Rise and Kill First

by Ronen Bergman

signature on Shaqaqi’s death Interview with “the Pilot,” May 2016.

  “making a sovereign government change its decisions” Interview with Gillon, January 27, 2016. Carmi Gillon, Shin-Beth Between the Schisms, 201 (Hebrew).

  executing the Red Page on Shaqaqi Interview with Sagie, March 6, 2012.

  A car bomb driven by a PIJ suicide terrorist In 1998 a federal district judge ordered the Iranian government to pay $247.5 million in damages to Flatow’s family, and in June 2014, BNP Paribas was ordered to pay huge compensation to the family for processing forbidden Iranian financial transactions.

  he silenced them and decided in Shavit’s favor Interview with Lipkin-Shahak, April 3, 2012.

  Surveillance had shown that Shaqaqi was in regular contact Interview with “Diamond,” August 2011.

  “Almost no one ever uses this road” Interview with “the Pilot,” May 2016.

  The assassination operation began Interviews with Galant, August 19, 2011, and Ayalon, June 22, 2011.

  “we heard on our headsets ‘Cease advance now!’ ” Interview with “Fred,” September 2015.

  Ayalon ordered the commandos to withdraw Interview with Ayalon, March 14, 2016.

  “If Abu Mussa goes, our client won’t be able to stay away” Interview with Moshe Ben-David, January 23, 2013.

  One of the Israelis followed him Interview with “Lego,” May 2000.

  the Malta police found the motorcycle on the beach Interview with “the Pilot,” May 2016. Bergman, Secret War with Iran, 213–16.

  Rabin “was red in the face” Interview with Gillon, January 27, 2016.

  “A secret Israeli organization by the name of OAS” Interview with Yasser Arafat, April 1995.

  “Get going, and bring us the head of Ayyash” Interview with Hasson, November 17, 2010.

  Hasson was taking a new approach to Ayyash Interview with Amit Forlit, January 4, 2010.

  he seemed to never trust anyone Interview with Itzhak Ilan, January 26, 2016.

  the efforts to locate Crystal bore fruit Interview with Gillon, January 27, 2016.

  “we had decided to go ahead with it nevertheless” Interview with Hasson, November 17, 2010.

  he had managed to slip away to Gaza Interview with Ilan, November 5, 2014.

  “That, too, was a failure of ours” Interview with Gillon, January 27, 2016.

  “ ‘First of all, let’s eliminate him, and then see what happens’ ” Interview with Hasson, November 17, 2010.

  “But here’s the dilemma” Interview with Dichter, November 4, 2010.

  “but the coffee stays in the machine” Interview with Dichter, November 4, 2010.

  a senior member of the VIP protection unit Interview with Ilan, November 5, 2014.

  The peace rally was organized by left-wing groups Gillon, Shin-Beth Between the Schisms, 267–76.

  was the first to receive Yigal Amir Interview with Lior Akerman, October 15, 2015.

  “Suddenly the line went dead” “The Phone Rang, Yihyeh Ayyash Answered, and the Instrument Blew Up,” Haaretz, January 7, 1996.

  CHAPTER 26: “SLY AS A SNAKE, NAÏVE AS A LITTLE CHILD”

  “I didn’t have the men” Interview with Rajoub, May 3, 2010.

  “Jibril’s a liar” Interview with Diskin, October 15, 2011.

  “Mohammed shu?” Interview with Yaalon, August 16, 2011.

  “We sat together, and I ate from his hand” Interview with Peres, September 17, 2012.

  “derailed the peace process” Interview with Hasson, November 17, 2010.

  he forced him out in 2016 Ronen Bergman, “For Israel, Frightening New Truths,” New York Times, January 7, 2017.

  “The Shin Bet is used to collecting evidence” Interview with Yaalon, August 16, 2011.

  backed up his boss’s words Interview with Yassi Kuperwasser, May 21, 2004.

  so Shin Bet investigators wouldn’t be able to trace them Interview with “Disco,” August 1997.

  Netanyahu called in Mossad director General Danny Yatom and demanded a hit list Interview with Yatom, July 7, 2011.

  “you can’t survive your second operation” Interview with Ben-David, January 23, 2013.

  “I want leaders, not merchants” Interview with Benjamin Netanyahu, July 3, 2007.

