The Israeli Secret Services and the Struggle Against Terrorism

by Ami Pedahzur

  16 “Biography of Gassan Kanafani,” www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Acre/Story168.html (accessed February 17, 2008); Dalia Karpel, “Writer Under Influence,” Haaretz, Saturday supplement, April 13, 2005; Eitan Haber, “Revenge Now,” Yedioth Ahronoth, October 3, 2005, 6—7; “Beirut Blast Kills Guerilla Leader,” New York Times, July 9, 1972; “Death of Guerilla,” Time, July 24, 1972; Uri Dan, “Munich—Repeated Screening,” Makor Rishon, February 12, 2006.

  17 Moshe Zonder, “Shooting and Not Crying,” NRG, July 27, 2001; Dan, “Munich—Repeated Screening”; Ron Maiberg, Code Name: Bayonet, Dragoman Films Distribution, 2006; Reeve, One Day in September, 1—9; “The Munich Massacre,” BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics2000/907614.stm; Alexander Wolff, “When The Terror Began,” Time, August 25, 2002.

  18 Timeline, Jewish Agency for Israel, www.jafi.org.il/education/jafi75/timeline6c.html; Alexander B. Calahan, “Countering Terrorism: The Israeli Response to the 1972 Munich Olympic Massacre and the Development of Independent Cover Action Teams,” Federation of American Scientists, www.fas.org/irp/eprint/calahan.htm (accessed February 17, 2008).

  19 Richard Girling, “A thirst for vengeance,” Times Online, www.timesonline.co.uk ( January 15, 2006); Edwin Eitan, “Assuming Syrians Killed Syrian ‘Journalist’ in Paris as Revenge,” Yedioth Ahronoth, November 14, 1972.

  20 Michael Bar-Zohar and Eitan Haber, The Chase After the Red Prince (Tel Aviv: Zmora, 1984), 39; Melman and Raviv, The Imperfect Spies, 164; “Israeli Killed in the Center of Madrid,” Haaretz, January 28, 1972; Steven Stewart, The Spymasters of Israel (New York: Ballantine Books, 1982), 280—282; Yosef Aziel, “Arab Killer Followed Israeli, Spoke with Him, and Then Shot Him,” Yedioth Ahronoth, January 28, 1973.

  21 Melman and Raviv, The Imperfect Spies, 166; Alan Hart, Arafat: Terrorist or Peacemaker? (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1984), 248—249, 309—310; Abu Iyad and Eric Rouleau, My Home, My Land: A Narrative of Palestinian Struggle (New York: Times Books, 1981), 112—113; NSSC Dataset on Palestinian Terrorism, http://nssc.haifa.ac.il.

  22 “And Now, Mail-a-Death,” Time, October 2, 1972; Yeuda Belu, “The Hunt For Black September,” www.e-mago.co.il/Editor/history-833.htm.

  23 Ariel Merari and Shlomi Elad, Foreign Terrorism: Palestinian Terrorism Abroad (1968–1986) (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuhad, 1987), 169; Maiberg, Code Name: Bayonet; Yossi Melman, “Golda Didn’t Give an Order,” Haaretz, February 18, 2006); Eitan Haber, “Revenge Now,” Yedioth Ahronoth, Holiday Supplement, October 3, 2005, 6—7; Klein, Striking Back, 136; Bar-Zohar and Haber, The Chase After the Red Prince, 160.

  24 “PFLP Admits That Kubaysi Who Was Murdered in Paris Was One of Its Leaders,” Haaretz, April 8, 1973; Bar-Zohar and Haber, The Chase After the Red Prince, 161; “Official Confirms: Israel Methodically Killed PLO Leaders,” Associated Press, November 23, 1993; Zonder, “Shooting and Not Crying.”

