Gordon Thomas - Gideon's Spies

Yaakov Cohen opened his home—and his heart and mind to me. We sat for many hours in the kibbutz where he now lives as he remembered what he had said and felt at the time. As an example, he alone could recall the fear and remorse he had experienced when killing his first man. His reaction was in marked contrast to Rafi Eitan’s feelings about killing.

Yoel Ben Porat had the mentality of the lawyer’s lawyer, dealing only with the facts and slow to conjecture. In many cases he was able to fill in gaps that had been left open by history. Reuven Merhav was a font of information about Mossad’s position in the framework of Israeli politics.

Among the Israeli journalists I spoke with, two need special mention. Alex Doron was ready to sound off about Israeli intelligence in a way that was candid and refreshing. His support was valuable. On the other hand, Ran Edelist, who had been engaged as a researcher by Channel 4 for the TV film I was to present on Mossad, often paced an office in Zvi Spielmann’s studio complex, insisting it would not be “proper” to give “full details” in many cases. At times he seemed more concerned with what should not be in the program than with what should. In some of the interviews he attended, he frequently interrupted interviewees to caution them to “be careful.” Thankfully, few took his advice. Independently of Ran Edelist, I met with other Israeli intelligence operatives who were able to be open on the understanding they would not be directly quoted.

They invited me to their homes; I met their families and came to know something of their private lives; it was a reminder that spies do not live in one dimension. I still remember completing a long interview with a former katsa who provided an account of how he had killed. Suddenly he looked around at the comfortable living room with its views of a biblical landscape and sighed deeply and said, “This world is not this world.”

The words have stayed with me. I think that what he meant was that, compared to his former work, beneath ordinary rhythms and appearances of life, a darkness and menace had never left him. I found that with several of the others with whom I spoke.

It was a sobering reminder that the world of intelligence is, as Saint Paul glimpsed heaven, all too often indeed “seen through a glass, darkly.”

Meir Amit

Haim Cohen

Nadia Cohen

Yaakov Cohen

William Casey

William Colby

Rafael Eitan

Zvi Spielmann

Isser Harel

Emery Kabongo

Edward Kimbel

David Kimche

Otto Kormek

Henry McConnachie

Ariel Merari

Reuven Merhav

Danny Nagier

Yoel Ben Porat

Uri Saguy

Simon Wiesenthal

Daily Express, London

Daily Mail, London

Daily Telegraph, London

New York Times

Los Angeles Times

Jerusalem Post

Sunday Times, London

Palmach Archive, Israel

Public Record Office, London

National Archive, Washington

The New York Public Library

The Press Association Library, London

The Library, Trinity College, Dublin

The Secret Archives, Vatican City State

The Archive, Glilot, Israel

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