Isser Harel
Isser Harel | |
---|---|
איסר הראל | |
David Ben Gurion | |
Preceded by | Reuven Shiloah |
Succeeded by | Meir Amit |
Member of the Knesset | |
In office 1969–1974 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Isser Halperin 1912 Vitebsk, Russian Empire |
Died | 18 February 2003 | (aged 90–91)
Nationality | Russian Empire Israel |
Political party | National List |
Children | 1 |
Nickname | Little Isser[1] |
Isser Harel (
Biography
Isser Halperin (later Harel) was born in
The Harel family faced hardship when the
When he was 16, Harel began preparations to emigrate to the British Mandate for Palestine. During this preparatory year he worked in agriculture with the aspiration to join a kibbutz. With the outbreak of the 1929 Hebron massacre, his friends decided to move up their emigration date in order to reinforce the Jewish settlement in Palestine. Documents were prepared for the 17-year-old Harel stating that he was 18 and eligible for a British visa. At the beginning of 1930 he immigrated to Palestine. He crossed Europe from north to south to board a ship in Genoa, carrying a pistol that he concealed in a loaf of bread.
Harel's powerful position stood in contrast to his personal life. His neighbors took him for a minor government official. Harel and his wife Rivka had one daughter, named Miriam, two grandsons and one granddaughter.
Intelligence career
After the creation of Israel in 1948, Harel founded and became the first director of Israel's internal security agency, Shin Bet. Later, he took over the Mossad a year after it was created in 1951. As chief of two of the nation's three intelligence agencies, Harel wielded considerable power in Israel's first 15 years.[citation needed]
In 1957, members of the
Harel later stated that it was his belief that if the Eichmann operation had begun some weeks earlier, the Mossad may have had a chance to apprehend Dr.
Harel was also responsible for the intelligence coup that cemented the Mossad's reputation with Western intelligence agencies. In March 1956, three years after the death of Soviet dictator
Harel was forced to resign from Mossad in March 1963, while conducting
Political career
After leaving
He then joined
Published works
- The Great Deceit: a Political Novel (1971) (in Hebrew)
- Jihad (1972) (in Hebrew)
- The House on Garibaldi Street (1975) (in Hebrew)
- The Anatomy of Treason (1980) (in Hebrew)
- Operation Yossele (1982) (in Hebrew)
- The Crisis of the German Scientists (1982) (in Hebrew)
- Brother Against Brother: the Authorized Comprehensive Analyses of the Lavon Affair (1982) (in Hebrew)
- The Truth About the Kastner Murder (1985) (in Hebrew)
- Soviet Espionage (1987) (in Hebrew)
- Security and Democracy (1989) (in Hebrew)
References
- ISBN 9780062123442.
- ^ "Obituary: Isser Harel". The Guardian. Feb 20, 2003. Retrieved Jan 6, 2023.
- Daily Telegraph(London), 19 February 2003
- ^ a b c Isser Harel: Israeli spymaster who abducted Eichmann, The Independent (London), Thursday, 20 February 2003
- ^ "TV: How Israelis Captured Eichmann". The New York Times. 1979.
- ISBN 978-0-8154-1006-5.
- ISBN 978-0-8239-3815-5.
- ISBN 978-1-473-69471-2.
External links
Media related to Isser Harel at Wikimedia Commons
- Isser Harel on the Knesset website