  25 Maiberg, Code Name: Bayonet; Zonder, Elite Unit, 59—60; Mike Eldar, Flotilla 13 (Tel Aviv: Maariv, 1993), 469—480.

  26 Maimon interview; Doug Mellgren, “Norway Solves Riddle of Mossad Killing,” Guardian, March 2, 2000.

  27 Calahan, “Countering Terrorism”; Klein, Striking Back, 152; Ariel Merari and Shlomi Elad, Foreign Terrorism: Palestinian Terrorism Abroad (1968–1986) (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuhad, 1987), 56; Yossi Melman, “Golda Didn’t Give an Order”; Melman and Raviv, The Imperfect Spies, 166; Uri Dan, “Munich—Repeated Screening.”

  28 John W. Soule, “Problems in Applying Counterterrorism to Prevent Terrorism: Two Decades of Violence in Northern Ireland Reconsidered,” Terrorism 12 (1989): 31—46; Brian Martin, “Instead of Repression,” Social Alternatives 25, no. 1 (2006): 62.

  CHAPTER THREE RESCUING HOSTAGES

  1 “Terrorists Killed Worker and Wounded Eight in Attack on Car That Drove to Fassouta from Ata,” Haaretz, May 16, 1974; “Report of the Investigation Commission on Ma’alot Events,” Yedioth Ahronoth, July 11, 1974; Yehuda Ariel and Atallah Mansour, “‘This Is the Police Looking for Terrorists’—With These Words, Terrorists Burst Into Yosef Cohen’s Family Apartment in Ma’alot, Killed Them, and Took Schoolchildren Hostage,” Haaretz, May 16, 1974; Zeev Schiff, “Security Forces Didn’t Prepare Special Caution Measures,” Haaretz, May 16, 1974; Moshe Zonder, The Elite Unit of Israel (Jerusalem: Keter, 2000), 108—116; Moshe Dayan, Milestones: Autobiography ( Jerusalem: Idanim Publishers, 1975), 721; Yitzhak Ben-Horin, “I Told the Pupils to Sing ‘Hatikva’ and Let’s Finish this Thing in a Respectful Way,” Maariv, May 16, 1974; “Twenty Killed and Seventy Wounded in Ma’alot,” Haaretz, May 16, 1974; interview with Baruch Fein, former Sayeret Matkal soldier who participated in the Ma’alot operation, March 22, 2007.

  2 “Division of Responsibility Between the Police and the IDF in the Struggle Against Terrorism,” Haaretz, July 11, 1974; interview with Alik Ron, former commander of the Israeli Police Northern Command, March 5, 2007.

  3 Ron Shiyovitz, “YAMAM,” Police Mirrors 201 (September—October 2004): 26; Moshe Givati, Abir 21 ( Jerusalem: Reut, 2003), 60, 65; Shimon Rapaport, “Mother Ship Sailed from Beirut; Collected Terrorist near Tyre,” Maariv, March 8, 1975; Merav Crystal, “Suddenly I Wanted to Live,” Ynet, www.ynet.co.il (March 7, 2007); Avi Raz, “I Was Hostage for Six Hours,” Maariv, March 7, 1975; “This Is How Negotiations with the Terrorists Were Conducted with the Assistance of Hostage Kochava Levi,” Maariv, March 6, 1975; Zonder, Elite Unit, 38.

  4 Yaacov Erez, “Six Terrorists Killed in Savoy; Five Israelis Killed and Twenty-Three Wounded,” Maariv, March 6, 1975; “How Negotiations Were Conducted”; Raz, “I Was Hostage for Six Hours”; Yehoshua Kahana, “Eight Terrorists Were Members of Elite Unit Who Had Been Groomed by Abu Iyad,” Maariv, March 9, 1975; Zonder, Elite Unit, 306.

  5 Zonder, Elite Unit, 89, 174, 306—307; Assaf Mitzna, “Uzi Had to Be There,” NRG, March 3, 2000; Dalia Karpel, “Artist from a Leper House,” Haaretz, July 13, 2005; Yifat Gadot, “Six Israelis Killed in Savoy Hotel,” NFC, www.nfc.co.il.

