Mossad: Six-Day War | Ep 2 | 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.

Jerusalem, a holy city for three world religions, yet for several generations of Jews from around the world, no more than a place of yearning.

Since 1967, the sacred sites have been under Israeli jurisdiction.

In the Six-Day War, Israel once again defeated and humiliated its Arab neighbors.

Israel didn’t only occupy East Jerusalem; it took control of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as well.

The only territories left of the Palestinians after the Israeli War of Independence.

In 1967, Israeli troops also seized the Golan Heights and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

To Israel, the occupied territories serve as a bargaining chip in prospective peace negotiations with the Arab countries.

Our service submitted a concept to the Israeli government proposing that they should immediately support Palestinian leaders and offer to withdraw forces from all the occupied territories, first autonomy and then their own country.

Uh, I have no idea if the government ever considered a proposal.

The feeling of triumph makes the majority of Israelis blind to the problematic situation in Gaza and in the West Bank.

Arabs who had once been scattered across all of Palestine sought refuge here in 1948 while Israel was waging its War of Independence.

As a result of the occupation, the conflict which has been festering for over 20 years is on the verge of escalating.

To counter the new threat, Israeli intelligence must quickly expand its networks.

There’s a growing willingness among young Palestinians in the camps to radicalize.

He had Mossad doesn’t realize this at the time.

Abdallah al-Frangi, who later becomes the Palestinian representative in West Germany, belongs to that generation.

He grows up in a refugee camp in Gaza.

The Arab countries claimed, “we will fight for you, we will take you back home.”

Over the course of time, it became clear they wouldn’t lift a finger and that’s when radicalization began.

We had to do it ourselves.

The refugee camps help the Palestinians get to know each other better.

There wasn’t enough room, and that’s when resistance began to develop.

And then began.

Within the first few months after the Six-Day War, there are over 60 assaults.

Know, the whole of the Israeli intelligence community viewed the Palestinian resistance or gathering or grouping as a challenge for a very long time.

What Israel controlled the territories, of course, they had by far more, uh, more possibilities because they could recruit people from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and send them over to do terrorist operations.

So that has become a threat.

I remember after the Six-Day War, two weeks later, the two groups were caught by us and it remained till now in games like games.

Waves today, security barriers are supposed to protect Israelis from Palestinian terrorists.

The threat has become permanent; in 1967, the situation is still new.

Mossad has to revise its strategy; a new enemy requires a new approach.

Mossad’s job is to identify the masterminds and liquidate them.

Yet Israel’s decision to use violence against the radical forces only strengthens the Palestinians’ new national consciousness.

The party becomes the rallying point for resistance fighters, Fatah, leftist, trigger-happy and secular.

In the early years, Islam is hardly significant among its ranks.

Fatah’s goal is to completely free Palestine; in other words, to wipe Israel off the map.

The head of the party is Yasir Arafat, a former building contractor, co-founded by Arafat in 1957.

Fatah needs the support of the Arab countries in the Middle East, but they are weakened by their defeat in the Six-Day War.

Egypt’s President Nasser has been backing the Palestinians for quite some time.

He now helps set up the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization, as the Arabs’ representative in Palestine.

Since Fatah is the strongest faction within the PLO, Yasir Arafat becomes their chairman too.

Arafat is now Israel’s prime enemy and a prime target for Mossad.

Arafat became the symbol of the Palestinian resistance, the Palestinians’ struggle.

The fact that Israel tried to kill him did not succeed so many times just made him visit his own people, his own organization, but also for the Israelis as a sort of, of a legend by himself.

Arafat hides from Israeli assassination attempts in the neighboring Arab countries and exports PLO terrorism to the rest of the world.

The world is a big place, and in the world, you know, with at that time open skies, open borders, very, very limited, limited, uh, capabilities of the law enforcement, they, they could do everything.

So, so they found a very fruitful ground in many other places.

By now, lots of Palestinians live in Europe.

