It is an eye-catching episode on the CV of any would-be prime minister: a
dangerous, youthful stint as a spy in one of the world’s most respected and
feared secret services.
True to her training, Tzipi Livni, the Israeli leader-in-waiting, has
maintained a Sphinx-like silence about her Mossad career in Paris in the
early 1980s. Consequently, reports on her service have pegged her as
anything from a frontline agent hunting down Arab terrorists across Europe
to a mere house-sitter deployed to provide a respectable front for Mossad
safe houses in the French capital.
Mossad does not divulge details but The Times can reveal that Ms Livni
ran substantial risks as an Israeli agent operating in a covert cell in
Europe.
“She was in an elite unit,” said Ephraim Halevy, the former director of
Mossad, who for security reasons declined to specify which outfit Ms Livni
had served in between 1980 and 1984.
“She was a very promising agent who showed all the attributes of a very
promising career. She was very well thought of.”
Ms Livni, a fluent French speaker and daughter of renowned Zionist guerrillas,
served her time in Paris when the city was a deadly battle-ground in
Mossad’s covert war with Palestinian militant groups and Saddam Hussein’s
nuclear ambitions.
One Israeli former intelligence source told The Times that the
22-year-old Ms Livni had been recruited into Mossad after her National
Service by a childhood friend, Mira Gal, who herself served for two decades
in the agency and who now works as her ministry bureau chief.
Like many recruits, the source said, she would have started out with so-called
“student jobs”, mostly maintaining safe houses that were used by hit squads
and more senior agents on assignment across Europe. Mr Halevy said that even
such a rookie job was not without its risks.
“I’m not saying she was a caretaker of safe houses but people think that being
a caretaker is a simple and mundane job which entails no risk,” the
English-born former spymaster told The Times. “People who say that
don’t know what safe houses are about. It can be very dangerous at times.”
After her apprenticeship, Ms Livni went through basic training as a field
officer, learning how to recruit agents and gather information at a time of
huge upheaval among Israel’s foes, as the Palestine Liberation Organisation
(PLO) relocated from war-torn Beirut to the safer shores of Tunisia.
“It was a period when the Israelis were sending strong political messages with
their attacks and they did not hesitate to attract attention,” Éric Denécé,
a former French intelligence service agent, said.
“Since the Six-Day War [in 1967], Paris was an important intelligence base for
Mossad - first, because it had excellent relations with the French services
and also because so many Palestinians were based there.”
Israeli agents operating out of Paris carried out assassinations and were also
widely believed to have infiltrated Palestinian factions. Among them was
Ilich RamÍrez Sánchez, alias Carlos the Jackal, and the Abu Nidal splinter
group. The group perpetrated the massacre of six people at Goldenberg’s
restaurant in the rue des Rosiers in August 1982 and the bombing of the
Paris-Toulouse express, which killed five, the same year.
There were two Mossad stations in Paris at the time, according to Roger
Faligot, author of several books on the intelligence services. One covered
France and the other Western Europe.
“I only heard about Tzipi Livni being an agent in Paris quite late in the
day,” he told The Times. “At that period, Israel was appointing
many female agents who were not just recruited from the armed forces but
because of their languages and analytical skills. When you see Livni’s
career, you would conclude that she was on the political and analytical side
of Mossad.”
Mossad operators in Paris were also striving to thwart Saddam Hussein from
developing an atomic arsenal and shipping nuclear fuels to his new processor
at Osirak just outside Baghdad. In June 1980 an Egyptian-born scientist
working on the Iraqi atomic programme was found murdered in his hotel room,
a killing assumed to have been the handiwork of Mossad. A prostitute who
heard voices coming from his room on the night of his murder was killed a
month later in a mysterious hit-and-run accident. Menachem Begin, the Prime
Minister at the time, said he hoped that France had “learnt its lesson” for
helping Iraq. A year later Israeli bombers blew the Osirak plant to pieces.
One French report cited experts suggesting that Ms Livni was part of an elite
unit that fatally poisoned the Iraqi nuclear scientist Abdul Rasul at a
lunch in Paris in 1983. “The risks were tangible,” Ms Gal was to say of
those days in Mossad. “If I made a mistake the result would be arrest and
catastrophic political implications for Israel.”
The risks to Israelis working in Europe were brutally demonstrated in 1982
when an Abu Nidal gunman shot the Israeli Ambassador to London, Shlomo
Argov, in the head, critically wounding him and triggering the full-scale
invasion of southern Lebanon by the Jewish state to root out the PLO.
“It takes both courage and judgment to make the right decision at the right
time,” Mr Halevy said. “You are jeopardising a whole team and can open up
all sorts of other matters than go beyond the issue you are dealing with”.