  6 Zonder, Elite Unit, 20, 309; Shlomo Gazit, “Risk, Glory, and the Rescue Operation,” International Security 6, no. 1 (Summer 1981): 118—127.

  7 “Top Secret: The Elite Units,” Channel 2, November 4, 2006; Avigdor Shachan, Operation Thunderball (Ramat-Gan, Israel: Masada, 1993), 14, 32; Yeshayahu Ben-Porat et al., Entebbe: Flight 139 (Tel-Aviv: Zmora-Bitan, 1991), 138, 323—324; Lauren Gelfond Feldinger, “Back to Entebbe,” Jerusalem Post, June 30, 2006; interview with Entebbe hostage Yitzhak Hirsch, October 5, 2006.

  8 Louis Williams, “Entebbe Diary,” Toronto Star, July 6, 1986; Shachan, Operation Thunderball, 15, 48; Ben-Porat, Entebbe, 26—30; Hirsch interview; interview with Entebbe hostage Yaacov Cohen, October 27, 2006.

  9 Cohen interview; Hirsch interview; Shachan, Operation Thunderball, 16; Yitzhak David, I Have Come Back from Entebbe (Tel-Aviv: Zohar, 1977), 33; Yeshayahu Ben-Porat et al., Entebbe Rescue (New York: Delacorte Press, 1977), 27; Sefi Hendler, “Here Is Your Captain, We Have Been Hijacked,” NRG, www.nrg.co.il (June 29, 2001); Ben-Porat, Entebbe, 45; Mordechai Gur, “Decision-Making Process: Planning the Operation,” www.mota.co.il/antebe.htm (accessed February 10, 2008).

  10 Williams, “Entebbe Diary”; David, I Have Come Back from Entebbe, 51, 53, 131—138; “Israeli Airborne Commandos Rescue 103 Hostages Held in Uganda by Hijackers of French Airliner; 31 Killed in Airport Clash,” Facts on File World News Digest, July 10, 1976; Shachan, Operation Thunderball, 62; Gur, “Decision-Making Process”; Uri Dan, Operation Uganda (Jerusalem: Keter, 1976), 50; Zonder, Elite Unit, 9; Hirsch interview.

  11 David, I Have Come Back from Entebbe, 158, 169—170; Shachan, Operation Thunderball, 29—30; Zonder, Elite Unit, 139—140.

  12 Shachan, Operation Thunderball, 32, 79; Sharon Rofeh-Ofir, “Exclusive: The Mossad Took Pictures, the Entebbe Operation Began,” Ynet, www.ynet.co.il ( July 1, 2006); Zonder, Elite Unit, 139.

  13 Shachan, Operation Thunderball, 33, 100—101; Gur, “Decision-Making Process”; Dan, Operation Uganda, 50; Hagai Huber
man, “We Obtained Intelligence in Travel Agencies,” Hatzofeh, July 9, 2006; Rofeh-Ofir, “Exclusive.”

  14 Rofeh-Ofir, “Exclusive”; Shachan, Operation Thunderball, 36—37, 101—103; Williams, “Entebbe Diary”; Gur, “Decision-Making Process”; Cohen interview; Zonder, Elite Unit, 140; Shimon Peres, Entebbe Diary (Tel Aviv: Idanim, 1991), 81.

  15 Ben-Porat, Entebbe, 314; Ben Caspit, “First Publication: Government Diaries of Entebbe Operation,” NRG, www.nrg.co.il (July 7, 2006); Zonder, Elite Unit, 143.

  16 Williams, “Entebbe Diary”; Zonder, Elite Unit, 146; Tali Lipkin-Shahak, “The Main Player,” Maariv, Weekend Supplement, June 16, 2006; Shachan, Operation Thunderball, 129—130; Ben-Porat et al., Entebbe Rescue, 130—131; Cohen interview.