The PLO establishes networks at universities and in working-class neighborhoods, and he finds allies in the budding left-wing student movement.

Back then, Abdallah al-Frangi is enrolled at the University of Frankfurt.

Thus far, again, the general feeling was actually in our favor.

When the demonstrations started, we helped organize them; we handed out Palestinian scarves and passed on Palestinian slogans.

And no matter where I held the speech, we were supported.

Understood, the activities of Palestinian students in Germany call Mossad into action again.

Informants warn case officer Rafi Eitan about growing threats today.

I was head of the European division; the Palestinian movement was recruiting students into Fatah, and I learned that they were preparing to create cells within the student community with a view to carry out terrorist attacks against Jews.

Frankfurt attracts the particular attention of Mossad agents.

Fatah leaders use a rented apartment for meetings.

There was nothing secretive about the place; it was an apartment in Frankfurt where we used to meet with friends in exile abroad.

So I suggested, “let’s kill this thing in its infancy.”

Rafi Eitan has the apartment bugged.

There were no guards, no precautions, but we didn’t pursue any military activities there.

We had political discussions as a basis for decision-making.

Considers the group to be dangerous; he asks Tel Aviv to approve an operation.

I said, “let’s take care of these guys, if you like individually, if you like all together,” and the answer was, “no.”

The PLO increasingly causes a stir with spectacular terrorist attacks, most notably with dramatic skyjackings intended to draw the world’s attention to the plight of the Palestinians.

And we will not go back on them, no matter what happens, coming up.

Empty planes provide highly effective images on TV.

Mossad works feverishly to obtain information about planned attacks before they’re carried out.

But the Israelis cannot rely on the cooperation of Europe’s intelligence services.

For a very long time, Israeli alerts to European intelligence services and law enforcement agencies, saying “these are terrorists working on your ground,” fell on deaf ears because the Europeans, in many cases, wanted to remain allegedly neutral to the Israeli-Palestinian debate and therefore did nothing to stop them.

The Palestinians take advantage of this indecisiveness.

Israel can fight terrorism within its own borders by arresting or simply killing militant Palestinians, but in Europe, Mossad’s hands are tied.

The 1972 Olympic Games in Munich are caught in the crosshairs of Palestinian terrorists.

West Germany wants to use the sporting event to improve its image; policemen are unarmed, the games are intended to be cheerful and cosmopolitan.

It’s kept by a tradition; Security Experts in Germany had warned that Israeli athletes were in danger whenever they competed internationally, and especially so in Munich.

There were even scenarios that simulated an attack on the Olympic Village and on Israeli athletes.

I said before, the games were supposed to be peaceful; in the end, they proved a disaster.

Mossad receives information that an assassination is planned during the Olympics, but they don’t know exactly when and where.

We had just a general idea that something is going to happen.

Okay, what can you do?

You have to get the information accurate and in time, and in the Munich case, we had not; we have to admit it.

If you don’t have a good information, you are suffering of a tragedy, and Munich was a tragedy.

Palestinian guerrillas infiltrated the Olympic Village on Tuesday morning and shot and killed two members of the Israeli Olympic team.

The various interior ministry has confirmed that the terrorists have taken at least 13 hostages.

The terrorists demand the release of over 200 fellow combatants held in Israeli prisons, as well as the release of two leading German Red Army faction terrorists.

Later research reveals that some of the Palestinians had studied in West Germany without attracting the attention of Mossad.

When the ultimatum expires, the hostages will be executed.

Israel’s Prime Minister Golda Meir rejects the demands; she sends the head of Mossad, Zvi Zamir, to Munich.

Prime Minister said to me, “Svika, I beg you, I beg you, go there, so we at least know what’s happening.”

Before I flew there, the Germans unmistakably said that Israeli soldiers would not be permitted to free the athletes.

Reduced to inaction, the Mossad Chief is forced to watch the German police do their job.

Inexperienced snipers in sweatsuits move into position; the terrorists in the Olympic Village are able to watch everything on TV.

