Rise and Kill First

by Ronen Bergman

  try to solve its Lebanon problem through targeted killings Interview with Barkai, July 18, 2013.

  Ahmed Jibril wasn’t even there that night On May 20, 2002, Israeli agents planted two kilos of TNT under the driver’s seat of the car used by Jihad Jibril, Ahmed’s son and heir, while it was parked in the Mar Elias neighborhood of Beirut. He was killed instantly.

  difficult for Israel to recruit live agents Interviews with Barkai, July 18, 2013, Yitzhak Tidhar, April 2011, Mor, February 23, 2009, and Danny Rothschild, December 15, 2008.

  Between 1984 and 1991, there were 3,425 operations Figures from Israel Government Statistical Yearbooks 1984–1991. Ronen Bergman, “Like Blind Ducks,” Haaretz, May 14, 1999.

  CHAPTER 22: THE AGE OF THE DRONE

  “We’ve got him” AMAN Research Division, Night Time: The Elimination of Hezbollah’s Secretary General, Abbas Mussawi, in February ’92, by Brig. Gen. Amos Gilboa, January 20, 1999, 25 (author’s archive, received from “Robin”).

  The IAF had lost more than a quarter of its warplanes Interviews with Sella, April 7, 2013, Eitan Ben Eliyahu, April 28, 2011, and Yitzhak Yaakov, January 5, 2007.

  to introduce drones into the air force Israeli Air Force, The History of Squadron 200, 7–14 (author’s archive, received from “Hilton”).

  Hours elapsed between taking the pictures Interviews with Ivri, April 18, 2013, and Eitan Ben Eliyahu, April 24, 2011. Israeli Air Force, History of Squadron 200, 20–22 (Hebrew).

  a new type of drone was developed Interview with Alon Unger, April 21, 2013. Israeli Air Force, History of Squadron 200, 24–26.

  Weinberger didn’t much appreciate the surveillance Interview with Sella, October 26, 2015. Israeli Air Force, History of Squadron 200, 27–29.

  Combining and synchronizing both systems Interview with “Onyx,” May 2013.

  the whole team would practice “passing the baton” Interview with Unger, April 21, 2013. Israeli Air Force, History of Squadron 200, 42–43.

  The navigator, Ron Arad, could not be located Bergman, By Any Means Necessary, 197–206 (Hebrew).

  to do everything and more to get MIAs and POWs home This topic was covered in detail in Ronen Bergman, “Gilad Shalit and the Rising Price of an Israeli Life,” New York Times Magazine, November 9, 2011.

  “the biggest search operation ever conducted” Interviews with “Mark,” April 2005, and Lior Lotan, May 2009.

  Israel abducted two relatively minor Hezbollah officials Interviews with Israel Perlov, October 15, 2000, Rami Igra, February 2008, and “Amazonas,” October 2011. Bergman, By Any Means Necessary, 279–90 (Hebrew).

  “an emblematic operation” Interview with Mor, January 12, 2009.

  “The future will be for the Resistance” Zolfiqar Daher, “From Lebanon to Afghanistan, Sayyed Abbas: The Leader, the Fighter, the Martyr,” Al-Manar, February 18, 2015, http://archive.almanar.com.lb/​english/​article.php?id=196205. Shapira, Hezbollah: Between Iran and Lebanon, 110–11.

  Hezbollah would hold a large political rally AMAN Research Division, Night Time, 5.

  no one in the room knew even the basics of Shiite memorial rites Interview with Shapira, January 31, 2015. AMAN Research Division, Night Time, 15.

  no way he could recommend an immediate abduction mission Arditi claimed that he wasn’t invited to further discussions that day, including those held with Defense Minister Moshe Arens, because it was clear he would speak out sharply against the operation. Interview with Arditi, June 13, 2011.

  “SOE does not want to do it” AMAN, Night Time, 9.

  a critical misunderstanding crept in Interviews with Mor, January 12, 2009, and Yosi Dimenstein, January 26, 2016.

  two parallel plans had thus been created The CoS’s counterterrorism adviser, Meir Dagan, proposed his own plan: to replace the monument for Gharib Harb, whose slaying he had been behind in 1984, with an identical, booby-trapped one to be exploded when Mussawi appeared. AMAN, however, saw Dagan as a competitor and asked CoS Barak to rule his plan out, as it would endanger the lives of women and children. “I told the CoS that was bullshit,” said Dagan. “According to Shi’ite mourning customs, only male dignitaries would stand in the front row. The women would wait in the husaniyeh…but they [AMAN] managed to persuade Ehud [Barak].” Interview with Dagan, June 19, 2013.