  17 Iddo Netanyahu, Sayeret Matkal at Entebbe: The Testimonies, Documents, Facts (Tel Aviv: Miskal, 2006), 140, 142; Moshe Betser and Robert Rosenberg, Secret Soldier (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press), 259; Cohen interview. The role of Yoni Netanyahu, chief commander of the Sayeret Matkal, in the operation later became a significant bone of contention between the Netanyahu family and other soldiers in the elite unit. The known facts are that at the time of the hijacking, Netanyahu was engaged in a military exercise in Sinai. He joined the special forces as they drilled for the operation as late as Thursday, July 1. There were many objective difficulties that stood in his way. He was required to learn details of the intricate operation quickly and help find solutions to logistic complications that were liable to crop up in an operation so deep in the heart of Africa. According to the testimonies that piled up over the years, Netanyahu was also going through a personal crisis at the time, which apparently had an effect on his performance as commander.

  18 Netanyahu, Sayeret Matkal at Entebbe, 212; Zonder, Elite Unit, 150.

  19 Dan, Operation Uganda, 62, 64—65; Eyal Ben, “Why Did They Forget Our Hero?” Ynet, www.ynet.co.il (July 2, 2006); David, I Have Come Back from Entebbe, 200; Hirsch interview; Cohen interview; Ben-Porat, Entebbe, 14; Anat Fitusi-Farhi, “30th Anniversary of Operation Entebbe,” Geffen Hamoshava, www.gfn.co.il (June 7, 2006); Sharon Rofeh-Ofir, “‘Motta Said: Yoni’s Death is His Own Fault’; Bibi Stepped Outside, Angered,” Ynet, www.ynet.co.il (July 2, 2006); Zonder, Elite Unit, 149; Hendler, “Here Is Your Captain”; Netanyahu, Sayeret Matkal at Entebbe, 212, 250, 309, 312, 328; Shachan, Operation Thunderball, 270; Zonder, Elite Unit, 151; Williams, “Entebbe Diary.”

  20 Iddo Netanyahu, Yoni’s Last Battle (Jerusalem: Geffen, 2002), 220—221; “Entebbe Raid: ‘Subject for Songs and Legends,’” New York Times, July 5, 1976; Drew Middleton, “Key to Raid Success,” New York Times, July 5, 1976; Zonder, Elite Unit, 154.

  21 Farouq Nassar, Associated Press, April 1, 1978; Naftali Lavi, “Israelis Still Held in Algiers,” Haaretz, July 24, 1968; Edgar O’Ballance, Language of Violence: The Blood Politics of Terrorism (San Rafael, Calif.: Presidio Press, 1979), 84—90.

  22 Dan, Operation Uganda, 19—20; Ben-Porat, Entebbe, 74—76; Yossi Melman, “Golda Didn’t Give an Order,” Haaretz, February 18, 2006.

  23 Aaron Klein, Striking Back: The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and Israel’s Deadly Response (Tel Aviv: Miskal, 2006), 181; Yossi Melman, “One Hundred Percent Israeli,” Haaretz, May 12, 2006.

  24 Zvi Tal, “Meir Peretz Who Slept in the Children Nursery and Was Held as a Hostage: For Eight Long Hours I Was Suspended Between Life and Death,” Yedioth Ahronoth, April 8, 1980; Emmanuel Elnecave, Ilan Kfir, and Yair Amikam, “To the Sound of Crying Babies, IDF Soldiers Rushed Inside the Children Nursery and Killed Five Terrorists,” Yedioth Ahronoth, April 8, 1980; Yehoshua Halamish and Eliezer Rotenshtreich, “Iraq Behind a Terrorist Organization,” Yedioth Ahronoth, April 8, 1980; Yaacov Erez, “Israel Checking Response to Terrorist Attack on Kibbutz Misgav Am,” Maariv, April 8, 1980; Zeev Schiff, “Part of the Electronic Fence Didn’t Work Because of Mishap,” Haaretz, April 9, 1980; Emmanuel Elnecave, Ilan Kfir, and Yair Amikam, “Representatives from All the Villages Came to Cheer Up and Help Misgav Am Citizens,” Yedioth Ahronoth, April 8, 1980.