The planned rescue operation is called off.

The terrorists now demand safe passage for themselves and their hostages by plane to Cairo.

The group is driven to the airport, and then I saw a scene that I’ll never forgive for the rest of my life.

I spoke to him with their hands and feet tied to each other; the athletes trudge past me, next to them, the Arabs are deathly silent.

The German crisis team appears to have accepted the Palestinians’ demands; helicopters take them to a military airfield.

The Germans intend to storm the airfield before the terrorists board a plane to Egypt.

I was lying beside a German sniper; they were using old rifles without telescopic sights, without anything.

It broke my heart; the Palestinians threw a hand grenade into the helicopter and it burst into flames.

The hand grenade kills all the hostages in the first helicopter.

Five of the eight assassins die in the ensuing gunfight with the police.

The Israeli hostages in the second helicopter are shot and killed; none of the athletes survives.

27 years after the Holocaust, Jews are once again killed on German ground, and Israel has to stand by and watch.

In Israel, the grief over the dead athletes is overwhelming; neither the government nor the Secret Service have proved capable of protecting Jews around the world.

A few weeks later, a Palestinian terror commando tries to enforce the release of the three surviving hostage-takers from Munich; they hijack a Lufthansa jet.

The German government releases the assassins; in the Arab world, they’re celebrated as heroes.

It’s a slap in the face for Israel; it’s obvious that the Jewish state can only rely on itself.

Prime Minister Golda Meir is under pressure; it’s election time and the country wants revenge.

Golda Meir gives Mossad the go-ahead for a crusade against terror.

If the Palestinians want to shift the battlefield to Europe, then Mossad will follow them there, not only to prevent impending attacks but to destroy the network behind them.

Olympic Game terrorist operation changed the Israeli policy for many years because after that, Israeli cabinet allowed Mossad to kill Palestinian operatives in Europe even though it was in blunt violation of any rule of any law.

But they came to the conclusion that if Israel doesn’t do that job, nobody would; rise and kill first.

Until then, Mossad had primarily focused on reconnaissance; in other words, collecting information; now other skills are needed.

Agents of [unclear] specifically hunt down the masterminds; a special task force named Caesarea is created; their mission: executions in foreign countries.

Caesarea’s men and women will embody the public image of Mossad for decades.

Mossad’s inner structure is secret, but eight central departments are known.

Caesarea is one of them in charge of covert operations and assaults.

Tzomet is responsible for cooperation with Allied secret services; [unclear] collects information through wiretapping, surveillance, and burglaries.

The largest department is Tzomet; it collects information from human sources and maintains a global network of informants.

Against Palestinian terrorists begins in October 1972; of course, it was a revenge, I have to admit it, but it was to prevent terror against us.

And to prevent terror, you have to take all the measures which are in your hands, and you have to do it in a very clever means to do such a thing that they will not be able to ask you what are you doing here.

Mossad’s assassinations occur in secret but are quite visible as a warning to terrorists in Western Europe; it’s easy going for the Mossad commandos, they can move freely and if they get caught, all they get is a prison sentence.

The most important targets, however, find refuge in Arab countries.

Abdallah al-Frangi, the spokesman for Palestinian students in West Germany, is said to be in touch with the assassins from Munich; he’s arrested by the German police.

I remember him, the name; he was a student and he was one of our targets, and the fact that he was in jail saved his life, if I may say so.

Al-Frangi and his comrades had gone to Germany to avoid being captured by the Israelis; now they no longer feel safe.

At the same time, the Germans urgently want to get rid of every single PLO member; their secret service along with a lot of other people probably didn’t want me here and they were able to expel me because they allegedly found plans in my office to blow up the Israeli embassies.

So sprung on [unclear], they made up things I never did.

Is deported; he finds refuge in Algeria; returning to Europe seems too risky.

Mossad’s push is being felt; al-Frangi is sent to run the PLO’s European office from Algeria; he shares the office with a comrade.