Whatever the actual role Ms Livni played, Mr Halevy is convinced that her
experience and training stand her in good stead for the tasks now at hand as
she tries to build a consensus to govern Israel. He recalls seeing her in
May 2003, when he was National Security Adviser, deploy her Mossad-honed
analytical skills and tenacity in government, when, as a junior Cabinet
member, she was the only minister to stand up to the Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon and point out key flaws on a complex security brief that had been
dispatched hours before.
“This shows she knows what she is doing and is willing to stand up for it,” Mr
Halevy said.
Underground war
- June 1980 head of Iraq’s nuclear programme, Yahia El-Meshad, is
murdered in his Paris hote, assumed to be a victim of a Mossad hit team.
Prime Minister Menachem Begin tells a journalist that he hoped France “had
learnt its lesson” for helping Iraq.
- June 1981 Israel bombs a French-built nuclear reactor in Iraq,
killing a French specialist. Mossad involvement is suspected.
- April 1979 explosion at CNIM Industries plant in La Seyne-sur-Mer
damages nuclear reactor destined for Iraq. Mossad is suspected.
- October 1980 car bomb explodes outside a Paris synagogue killing four
people
- August 1982 six people die and 22 are wounded when five men with
machine guns and grenades open fire in Paris Jewish deli
Sources: Le Figaro, BBC, Time, Reuters
Earthlings, earthlings, the more ruthless and eager to carry out evil, the better they look to their masters...
Rony Emilio Romaniello, London, UK
India needs a leader like Indira Gandhi who was strong enough to keep India united and resist terrorsim and destroy it. Israel is lucky to have the similar one (Livni) at the right time ...
Vitty, Mumbai, India
A bright star in a dangerous world
jim leinen, houston, USA
Honeytraps, assassinations, terrorists, inherent hatred, belligerence... isn't humanity wonderful?
Howard, Manchester,
whats wrong with a former master spy becoming a prime minister. putin was a a former kgb guy. Tzipi livni looks so sexy and with the mossad cv, it sure makes gives her more sex appeal as well as intelligence.
chris, singapore,
Livni's Mossad past holds promise for peace and for appropriate application of force. She is much less likely to swallow poor intelligence, more likely to be protected by the Mossad Family from impulsive guidance from others and more likely to greenlight high risk but big payoffm covert ops..r
jeff kamen, new york, new york
Israelis have always been smart at tactics but for a nation to survive as a respectable member of world community you need strategy and vision. Basing your longterm defence on borrowed weopen systems and technology and an economy bankrolled by Americans speaks of political myopia.
feroze shaheen, srinagar, India
She will be a guiding force for Countries like India for making policy on terrorism.
Raaj, bhopal, India
I would vote for her in a heartbeat. Hope she will be XXI century Golda Meir.
Boris, Denver, USA
If I was an Israeli & Jewish & knowing that my country was surrounded by hostile forces intent on destroying it and all within &knowing that one miss step could be the end of my country &people I'd vote for her in a heart beat.
Now is not the time to elect a naive bleeding hearted social worker.
Dr Andris Lielmanis, Brampton, Canada
Israel needs a strong leader. Palestinians need a strong humane leader. Both need courage to say stop. Russian + Chinese need to change their show. Iranian, Syrian, and so many other sick, sick societies (Angola, Nkorea need to clean up their acts. US: get real + stop tripping up. This is not a game
C Setubal, Janelas,
She is the right person to lead ISRAEL!
Jacob, DOHA, QATAR
To those (many with Muslim names) writing in - there is a big difference between targeting civilians (= terrorists like Hamas) and targeting militants (= Israelis). If you cannot tell the difference, then you too are part of the problem. And Ali of Peshawar - shame on you for your comments.
C Bozner, London,
To echo what others have said, the use of the phrase "Zionist guerilla" as opposed to the more accurate phrase "Zionist terrorist" is really quite shameful and a fine example of the hypocrisy that is at the root of the troubles in that region.
Joe, Ontario, Canada
The issue of Israel/Palestine is a European creation due to the genocidal anti-semitism & racism of the Europeans; they created the problem, and they should sort it out, either by paying the Palestinians a fair settlement or pressurizing the Israelis to stop behaving just as badly as they did.
Michael, London, UK
TZIPI's OK - It's a great priviledge and honor to serve in the intelligence service of your own country. Ms. Tzipi "Birdie" Livni did than successully and she should be praised for her dedication and sacrifice.
She will make a good Prime Minister of Israel because she has an intel backgroud.
DAVID DASTYCH, Warsaw, Poland
Paris was always a base for intel operations.The Mossad took advantage of that. But the past French Governments and Presidents did not support Israel, they made business with the Arab dictators, Saddam Hussein in the first place, to sell French weapons and nuclear technology. Israel had to react..
DAVID DASTYCH, Warsaw, Poland
Extremist views are "Fundamentally" all the same. Fascist, NAZI, Communist, Zionist, Muslim Fanatics - whatever - they all share the same guiding principle - a total lack of tolerance. All the world really needs from Tzipi Livni is tolerance.