  25 Tal, “Meir Peretz”; Yitzhak Ben-Horin, “Four Hours Esti Shani Hid in the Shower, Knowing That Her Husband Was Already Dead and Worried About Her Son,” Maariv, April 8, 1980; Yaacov Erez, “Before They Were Killed, Terrorists Cold-bloodedly Killed Kibbutz Secretary and Two-Year-Old Tot,” Maariv, April 8, 1980; “Armed with Only a Screwdriver, the Kibbutz Secretary Tried to Stop the Terrorists,” Maariv, April 8, 1980.

  26 Erez, “Before They Were Killed”; interview with Roi Feiga, former soldier in the Sayeret Matkal, December 2, 2006; Yaacov Erez, “IDF Officer Who Led the Soldiers Remembers the Operation in Misgav Am: ‘Battle Was Conducted from Half a Meter,’” Maariv, April 8, 1980; Elnecave, Kfir, and Amikam, “To the Sound of Crying Babies.”

  27 Elnecave, Kfir, and Amikam, “To the Sound of Crying Babies”; Erez, “Before They Were Killed”; Alex Fischman, “No Second Bullet,” Hadashot, March 11, 1988.

  28 Zonder, Elite Unit, 188—189; “Armed with Only a Screwdriver”; Tal, “Meir Peretz”; Amir Oren, “To Germany and Back,” Haaretz, Saturday Supplement, January 30, 2004.

  29 Gazit, “Risk, Glory, and the Rescue Operation,” 121, 135—137; Ron interview; Ira Sharkansky and Yair Zalmanovitch, “Improvisation in Public Administration and Policy Making in Israel,” Public Administration Review 6, no. 4 (July—August 2000): 326; Zonder, Elite Unit, 309; interview with Rafi Malka, former senior GSS officer, August 22, 2006.

  CHAPTER FOUR THE LEBANESE PUZZLE

  1 “Civil War Seen Easing Guerrilla Pressure on Israel in Fatahland,” New York Times, September 24, 1970; Avner Yaniv, Dilemmas of Security: Politics, Strategy, and the Israeli Experience in Lebanon (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), 104; Yezid Sayigh, “Palestinian Military Performance in the 1982 War,” Journal of Palestine Studies 12, no. 4 (Summer 1983): 17—19; Edgar O’Ballance, Language of Violence: The Blood Politics of Terrorism (San Rafael, Calif.: Presidio Press, 1979), 228—238; Zeev Schiff, “Chief of Staff Hofi: Clear Signs That the Terrorists Came from Lebanon,” Haaretz, April 12, 1974; “Database of Terrorist Incidents, 1970—1979,” CDISS, www.cdiss.org.

  2 Oded Granot, “Intelligence Corps” in IDF and Its Corps: Encyclopedia of Army and Security (Tel Aviv: Revivim, 1981), 8:141—164; interview with Gershon Ekstein, former IDF commander, October 11, 2006; interview with Lior Lotan, former head of the General Staff Negotiating Team, March 12, 2007; Shlomo Gazit, “Risk, Glory, and the Rescue Operation,” International Security 6, no. 1 (Summer 1981): 111—135.

  3 Meron Medzini, ed., Israel’s Foreign Relations: Selected Documents (Jerusalem: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1977—1979), 359—362; Ofer Grosbard, “Personality Study of Menachem Begin” (PhD dissertation, George Mason University, 2004), 358; “Yadin: We Shall Speak with Terror Organizations Only in Language They Understand,” Yedioth Ahronoth, March 15, 1978.