My friend, the PLO representative, bear was holding a thick envelope, and I said, “please don’t open it.”

He said, “you’re serious?” and then he opened it; I was thrown about six meters across the room.

On their head before his fingers were gone on both hands and in [unclear] I was really lucky I wasn’t severely injured like my friends and that I wasn’t killed.

Uh, within a year, Mossad kills 14 Palestinians in Europe as well as in Beirut, where a number of top PLO leaders are in hiding.

Saturday, the Caesarea assassinations are considered a success until an operation in Lillehammer, Norway, which is still seen as one of Mossad’s epic failures.

There’s a huge mix-up; Israeli agents mistakenly kill a Moroccan waiter.

They took the Ali Hassan Salameh, the alleged mastermind of the Munich attack.

What’s even worse, the agents are caught by the Norwegian police; at their trial, the methods of Mossad are revealed all over Europe; communication channels and agents’ hideouts are blown, a disaster for the secret service.

The vendetta against the PLO comes to a preliminary end in Lillehammer.

Yasir Arafat and Abu Jihad already decided to cut most of the operations in Europe, so in a sense, the assassination operations that already happened already had the effect that the Mossad desire.

The PLO leaders decide to focus their attacks on the occupied territories; terrorist attacks in the west harm their image, but not everybody sticks to the directive.

Assaults and hostage-taking in Europe continue; some are Mossad, it’s hot on its enemies’ tails again.

We had to continue, and we continued; we did things that were published in the public and we did things which are not public.

In 1979, Mossad liquidates a top terrorist with a car bomb, someone they’ve been after for quite a while.

It’s Ali Hassan Salameh, their intended target in Lillehammer.

Is active all over the world; one of their operations even changes the history of Africa.

Up until then, Jews had been considered good businessmen and bankers; now they were also known as excellent soldiers and spies.

Requests poured in from the most remote corners of the world: “help us, you guys are Superman.”

Superman, Mossad has been helping Christian rebels in southern Sudan since 1969.

They feel oppressed by the central government, which is prominently Arab, and are fighting to break away.

Israel and the rebels see President Jafar al-Nimeiry as their common enemy.

There are about 30,000 Anyanya rebels still in the bush; this group had been operating near the Uganda border.

Significantly, one of them wore the cap and jacket of an Israeli para-commando.

One of the three agents sent by Mossad is David Ben-Uziel.

The doctor, the signaller, and I went on a mission, the aim of which was to make the northern army’s life harder.

The mission was to create a 1,000-man battalion, build a landing strip, create a medics course, a signaling course, arm them, equip them, and head out on missions.

The men from Mossad are tasked with establishing a powerful rebel army that can be a match for the Sudanese government’s troops.

But why undertake an operation so far away from Israel?

It was absolutely amazing, these three Israelis in the primeval forests of southern Sudan, no divisions, no planes, no tanks.

It was for both Egypt and Sudan, but the Israelis were breathing down their necks on the Nile.

Say, is afraid that the Egyptians plan to take back the Sinai Peninsula they lost in the Six-Day War.

The plan, as long as the rebels can tie down the Sudanese army with a civil war, then Sudan can’t join Egypt in the battle against Israel.

This wasn’t a charitable endeavor; intelligence services around the world merely ask themselves, “what’s my interest, and how do I achieve it?”

Israel looks for allies in Africa to weaken her foes; Africa was very important to us at the time because it was our first opportunity to really break the ring of hostile Arab countries surrounding us.

Missions in Africa under a foreign identity; it’s politics based on the principle of “my enemy’s enemy is my friend.”

That includes the activities in Africa as well as the covert contact of minority groups in Middle East and Arab countries, to the Kurds in Iraq and the Christians in Lebanon.

The countries of the Middle East and Africa are mostly young and unstable; Israel aims at strengthening their minorities with the goal of creating allies in an otherwise hostile region.

Israel’s African contacts should even contribute to the fight against Palestinian terrorism.

Entebbe is the setting of another Palestinian skyjacking.