  “ ‘I cannot allow more suicide bombings’ ” Interview with Ben-David, May 6, 2002.

  “No risks, nothing that could go wrong” Interview with Shapira, October 27, 2013.

  Netanyahu’s eyes lit up Interview with Ben-David, January 15, 2013. Request for the Extradition of Abu Marzook, Israeli Ministry of Justice, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York—924 F. Supp. 565 (S.D.N.Y. 1996) (author’s archive, received from “Mocha”).

  Marzook also was an American citizen Interview with “Lego,” May 2000.

  far from sufficient information to act against the other three When I told Netanyahu what I had heard from the Mossad operatives, Netanyahu said that no one manipulated him and that he himself selected Mashal as the target for assassination. “I sensed that Mashal was a very problematic character, and very dangerous. Even then we identified his terrible passion for killing us. In retrospect, when you look at where the man got to and what he has done and how he became the engine of Hamas, it is clear to all that I was right when I thought that his vanishing off the map was likely to significantly damage Hamas’s capabilities.” Interview with Netanyahu, July 3, 2007.

  “Potion of the gods” Interview with “the Pilot,” May 2016.

  The assassins were still practicing their technique Doron Meiri, “The Terrorist Entered the Street Dressed as a Drag Queen,” Yedioth Ahronoth, September 7, 1997.

  Yatom once again tried to persuade Netanyahu Interview with Yatom, July 7, 2011.

  the moment the Mossad agreed to immediately carry out the hit on Mashal This was because Caesarea’s documentation department did not have other, more suitable passports ready for the whole team. In other instances, in the past, such a situation was liable to lead to a postponement of the entire operation until a solution was found.

  “not to allow…bad luck to screw things up” Interview with “the Pilot,” May 2016.

  he simply didn’t know about it Interview with Mordechai, August 28, 2015.

  “didn’t give me correct estimations of the risks” Interview with Yatom, July 7, 2011.

  “I have to rely on them” Interview with Netanyahu, July 3, 2007.

  carrying the antidote to levofentanyl A request for a reaction from Dr. Platinum elicited the following response: “Hi Ronen, It would be an honor for me to talk to you, but I do not understand how I am connected or would be able to help you. Platinum.” Attempts to arrange a phone conversation with her did not succeed. Email, Ronen Bergman to Dr. Platinum, December 25, 2013, and her reply, December 26, 2013.

  “Amman is a very interesting city” Interview with Ben-David, January 23, 2013.

  “that clearly indicated that there should not be execution” When I told Yatom that the operatives claimed they didn’t see the little girl or the driver and that Jerry hadn’t been able to warn them, he was contemptuously dismissive: “That’s all blabber. They were simply overmotivated to execute, after all the days that they had not been able to. That’s why they took it upon themselves to do something that was in total contradiction to my basic orders.”

  Ideally, a second Caesarea team would have been posted nearby Contrary to this testimony, Hamas and Jordanian intelligence personnel I met in Amman said that Abu Seif was Mashal’s bodyguard and not a random passerby. If this is true, it makes the Bayonet team’s failure much graver, because the operatives never even knew of his existence, not to mention his training, and therefore didn’t foresee what would happen.

  “I jumped on him, threw him
down” Interview with Saad al-Khatib, December 2013.

  someone loaned him a cellphone There is a significant discrepancy between al-Khatib’s version of the incident and that of the two operatives, but there’s no argument about how it ended up.

  Ben-David called Mossad headquarters Interview with Ben-David, January 23, 2013.

  “Batihi started complaining to me” Interview with Yatom, July 7, 2011.

  The doctors had Mashal get to his feet and walk around Interview with Sami Rababa, December 2013.

  King Hussein wanted to make it clear that he took the incident very seriously Interviews with “the Pilot,” May 2016, and Yatom, July 7, 2013.

  Ben-David went to the lobby Interview with Ben-David, January 15, 2013.

  Platinum was taken to Rababa’s office Interview with Rababa, December 2013. Email exchange with Rababa, December 2013.