  4 Major George C. Solley “The Israeli Experience in Lebanon, 1982—1985,” www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1987/SGC.htm (accessed February 11, 2008); Mitchell Bard, “The Lebanon War,” www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Lebanon_War.html (accessed February 11, 2008); “Database of Terrorist Incidents, 1970—1979”; Zeev Schiff and Ehud Yaari, Israel’s Lebanon War (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984).

  5 Yossi Melman, Abu Nidal: Profile of a Terrorist Organization (Tel Aviv: Hadar, 1984), 116—117; Jane Metlikovec, “Bullet Ended Career,” Herald Sun March 5, 2003; “3 Convicted in Shooting of Israeli Ambassador,” New York Times, March 6, 1983.

  6 Shimon Schiffer, Snow Ball: The Story Behind the Lebanese War (Tel Aviv: Idanim Publishers, 1984), 93; Schiff and Yaari, Israel’s Lebanon War, 100—103, 181—193; Eliezer Zafrir, Imbroglio: Traffic Policemen in Lebanese Entanglement (Tel Aviv: Miskal, 2006).

  7 “The New Alliance,” Journal of Palestine Studies 8, no. 1 (Autumn 1978): 160; Zafrir, Imbroglio, 83; Shimon Schiffer, Lebanon War Secrets (Tel Aviv: Idanim, 1984), 53; Schiff and Yaari, Israel’s Lebanon War,
27; interview with Yossi Chen, former head of the GSS Northern Command, February 12, 2006.

  8 Zafrir, Imbroglio, 91, 175; Yaari and Schiff, Israel’s Lebanon War, 104, 287, 308.

  9 Anat Kurtz, David Tal, and Maskit Burgin, Islamic Terrorism and Israel (Tel Aviv: Papirus, 1993), 32; Commission of Inquiry Into the Events at the Refugee Camps in Beirut, Final Report ( Jerusalem, 1983), 100—104.

  10 Zafrir, Imbroglio, 87; Schiffer, Lebanon War Secrets, 39; interview with Aviezer Yaari, former head of the Amin Research Division, January 29, 2007; Chen interview; Dudi Cohen, Hezbollah Founder: We Have Ability and Courage to Launch Zilzal 2,” Ynet, www.ynet.co.il (August 3, 2006); “Fadlallah, Sheikh Muhammed Hussein,” National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, www.tkb.org/KeyLeader.jsp?memID=5784 (accessed February 11, 2008); Kurtz, Tal, and Burgin, Islamic Terror and Israel, 27; Ronen Bergman, Point of No Return (Or Yehuda, Israel: Kinneret, 2007), 146—147; Uri Blau, “If I Was a Palestinian,” Haaretz, December 23, 2006; Nissim Levy, A Year Without Birds (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 2006).

  11 Yaari interview; Chen interview; Robert A. Pape, “The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism,” American Political Science Review 97, no. 3 (August 2003): 343—361; Augustus R. Norton, “Hizballah and the Israeli Withdrawal from Southern Lebanon,” Journal of Palestine Studies 30, no. 1 (Autumn 2000): 22—35; Raphael Israeli, “A Manual of Islamic Fundamentalist Terrorism,” Terrorism and Political Violence 14, no. 4 (Winter 2002): 23—40; Reuven Erlich, “Portrait of Ghazi Kanaan, Designer and Implementer of the Syrian Order in Lebanon, and Handler of Palestinian and Lebanese Terrorists Serving the Syrian Régime,” www.intelligence.org.il/eng/eng_n/kanaan.htm (accessed February 11, 2008); Shimon Shapira, Hizballah: Between Iran and Lebanon (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2000), 162—163; Ian Black and Benny Morris, Israel’s Secret Wars (London: Warner, 1992), 428; On Levy, “The Task: Killing, as Many as Possible,” Davar, March 20, 1992; Shaul Mishal and Avraham Sela, The Hamas Wind: Violence and Coexistence (Tel Aviv: Miskal, 2006), 56—59; interview with Arie Livne, former head of the GSS Southern Command, January 25, 2007.