  “Mussawi’s convoy of cars” AMAN, Night Time, 11.

  This was a dangerous contradiction AMAN, Night Time, 15. Interview with Moshe Arens, August 25, 2009.

  On Sunday, the day of the operation Interviews with Arditi, June 13, 2011, Barak, March 8, 2013, Sagie, November 20, 2015, Ofer Elad, January 12, 2015, and Unger, May 21, 2013.

  “We’ve got him!” AMAN, Night Time, 16.

  Barak told an aide to update the defense minister’s military secretary Ibid., 17.

  “we’ll be moving up a level in fighting Hezbollah” Ibid., 15.

  unanimous in their opposition to killing Mussawi Interview with Mor, January 12, 2009.

  he would go in the third car AMAN, Night Time, 22.

  “They are all yours” Ibid., 23.

  “Positive identification of target” Israeli Air Force, History of Squadron 200, 43–45.

  “The claim that AMAN didn’t know” Interview with Dagan, June 19, 2013.

  “that account will be closed by us” On May 3, 1992, Barak Ben-Tzur of AMAN and Uri Chen, the head of the Mossad’s delegation in the United States, briefed members of the CIA on Operation Night Time, describing it as “the first integrated aerial assassination.” They brought with them video footage shot by the drones. The briefing opened with chuckles when a technician screened the start of the movie Prizzi’s Honor by mistake, but it continued on a more serious note. The Americans were impressed. Robert Gates, CIA director at the time, told me that the footage would influence his insistence on the continued development of the Predator attack drone over the stubborn resistance of the U.S. Air Force. Jim Woolsey, who replaced Gates as head of the CIA, said similar things about the Israeli contribution to the development of the U.S. drones. Interviews with Gates, November 7, 2012, James Woolsey, December 2001, and Barak Ben-Tzur, April 2010.

  CHAPTER 23: MUGHNIYEH’S REVENGE

  did not hasten to carry out the burial AMAN, Night Time, 24.

  there had been no serious discussion before the hit took place Interview with “Roni,” November 2008.

  to appoint a pious thirty-two-year-old cleric “New Hezbollah Leader a Disciple of Iran’s Revolution,” Associated Press, February 12, 1992.

  Israel was a “cancerous growth, this contaminating germ” Interview with Hassan Nasrallah, Al-Manar, December 27, 1997.

  “He was responsible for building Hezbollah’s military strength” Interview with Dagan, July 20, 2013.

  preferable to a full-scale confrontation with the Hezbollah forces Eiran, The Essence of Longing, 97.

  He struck first in Turkey Interview with “the Pilot,” June 2015. Bergman, Point of No Return, 249–50 (Hebrew). Email exchange and phone conversations with Rachel Sadan, January 2007.

  exploded a car bomb outside the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires American intelligence gave the Israelis clear-cut proof—“not a smoking gun, but a muzzle-flashing gun,” one AMAN man said—that Imad Mughniyeh and his lieutenant, Talal Hamia, were behind the attack. The Americans had tapped in to a telephone call with Hamia in which Mughniyeh was heard mocking the Shin Bet’s failure to protect the embassy. Interviews with “Lenin,” April 2013, and Alberto Nisman, December 18, 2007. Bergman, Point of No Return, 210–22 (Hebrew).

  “The aim of the cells is to provide an immediate response” Interviews with Stanley Bedlington, October 31, 2011, Hugo Anzorgi, September 2001, Alberto Nisman, December 18, 2007, and Daniel Carmon, February 24, 2016.

  “A town called Hell” Interview with “the
Pilot,” June 2015.

  Hezbollah’s performance improved and its daring increased Tamir, Undeclared War, 133–36 (Hebrew). Bergman, Point of No Return, 335–39 (Hebrew).

  Israel had crossed a red line Interview with “the Pilot,” June 2015.

  the Israelis decided a response was necessary Interview with “Advantage,” February 2016.

  no one in Israeli intelligence knew where Asgari was He remained high up in the Iranian regime and was involved in a large number of attacks targeting Israel and the United States. In February 2007, he vanished without a trace from his hotel room in Istanbul. According to some sources, he defected to Israel or the United States. The Iranians and his family, however, say that he was abducted, and possibly killed. Interviews with Dagan, May 19, 2011, Sagie, March 6, 2012, and “Herods,” September 2017. Mail exchange with Robert Baer, September 2017.

