Zvi Zamir's departure marks the end of an era as far as the Mossad is concerned. Zvi is the last major general of the IDF, from the Palmach generation and the founders of the state, who was also the head of an institution that until recently lived among us. All the others – Meir Amit, Yitzhak Hofi and others – have passed away in recent years.
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Within these people, Zvi stood out in that he had no intelligence background – he was a fighter, a senior commander and a significant person – but the Mossad operates differently in covert operations and operations beyond the country's borders, which are completely different from the way the IDF carries out a mission. Zvi adapted very quickly to this type of activity, and also understood the dangers it poses politically in cases of mistakes – such as the well-known Lillehammer affair, in which the Mossad accidentally eliminated a person who was not a terrorist.
Promoted Mossad personnel to the top echelons of the organization
In this affair, as in other small cases in which the Mossad failed, since there are not always successes - Zvi Zamir completely backed his people and stood behind them, and also knew how to minimize the damage and move on with minimal damage. His support for Mossad personnel was also reflected in the fact that he wanted the heads of the Mossad to come from within the organization. He places great emphasis on training and creating a process in which Mossad personnel will be promoted within the organization, and that there will not continue to be a situation in which many officials come from outside the organization, from other places in Israel's security establishment.
Zamir also transformed the organization from one whose role is only to collect intelligence, to an organization that also actually carries out acts of fighting terrorism. He began this process after the murder of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics.
Zamir was sent there as an Israeli representative to help the Germans conduct the hostage rescue operation. He returned from there with a great understanding of the connection that should be established with foreign organizations, and especially with the heads of the organizations, and he paid great attention to this – while deciding that the Mossad, through the Tevel Division, of which I was then deputy director, would eliminate the heads of terror. For the Mossad, this was a turbulent, special period that changed the prevailing paradigm that the Mossad is only an intelligence-gathering organization.
Ephraim Halevi and Zvi Zamir,
In order to explain his activity even more deeply, it is necessary to examine the degree to which he was flexible, and to what extent he took part in the Mossad's operational activity, and not just sent people and towered over them. In 1968, when he was still a military attaché in London, I went to him and suggested that the Mossad contact the fighters of southern Uganda who were working to liberate their country. He rejected the idea, but when he returned to Israel, he changed his mind during a conversation with Tevel. And not only did he change his mind, but he also flew with me on a light plane to Uganda to meet with these fighters. It was really an adventure, because there were no sophisticated flight instruments at the time and the pilot relied mainly on himself.
Maintain a personal presence in the field
We flew in the light plane to Uganda without any further assistance, landed at an improvised airport prepared by a team we had sent earlier, and it met with the rebel commander themselves. There are very few Mossad heads who went out into the field like this and took such a personal operational risk.
Another expression of his understanding that the Mossad chief himself had to be present on the ground was in the case of senior Egyptian agent Ashraf Marwan. Zamir then understood the importance of the personal connection with the source who offered himself voluntarily. So he chose Ashraf Marwan's handler and would also come to some of the meetings himself to meet with the man. In other words, he, as head of the Mossad, was in the field and took an active part, together with the agents, in the organization's activities.
This human dimension also manifested itself after the Yom Kippur War. At the time, the Yemenis captured a Mossad operative, transferred him to Egypt and he was imprisoned in Egypt. Zamir insisted that the man also be released in the postwar prisoner exchange, and he did not let it up despite Egyptian objections, and indeed brought about his release.
Here we must also refer to the Yom Kippur War and say that Zvi completely trusted Ashraf Marwan and knew that he was not a double agent - and this position was tested several times and proven correct. About the fact that his warning wasn't heeded then and how he felt about it, he never spoke to me.
Nevertheless, Golda Meir greatly appreciated and trusted him. In the '70s, I was the Mossad attaché in the United States, and Golda would come to the United States about three or four times a year and always talk to me on those visits and I heard only good things about him.
In conclusion, it should be said that Zvi was one of the architects of the Mossad's independent construction, the one who outlined an important part of his path, a commander who did not patronize his subordinates but worked hand in hand with them in the field. May his memory be blessed.
Brought to publication: Assaf Golan
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