  Rababa maintained his professional decorum toward Platinum How was Mashal’s life saved? The Jordanian doctors claim they did it themselves, without any help and without injecting him with the antidote. “When the results of the chemical analysis of the substance that we received from the woman doctor arrived,” said Rababa, “we saw that it was exactly the same medication we had already given him. The formula of the poison itself we received after Mashal had recovered totally.” The Israelis contend that this is an empty boast, because it is impossible that their secret toxin could be recognized by Jordanian doctors and it was only thanks to the Mossad giving the Jordanians the antidote, as well as the formulas for both the antidote and the poison, that Mashal’s life was saved. Interviews with Ben-David, January 15, 2013, Yatom, April 7, 2011, “Jeffery,” November 2013, and Rababa, December 2013.

  “wall-to-wall opposition” Halevy refused to be interviewed for this book. However, at a July 13, 2011, meeting with the German defense minister, in the presence of Gen. Amos Gilad and the author, Halevy spoke freely about the Mashal affair, praised (justly) his own contribution to the solution, and several times mentioned that Gilad, who was then head of the AMAN Research Division, was one of the main opponents of his suggestion that Yassin be freed, graciously adding “and this was indeed one of the small mistakes you made in your career.” See also Halevy, Man in the Shadows, 132–42 (Hebrew).

  Netanyahu consulted with Shin Bet director Ami Ayalon Interview with Kubi, September 8, 2013.

  Ayalon conveyed this message to Netanyahu Halevy, Man in the Shadows, 138–40 (Hebrew).

  An official reconciliation between Hussein and Netanyahu Interview with Yoram Ben Zeev, April 17, 2012.

  The internal and external inquiry panels Interviews with Joseph Ciechanover, April 28, 2017, and “the Pilot,” May 2016. Ciechanover came to the conclusion that, in general, Netanyahu acted reasonably and properly.

  all claimed they had not known about the operation Interviews with Mordechai, August 28, 2015, and Yaalon, August 16, 2011.

  Ayalon was severely critical of the entire operation Interview with Ayalon, September 4, 2002.

  An internal Mossad investigation Interview with “the Pilot,” May 2016.

  CHAPTER 27: A LOW POINT

  the two Northern Command officers believed the mission was unnecessary Rami Michaela, the intelligence officer for Flotilla 13’s Operation Poplar’s Song, claims that he has no recollection of any opposition from Northern Command to hitting the target of the operation. In any case, all agree that command of the operation was removed from Northern Command and transferred to the General Staff. Interviews with Ronen Cohen, February 18, 2016, and Rami Michaela, March 15, 2016.

  When the force reached the point marked on their coded map Interviews with Michaela, March 15, 2016, Galant, September 4, 2014, Shay Brosh, May 2013, and Oren Maor, January 2013.

  That may have been the most convenient explanation Bergman, By Any Means Necessary, 428 (Hebrew).

  the mission would probably have been postponed Intel personnel who were concerned about the operation, from Michaela through Navy intelligence chief Brosh all the way up to then CoS Yaalon, all claim that it was not a leak of information that led to the disaster, but a problem with the explosives, that fire was never opened at the force, and that all the men were killed by the blasts. Interviews with Brosh, May 2013, Michaela, March 15, 2016, Galant, September 4, 2014, Mordechai, August 28, 2015, and Lipkin-Shahak, April 3, 2012.

  called them the “four dishrags” “The Four Mothers Are Four Dishrags,” Nana 10 website, February 16, 2000, http://news.nana10.co.il/​Article/​?ArticleID=6764.

  Mossad chief…resigned The three operatives Swiss police found in the basement tried to pretend they were tourists who’d sneaked in for a quickie threesome. They were caught, literally, with their pants down. The police believed them, too, until one of them claimed the bag of tools and cables he was carrying was “diplomatic baggage.”

  “the protective shield that they deserved” Speech by Shin Bet director Avi Dichter at Herzliyah Conference, December 16, 2003.

  “The organization is not attuned to the environment” Interview with Diskin, June 1, 2017.

  analyze it in the briefest of time spans Interview with Ayalon, January 21, 2013.