  Fifty of them were killed and another fifty wounded Interview with “Lenin,” July 2016.

  “the same as someone bombing Eton College” Interview with Ben-Tzur, April 2010.

  Mughniyeh struck in Buenos Aires once again The criminal investigation in Argentina concerning the two bombings dragged on for years and in fact has never ended at all. The special prosecutor appointed to investigate the affair, Alberto Nisman, gathered a large amount of information that led to the issuance of Interpol international arrest warrants against a number of high-ranking Iranians and Hezbollah officials. Nisman also filed indictments “against all of the Argentinean individuals involved in the cover-up” and declared war against the heads of the country’s intelligence community, legal system, and the political echelon. A short time before he was to disclose the documents and recordings he had collected to prove this grave allegation to a parliamentary committee, Alberto Nisman was found shot to death in his apartment, in mysterious circumstances. Interview with Nisman, December 18, 2007. Ronen Bergman, “Holding Iran Accountable,” Majalla, November 24, 2016.

  finally woke Israeli intelligence to the full reality Interviews with Mizrahi, March 22, 2015, and “the Pilot,” September 2016.

  killing him and three passersby Interviews with “Oktoberfest,” January 2013, “the Pilot,” September 2016, Francis, July 15, 2003, and “Eldy,” September 2014.

  an Israeli double agent working for Hezbollah It was Ramzi Nahara, a drug dealer who was activated for many years by Unit 504 as part of a network of drug dealers who assisted Israel with a large amount of information in exchange for the freedom to continue conducting their business. Interview with Ravid, November 13, 2012.

  “I did not accurately foresee Hezbollah’s reaction” Interviews with Sagie, June 24, 2007, and Arens, May 25, 2009.

  he admitted the facts, but not the error Interview with Barak, June 7, 2011.

  CHAPTER 24: “JUST ONE SWITCH, OFF AND ON”

  tried to understand where they had erred Interview with Hasson, November 17, 2010.

  Yassin set up mosques and Islamic educational institutes Aviad, Lexicon of the Hamas Movement, 150–54 (Hebrew).

  “He was so different from the PLO terrorists” Interview with “Aristo,” June 2013.

  “the Shin Bet grew the jihadist” Interview with Lipkin-Shahak, May 26, 2011.

  “The agency was one of the factors” Interview with Ayalon, March 29, 2012.

  “The apologetics…began to disappear” Interview with Diskin, October 23, 2011.

  gave an open palm slap to the man’s face Interview with Kubi, September 8, 2013.

  whose leader was a Palestinian, Abdallah Azam Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, 120–30 (Hebrew).

  place him in a very embarrassing situation Interview with “Aristo,” October 2013.

  Yassin…had secretly set up a small military unit Roni Shaked and Aviva Shabi, Hamas: Palestinian Islamic Fundamentalist Movement, 88–97 (Hebrew).

  “very smart, a little better educated than the average” Interview with Kubi, May 29, 2013.

  “the whole Shin Bet missed it completely” Interview with “Aristo,” June 2013.

  Yassin was sentenced to thirteen years Bergman, By Any Means Necessary, 101 (Hebrew). Interview with Micha Kubi, May 29, 2013. Ronen Bergman, “Oops, How Did We Miss the Birth of Hamas?” Yedioth Ahronoth, October 18, 2013.

  the dying person is not acting out of personal motives Nachman Tal, “Suicide Attacks: Israel and Islamic Terrorism,” Strategic Assessment, vol. 5, no. 1, June 2002, Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, Tel Aviv.

  “Hamas,” which also means “enthusiasm” Shaked and Shabi, Hamas, 92–107 (Hebrew).

  Salah Shehade, the most senior member detained Interviews with Dichter, November 4, 2010, and Kubi, May 29, 2013.

  Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades Gelber, Growing a Fleur-de-Lis, 104–37.

  Shehade continued to command the military wing Ronen Bergman, “The Dubai Job,” GQ, January 4, 2011.

  “We disguised ourselves as religious Jews” “ ‘To Israel I Am Stained with Blood,’ ” Al Jazeera, February 7, 2010, http://www.aljazeera.com/​focus/​2010/​02/​2010271441269105.html.