Davy R, Macc, UK
Thank you for helping to stop Iraq from developing nuclear facilities in the 1980s. If not for this, those so-called (but non-existent) WMDs would have actually been deployed in the field.
To those engaged in terrorist vs guerilla debate: one can't be neutral between a fire and a fire engine.
Simon P, London, UK
Gilly in Pau, might pause to think that successive French Government personalities have just been indicted for their hand in the last genocide of the 20th century: the mass-murder of the Rwandans. Un peu d'humilite. Monsieur!
john, London, england
I suppose if all things were equal, FSB would say they were cool because they have found new and innovative ways to use tea.
I'm sorry, France seems to have gotten the same treatment from it's ally Israel as we get here in the US.....thanks for nothing. Please leave us alone.
Mark T., Wausau, WI, USA
Maybe you forgot that Britain empire already finished. You can stop the publishing of horror stories about aborigines cruelty.
This year only SAS assassinated 3,500 arabs in Baghdad only. It's far more that the quantity of terrorists killed by Israelis in all history.
Alex, Tel Aviv, Israel
I think she's OK as everyone should have their country's interests at heart. Religion is an excuse. By the way Indian Muslims are treated as 2nd class or maybe 3rd Class citizens by Arabs. The latter feel that they are no 1
Imran Ahmed, Karachi, Pakistan
The US would have done better to follow the Mossad example and just kill Saddam instead of invading Iraq.
Notice how the Israeli's targeted the guilty party while the Palestinians just killed whatever civilians they wished.
Barbara, North Carolina, USA
so for Russia to murder people in foreign countries is some kind of appalling crime, whilst for Israel it's positively heroic and admirable?
Marco, Kraków, Poland
The eulogy for terrorism is in full swing except using the right word.
ramem, London,
A Khan, the difference between Islamic terrorists and Zionist guerrillas is simple. Islamic terrorists deliberately kill innocent people, many the better according to their thinking. But, Zionist guerrillas merely fought for their freedom carefully avoiding civilian deaths.
Hyder Ali, London, England, UK
What a contest eh! terrorist v terrorist. Roll up folks take your seats and lets watch yet another show at "the theatre" I think they call it..
Starring Palin Livni McCain v dispossessed, poverty stricken and humiliated people across the world.
God help us
gilly, pau, france
Hand on chin in the photo, thinking, "Hmm, should I commit another international murder there's no chance Interpol will ever arrest me for... or go shopping for a new handbag."
Sally, Springfield, USA
"Renowned Zionist guerillas".... yes, we can all trust The Times to come up with euphemisms.... Why not call them what they actually were ... notorious Zionist terrorists ?
A. Khan, London,
it demostrate an israeli way , terrorists must be prime ministers of israeli. zionist state.
eddy, manchester, uk
This will be good for Israel, she's the political experience and hard won determination to lead her country.
Ali from Pakistan, Australian soldiers give their lives, so that we can live in a country where mosques are side by side with Buddhist temples and churches. Think tolerance& peace brother.
Mark Self, Brisbane, Australia
Sounds like she is a terrorist to me.....
Tony, london, england
Any Palestinian taking action to regain some land stolen from his people is immediately labeled a terrorist in any media. Why?
On the other hand, any action by the Israeli military taking more land from the Palestinians is considered fair and acceptable.
This is the world upside down.
Edge, Luxembourg,
Whatever she did..or how many terrorists Israel Killed..Terrorist are still there. operating all over the world..what did Israel or USA Achieve? nothing
Zoha Ali, Chicago, USA
whether that be man, woman or child, relative, disabled or whomever as long as it achieves their stated aims
FYI
Terrorist-> noun a person who uses violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims - Compact Oxford English Dictionary
Paul, Perth, Australia
Women with guns seem to be big in politics these days...
wnaegele, Albuquerque, New Mexico
A good choice? Like Putin, former head of the KGB? A bit like having another can of petrol ready to use on a fire isn't it? Damn!
Geoff Henderson, Forest Creek,
As a wife of Palestinian I am sad and close to tears. How could she? I think that instead of killing each other we need to love each other As a matter of fact I am an Irish Roman Catholic Jew and my hubby is a Moslem Arab. I also a belly dance and salsa instructor in our gay club. I hope we all can
Yaakov Sullivan, NYC, USA
So basically she was Mossads hooker. Traping men with her looks for her "country". you can only impress westren minds with these James Bond stories. She doesnot even equate to the toe nail of a muslim mother or woman who is willing to give her own life, the life of her children for islam.
Ali, Peshawar, Pakistan
No beauty pageants or moose-hunting, then. I wouldn't vote for her.
alexander, london,
the israeli guerrilla vs palestinian terrorist, very interesting.....
?????????????????
bfrazier, boston, usa