  more emphasis on the network One of the fathers of the technological revolution in the Shin Bet was Jerusalem-born Gadi Goldstein. He was at that time deepening his knowledge of various philosophical concepts ranging from the Judaic to the oriental religions. In the mid-1990s, and especially in the macho environment of the Shin Bet, Goldstein’s preoccupation with such matters seemed odd, to say the least. Goldstein based his innovative operational concept on the words attributed to the biblical Moses, alongside principles of Zen philosophy. He stressed the doctrine of the anatta, or “no-self,” which says that the I of each of us does not stand alone and is not defined by itself. Zen teaches that the I is in constant conversation with everything in the environment, influencing it and influenced by it. Thus there is no independent existence for any individual or any animal or object; everything exists only as part of a much wider array, which defines it. “Let’s say ten people live in a building,” he said at one of the discussions that were held as the new system was being developed, “and we, the Shin Bet, want to know if and what they are plotting, and we have x amount of energy for investigating that building. We have to invest our energy in what is under way between them, the synergy they are creating together, the ‘range’ within which each of them influences and is influenced.” At that meeting, Goldstein quoted from the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig, which elevates, almost sanctifies, the no-self concept. One of the participants suggested with a smile that Goldstein’s new intelligence doctrine should be named “Zen and the Art of Assassination.” Interview with Gadi Goldstein, November 2012.

  “We set up an entire division of Q’s” Interview with Diskin, June 1, 2017.

  thereby preventing a major disaster Details about Sharif supplied by “Twins,” March 2016.

  escaped from a Palestinian Authority prison According to Shin Bet records, the brothers were connected to a number of terror attacks in which dozens of Israelis were killed and hundreds wounded, including the attack at Café Apropos in Tel Aviv on March 21, 1997, where 3 people were killed and 47 injured, two suicide attacks in Jerusalem in 1997, one on July 30, when 15 were killed and 170 wounded, and one on September 4 with 5 dead and 169 wounded. They were also responsible for gunfire attacks in the Hebron area and Jerusalem, in which 7 Israelis were killed, as well as the abduction and murder of the soldier Sharon Edry on September 9, 1996, among others. Shin Bet, “Elimination of the Awadallah Brothers and Deciphering the Archive of the Military Arm of Hamas in Judea and Samaria,” March 2014 (author’s archive, received from “Twins”).

  “the best operational chief the agency had ever had” Interview with Ayalon, January 21, 2013.

  That man was Yuval Diskin Diskin
introduced a new conceptual framework into the Shin Bet: Most terror attacks, especially suicide attacks, are preceded by a number of actions by the terrorist organizations that are largely similar from one attack to the next. These actions, Diskin argued, leave a trail behind them in both the digital and the physical world. If they can be defined and identified, it’s possible to stop a future attack in its early stages. The system Diskin developed saved the lives of countless Israelis in the decades to follow.

  “Adel was very suspicious” Interview with Diskin, June 1, 2017.

  seeing the fate of Mohi al-Dinh Sharif Interview with “Amazonas,” October 2011.

  not eager to assassinate another Hamas official Interviews with Mofaz, June 14, 2011, and Ayalon, June 22, 2011.

  “I will resign as head of the Shin Bet” Interview with Ayalon, January 21, 2013.

  and soon found the archive Shin Bet, “Elimination of the Awadallah Brothers,” 2.

  “including an absolute stop to the peace process” Interview with Ayalon, January 21, 2013.

  began poring over the Hamas military archives Shin Bet, “Elimination of the Awadallah Brothers,” 3.

  “I come from another place, another culture” Interview with Yaalon, August 16, 2011.

  In theory, the solution was simple Interview with Diskin, June 1, 2017.

  “The whole force identified him and opened fire” The hit on Batat had a jarring end from Cherry’s point of view. The bodies of Batat and Nader Masalma were taken to the unit’s HQ, and there the soldiers who took part in the operation began posing for photographs with them. “Very soon there was a big demand for pictures,” Cherry soldier Alon Kastiel said. “There are a lot of cameras in the unit, and there was a crazy demand for photos. Everyone wanted photos. It went on for maybe two hours. I didn’t say a word, I didn’t think of morality, it’s a dead corpse, not a live person, and your officer is posing for pictures with them and you never rebuke your officer….You look at the pictures and later on you put them in the most remote corner of the house, making sure you won’t come up against them for years. They disgusted me. I don’t know what disgusted me more, the bodies or my own conduct. I used to see the bag with the pictures once a year from a distance and never opened them. They were buried in a drawer in the end.” An IDF spokesman claimed that the military had conducted an incisive investigation and prosecuted those involved in these bizarre proceedings. Interview with Alon Kastiel, May 29, 2016. Gideon Levi, “A Nightmare Reunion Photo,” Haaretz, December 25, 2004.