  Al-Mabhouh and Nasr fled to Egypt Interview with “Aristo,” June 2013.

  Nissim Toledano of the border police MOD, Office of the Chief Coordinator for Judea and Samaria, Hamas announcement on the kidnapping to The Soldier, October 11, 1994 (author’s archive, received from “Bell”).

  “you will be wiped off the face of the earth” Interview with Ben-Tzur, March 26, 2011.

  “We are sorry that we have to kill you” Shaked and Shabi, Hamas, 11–21.

  “We had tried a lot of methods against Hamas” Interview with Yatom, April 7, 2011.

  news about the operation had leaked out anyway Supreme Court File 5973/92, Association for Civil Rights in Israel v. Minister of Defense.

  the expulsion was in fact a serious blow to Hamas AMAN Research Division, Brief on Saudi Money Funneled to HAMAS, May 6, 2002 (author’s archive, received from “Chili”).

  Hezbollah could and should use the opportunity Interview with “Leon,” July 2013. Aviad, Lexicon of the Hamas Movement, 199–201.

  Militant Shiites did not…make alliances with Sunni Muslim Palestinians Globe and Mail (Canada), December 28, 1993.

  hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash Though they received an abundance of information from the Shin Bet, and they collected a fair amount of information themselves, the FBI refrained from taking any action until after the Twin Towers fell. The FBI, Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Dale Watson, Assistant Director, Counterterrorism Division to Richard Newcomb, Director, Office of Foreign Assets Control, Department of the Treasury, November 5, 2001. Bergman, Follow the Money: The Modus Operandi and Mindset of HAMAS Fundraising in the USA and the PA Using American and Saudi Donations, Cambridge University, Centre of International Studies, October 2004.

  “The power of the terrorists had grown exponentially” Interview with Dichter, November 4, 2010.

  “his blood boiling with fury” Interview with Eitan Haber, June 21, 2009.

  CHAPTER 25: “BRING US THE HEAD OF AYYASH”

  controversy followed Rabin Goldstein, Rabin: A Biography, 415–24 (Hebrew).

  “Neither of the sides grasped the meaning” Interview with Ayalon, September 4, 2002.

  Efforts to resolve the conflicts on Israel’s northern borders “Grey File” (preparation for the secret talks with Syria) documents, author’s archive, received from “Bell.” Ronen Bergman, “The Secret of the Grey File,” Yedioth Ahronoth, January 26, 2007.

  “We sit in the fortresses scratching our balls” Interviews with Erez Gerstein, April 1996, and Ehud Eiran, May 13, 2013.

  pleaded with Israel to at least target Hezbollah officers Interview with Aql al- Hashem, December 1999.


  quickly organized a new commando unit, known as Egoz Tamir, Undeclared War, 116.

  “the experience of the Americans in Vietnam” Raviv Shechter, interview with Moshe Tamir, Yisrael Hayom, May 14, 2010.

  he saw great importance in targeted strikes Interview with Levin, July 16, 2017.

  “we, the IDF, would have to do it on our own” Interview with Ronen Cohen, July 5, 2015.

  Hezbollah’s radio networks exploded with transmissions about the killing Interview with Ronen Cohen, September 1, 2016.

  Operation Golden Beehive was the model for additional attacks The IDF needed to develop new devices and capabilities for these assassinations. The bombs, for instance, were problematic. The batteries of the firing devices had to last the sometimes protracted period between the planting and the detonating, long-range wireless communication was required for the detonation, and the devices had to be small and camouflaged. The IDF’s weapons development blew up a few dozen old Mercedeses, the most popular cars in Lebanon, with store-window mannequins belted inside, trying to figure out how much of what material placed where was most effective. In one important experiment, anesthetized pigs were used, as their skin and tissues are similar to those of human beings. The bombs that killed them were nicknamed “oink-oink.” Interviews with “Leo,” February 2016, and “Pie,” November 2011.

  this workaround of the system was not seen as troublesome Interview with Sheves, August 25, 2010.

  “a precedent was created” Interview with “Leo,” February 2016.

  PIJ’s Beit Lid bombings were the climax of this campaign Kurtz, Islamic Terrorism and Israel, 139–48.

  Shaqaqi gave an interview Lara Marlowe, “Interview with a Fanatic,” Time, February 6, 1995.