An Air France jet with primarily Israeli passengers is hijacked and rerouted to Uganda; responsibility is claimed by a radical PLO splinter group under the leadership of Wadi Haddad, the mastermind of several previous skyjackings.

Uganda’s dictator Idi Amin accommodates the hostage-takers, but he was once a Mossad ally, so Israel is well-informed about the airport facilities.

A mission is planned to free the hostages; as it happens, the airport was built by an Israeli company, and so in Tel Aviv, they can plan their operation based on the original blueprints.

As for recent information, a Mossad agent posing as an amateur pilot takes aerial photographs of the airport; he’s learned a private plane by the neighboring country of Kenya, which also has strong connections to Mossad.

In the end, Mossad’s intelligence proves decisive; camouflaged as commercial aircraft, the commando is flown to Entebbe to free the hostages.

The state of Israel had to help them; we had to free them by force.

It wouldn’t have succeeded without our African connections.

To be honest, when the periphery doctrine was initiated, no one imagined an operation like the one in Entebbe, but that doctrine enabled us to intervene in the hinterland of the southern Arab world and within the heart of Africa, and that is how we were able to rescue the Israelis.

Sudan slowly, more than 100 hostages from Entebbe, cheerfully greeted back at home, thanks to the efforts of Mossad in the military.

Israel could stick to its principle: no negotiations with terrorists, proving skyjacking doesn’t pay.

The successful operation is a prestigious triumph for Mossad, yet in other fields, Israel’s intelligence services fall prey to exuding too much self-confidence.

Egypt, in 1970, a new president comes into power, a man with a military background who’s itching to reverse the defeats suffered in the Six-Day War, Anwar al-Sadat.

But Mossad underestimates the Egyptian.

Sadat publicly threatens to take back the Sinai Peninsula, which was occupied by Israel; he thought he’s in alliance with Syria that lost the Golan Heights in 1967.

Yet Israel’s government doesn’t take Sadat’s threats seriously; it relies on Mossad to sound the alarm in time, especially since the secret service has access to an informant within the Egyptian government.

Ashraf Marwan, codename Angel, is one of President Sadat’s most important advisors, and he’s a Mossad spy.

Who I am, the best in the field, the best we ever had.

We had a first meeting at Mossad, and when I heard of him, to tell you the truth, I didn’t believe it; I didn’t believe it.

But when I saw the first batch of material he had delivered, I said, “if this is for real, worth.”

Ashraf Marwan is in the know about every important political or military plan; he’s the son-in-law of President Nasser, Sadat’s predecessor; his marriage to Nasser’s daughter, Mona, catapulted him into the center of power.

But why is he spying for Mossad?

Nasser knew that Mona married his daughter because she was the daughter of Nasser, not because she was so beautiful or intelligent or whatever it is, so Nasser didn’t give Marwan the respect that Marwan thought that he deserves, and he wanted to take revenge of Nasser.

This is one speculation; another is that he needed money.

In the autumn of 1973, Israel’s military intelligence observes Egyptian and Syrian troop movements along the borders.

The activities are considered routine maneuvers; the Israelis assumed that Ashraf Marwan would have informed them long before if the Arab neighbors were seriously planning to attack.

A fatal blunder; they later discover that the Arabs deliberately deceived them.

Then there’s a disturbing message from Ashraf Marwan in London because Ashraf Marwan asked me to come to London; he said war was imminent.

Oh sure.

Funny, I questioned him about all the information he had given us; we checked it and I checked it again and again.

I suspected maybe he had been turned around and was now a double agent.

Can the head of Mossad trust the warning?

Twice Marwan had predicted an invasion and both times nothing happened.

He hesitated because he knew that if he calls the Prime Minister, a minister of defense, the chief of staff, and tell them “Marwan says that war will start today” and nothing happens, they will mobilize this where we reserve army on Yom Kippur, which is a very dramatic event.

And if nothing happens, this will be the end of Zamir and the Mossad together.

