the Jewish state.

The conflict between East and West dominates politics the world over; Moscow is hell-bent on getting a foothold in the Middle East with a view to weakening NATO’s southern flank.

It was in the U.S. interest to keep the Soviet influence at bay in the third world, in Africa and in, and in the Middle East, and it was obviously in Israel’s interest.

Israel was a great ally for the United States as the Cold War went on, um, because as the United States and Soviet Union jockeyed for power, they picked up local allies.

From Mossad, it’s an opportunity not to be missed; its intelligence output might prove a considerable asset for the Americans.

If the Western superpower decides to enter the Middle Eastern arena, it must link up with Israel, which includes Mossad with its discrete channels into the Arab world.

Exchange of information and cooperation with other secret services are still among the central briefs of Mossad.

It goes without saying that a Western intelligence service will cooperate with Mossad because its contacts in the area are priceless.

On the other hand, if a service as small as Mossad is operating on a global scale, it needs global support, and this is what German Federal Intelligence could provide, albeit mostly on a logistical level.

And so for a considerable time, German and American agents can move freely in Arab countries; their intelligence in turn sometimes proves invaluable for Israel.

What one has to prepare for is very relentless, aggressive efforts to elicit information, but they’re just doing their job.

If you’re going to have a lunch with someone from Mossad, don’t just expect to have a pleasant meal; expect to be pressed and pressed again in ways that would increase their chances of getting some useful information.

However, Mossad has a good deal of mistrust since the Western powers consider Arab states to be potential partners too.

This is any intelligence service will try to project its own image when dealing with partners or even with enemies in a way that will best serve its own interests.

Seeks the cooperation of American secret services in 1951; he still does so cap in hand.

The Americans are skeptical concerning Israel’s position in the Cold War; many of its citizens are immigrants from the Eastern Bloc, and Ben-Gurion is the head of a socialist party.

The Americans never quite understood what a kibbutz is, so the CIA during the Cold War didn’t really favor Israel as a potential partner.

James Angleton, the man responsible for special operations within the CIA, proves a decisive influence on American-Israeli intelligence relations.

Situation where the Israelis were looking for friends came James Angleton, and he actually knew some of these Israeli intelligence operatives from the war.

Due to the influence of the Holocaust in particular, Angleton had gone from being an, and really an anti-Semite to being a dedicated Zionist.

He, in, in a pinch, he defended Israeli interests in American discussions at all times, and the Israelis returned the favor.

Then in 1956, an opportunity shows up that would considerably enhance relations with the CIA.

In Warsaw, Viktor Grajewski, a Polish Jew, stumbles onto a well-kept secret; he hands over his findings to the Israelis.

It’s a transcript of a programmatic speech by Nikita Khrushchev, the new number one in the Soviet power apparatus.

The Israelis recognize its importance at once and pass it on to the CIA, which until now had tried in vain to lift the lid on Khrushchev’s strategy.

It’s a watershed; Israeli secret services have proved that they are worthwhile partners.

By now, James Angleton is a key figure within the CIA; he intends to intensify the cooperation with Mossad on a long-term basis.

They were not interested in compromise or negotiations with the enemy; that was the same thing with Angleton’s very hard-line anti-communist, so he thought of the Israelis as a model for the Americans; so it was a meeting of the minds.

The close links between Mossad and the CIA pay off for both sides.

In the mid-60s, the Soviets’ growing influence in the Middle East begins to pose a definite threat for Israel; the delivery of modern combat jets to the surrounding Arab states is cause for alarm.

The MiG-21 has a reputation for speed and maneuverability, underpower the latest Western-built jets.

Not only NATO intelligence is eager to learn more about its capabilities; of Mossad, they devise a plan.

The scheme to find an Arab pilot willing to defect and fly his plane to Israel; once there, it could be evaluated in more detail using its channels into the Arab world.

Mossad finally produces a prospective candidate; Munir Redfa is a fighter pilot with the Iraqi Air Force.

He was an Assyrian Christian, and because of that, it was clear that he wouldn’t be promoted any higher than his present rank, so he was frustrated and angry.

Our people knew exactly how to play him; he was offered money, too.

At their first meeting in Iraq, the Mossad agents know everything about Redfa; carefully, they begin testing the water with him.

I asked him, “did you ever think of defecting with the plane?”; “your wife and children must of course be extracted before then,” “but with what plane?”

“with one of your latest jets,” “pardon, wherever I fly they’ll hang me, be it in Jordan or in Syria, well they’ll send me back, and then they’ll hang me here.”

“I said there is a country,” “what about flying to Israel?”, “Israel? They’ll hang me right away!”

Yet in the end, Redfa agrees on one condition; first, his family must be smuggled out of Iraq to protect them from reprisals.

Against what the Mossad agents hadn’t realized, the meaning of family is a bit different in Iraq than to us in the West; um, they thought, “okay, wife and children,” be familiar; they hadn’t reckoned with 32 people, nephews, nieces, cousins, and so on; um, they all had to be extracted by a secret operation.

By mid-summer 1966, everything is settled; Redfa peels off during a training flight and steers his fully armed plane on a low-level run to Israel.

The risky scheme proves an outstanding success; for the first time, a MiG-21 is in Western hands.

Other secret services stand in line to partake in the results of Operation Diamond.

The Americans were the first because at the time we had a very vital interest to strengthen our relations with the Americans; the Germans, the Italians, the French, and the British sent technical representatives, so that was also for us a start of a close cooperation with the West.

After Operation Diamond, Mossad is finally established as a major player in the Western intelligence community.

Twelve months later, the benefits become even more obvious during the Six-Day War; Israeli pilots make full use of the evaluation of Redfa’s MiG.

The kill ratio against their Arab opponents is five to one.

Historians and military experts agree, Israeli intelligence was a determining factor for the quick victory in the Six-Day War.

The Six-Day War changed everything; it changed the Israeli society, he changed the Arab world, that created or amplified the myth of Israeli intelligence created or amplified the myth and the, the legend of the strength of Israel, but also projected on the Israeli sense of self-security.

After the Six-Day War, Israel controls almost four times as much territory than that accorded by the U.N. in 1947.

Peace in the Middle East seems further away than ever.

Israel’s neighbors prepare for revenge, and the Palestinians too have lost much of their territory to the new regional power.