According to the warning of the top spy in the Egyptian government, the invasion was scheduled for Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, a day of rest and fasting when public life in Israel stands still.

It will be fatal to rush people out of the synagogues on a false alarm.

I wrote a five-line telegram that war would break out; I left no address; I was unreachable by phone; I’m unavailable; this is my message to you; you decide.

Israel’s military hesitates; the armed forces don’t mobilize until 14 hours before the outbreak of war.

They acted too late; we paid in blood.

In the end, Israel wins this war too; Ashraf Marwan’s warning was heeded at the last possible moment, but the losses are substantial for a small country.

Ashraf Marwan continues to work for Mossad from his home in London; it isn’t until 2002, 30 years after the Yom Kippur War, that he is exposed.

It’s one of the worst Israeli intelligence failures, the name of an intelligence asset being made public.

The conclusion that the rest of the world must surely be reaching is that Israel is unable to keep its assets’ identity secret; who would want to work with such a country?

In 2007, Ashraf Marwan dies under mysterious circumstances; he falls from the balcony of his London apartment.

Was invaluable to our nation; it’s our fault that he wasn’t properly protected.

The case of Marwan still raises questions; was he a double agent?

There is much to be said for this, including his funeral in Egypt with full honors.

Angel, who saved the lives of countless Israelis, remains an enigmatic figure.

Due to the Arabs’ near-fatal surprise attack, the image of Israel’s intelligence services has suffered greatly; they fail to fulfill their core mission to recognize threats before Israel comes to harm.

They also squandered people’s trust in politics.

After the war, Israeli policymakers like Peres, like Rabin, became more and more their own intelligence officers; they doubted for a number of years whatever intelligence military intelligence and other intelligence agencies estimated.

They didn’t, they trust the information, but they said, “we can estimate it by ourselves.”

The Yom Kippur War shatters the belief in Israel’s military superiority; what follows is a fundamental change in the country’s foreign policy.

We often concentrate upon the special operations side of the Mossad, but the Mossad is also about secret or clandestine or covert diplomacy.

Ever since Israel’s early days, Mossad has discreetly built up contacts in the region; secret channels as a temporary solution as long as a political ice age dominates official diplomacy.

It’s an idea developed by Reuven Shiloah, the first head of Mossad; he establishes contacts to opposition groups and government officials in many countries of the Middle East.

Turkey, Iran, and Ethiopia agree to covert collaboration with Israel because they also see the Arab nations as a threat.

Even Arab states such as Oman and Morocco maintain covert ties to Tel Aviv.

Mossad’s ties to Morocco’s King Hassan II pay off in 1977; contact has been cultivated for quite a while, especially between the secret services of both countries.

The pro-Western monarch has enemies among the Arab states; this is where Mossad intelligence can be most useful.

The Israelis even help to monitor the ruler’s internal opponents; that’s why King Hassan gladly complies with Israel’s request to establish contact to the Egyptian government.

He was doing Israeli favor, but he was also doing Egyptian, Egypt’s a favor, and has put himself at the midst, something extremely important which also helped him with his prime goal to be in good relations with the United States.

It’s a win-win situation.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan secretly travels to Morocco; he indicates that Israel might withdraw from Sinai from one day to the next.

Publicly, Sadat states in Parliament, “I am ready to go to Jerusalem and talk to the Israelis.”

Um, an historic moment; he is the first Arab head of state to travel to Israel and speak before the Knesset.

It was a revolution; until the mid-1970s, Egypt had been Israel’s strongest and most bitter enemies.

It was the first time that the heads of state from Israel and an Arab country sat down together to negotiate a peace treaty.

The sensation is made possible by Mossad’s secret preparations and Egypt’s efforts to break away from Soviet influence.

Sadat saw this move not just as making peace with Israel, but more importantly as seeking peace between Egypt and the U.S.; he had already kicked the Soviets out, now he wanted to get the Americans.

The plan works; America’s President Jimmy Carter hosts the tough negotiations between Israel and Egypt; President Sadat and Israel’s Prime Minister Menachem Begin sign a peace treaty.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Camp David conference should be renamed; it was the Jimmy Carter conference.

Actually, Carter strives for an agreement between all Middle Eastern countries, yet Egypt and Israel presented with a fait accompli; the political and strategic ties were woven by Mossad.

The whole peace deal was concocted without the Americans; this is the ultimate frustration of every secret service official, for their achievements always take a back seat while their failures draw public attention.

This is, of course, even more extreme with Mossad than with other intelligence services.

The peace treaty between Israel and Egypt shocks the Arab world, and while Sadat is expelled from the Arab League and assassinated three years later, Israel continues to rely on Mossad’s secret channels.

Because of the way governments are structured in Arab and Muslim countries, the head of intelligence is, at the end of the day, the ruler’s main confidence.

If you could reach the head of intelligence and have secret communication with him, you were basically in contact with the rulers.

Israel has a lot to offer potential partners: economic strength, diplomatic contacts of the West, and top-secret information which is of particular interest to dictators.

The Shah of Persia has been one of Israel’s secret allies since the 50s; under Mohammad Reza’s rule, Iran leans strongly to the West.

It’s a country with high oil revenues and a deficit of human rights, but that doesn’t prevent Mossad from cooperating closely with the Iranians.

Meir Amit, the head of Mossad, is a regular guest in Tehran.

We established a strategic relationship with the Iranians; they sold us oil, we sold them all sorts of things in an area that was very important to them and where we had a lot of experience: internal security in the widest sense of the term.

Lots of Iranians live in poverty; social tensions are mounting; the regime sends in its military intelligence, SAVAK, to retaliate.

They can count on Mossad for training and support.

What we consider democracy might not be shared by other people; is it what you, sir, consider democracy or what your people consider democracy?

Uh, well, today is not much different because we are so close, I and my people.

In 1978, there are serious protests that put enormous pressure on the Shah’s regime; Mossad fears the loss of a vital partner.

The greatest threat to the Shah is posed by religious forces led by the Islamic cleric, Ruhollah Khomeini; he has been living in exile for years, first in Iraq and currently near Paris, where he incites his followers in Iran to protest.

The Shah appeals directly to Mossad and asks the Israelis to kill Khomeini.

The director looked at me, and I had to answer quickly: “let’s assume we succeed, what would be the consequences? What would the Americans, the French, and the Russians say? Let’s assume we fail, what would the consequences be then?”

And who is this?

And he said, “the situation in Iran worsens; a revolution breaks out.”

I arrived at the headquarters outside; there were armed revolutionaries with Kalashnikovs; inside, they had sandbags with machine guns aiming to the outside.

It was clear that the situation was on the brink of total collapse.

The Shah’s feared secret police lose control; Mohammad Reza leaves the country.

Can Mossad’s partnership with Iran be saved?

They were expecting that there will be a military rule in Iran; they didn’t expect the military generals to be so weak, so dependent upon the Shah, and what happened was that the generals either ran out of the country, whoever could run of the country, or tried to express their loyalty to Khomeini.

Khomeini wasn’t too impressed with the loyalty and killed the model.

Khomeini returns to Iran and establishes a theocracy.

In retrospect, I’m still haunted by my faulty assessment; considering everything that’s happened with the Islamic regime in Iran since Khomeini’s takeover and the damage it’s caused to the Middle East, I would respond differently today.

Mossad loses one of its most important partners and is forced to sit back and watch as Iran becomes their new mortal enemy, whose declared goal is the annihilation of Israel.

Others, however, are delighted about the Islamic revolution in Iran; Yasir Arafat and the PLO offer their alliance to the new regime in Tehran.

Palestinian nationalists and Iranian Islamists are bound by two mutual foes: the USA and Israel.

Mossad is now confronted with a new challenge: adversaries with religious fervor, fanatics who are not afraid to die.

The Islamist age begins.