Spies in the Promised Land: Isser Harel and the Israeli Secret Service

by Michael Bar-Zohar

Overview

For 15 years the name of Isser Harel, the man in charge of all the intelligence branches of Israel, was top secret in Israel. Even when he resigned from office in March 1963 his name and picture remained undisclosed. Only in 1965, when he was appointed special adviser on intelligence and security to Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, were his name and picture revealed. But most of his past feats were still kept secret, even when stories about underground activities, the capture of a spy, or a mission abroad were disclosed. Alan Dulles, head of the CIA, declared at the time, "the Israeli services are the best in the world". For what operations did the Israeli services deserve such credit? What was their modus operandi? How had they been established and developed? How did they conceive rules of ethics and morality? These questions and many more are answered in this book, which reveals the life story and operations of Isser Harel, whom David Ben-Gurion called "the guardian of Israel's secrets and honor".

Product Details

BN ID:	2940186075813
Publisher:	Plunkett Lake Press
Publication date:	02/13/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	714 KB

About the Author

Born in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1938, Michael Bar-Zohar immigrated to Israel in 1948 and grew up in a poor neighborhood in Jaffa. He served in Air Force Intelligence and in the Paratroopers and fought in four of Israel’s wars, the 1956 Sinai Campaign, the 1967 Six-Day War, the 1973 Yom Kippur War (in a commando that established a bridgehead across the Suez Canal) and the 1982 Lebanon War. After the Six Day War, Bar-Zohar was appointed spokesman and media adviser to his longtime friend, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, whose Rafi party Bar-Zohar had joined in 1965.

Bar-Zohar studied economics and international relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and earned his MA and PhD in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Paris, France. He was a professor at Haifa University and Emory University in Atlanta. As a journalist, Bar-Zohar was science editor at Davar, a weekly newspaper in 1958-59, and he wrote for LaMerhav between 1960 and 1964.

Bar-Zohar served two terms in the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, on the Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, and as Chairman of the Education, Culture and Sports committee. He represented Israel at the Council of Europe and served as President of the France-Israel friendship league.

As a working historian and author, Bar-Zohar has published many non-fiction books, including Spies in the Promised Land and a biography of Shimon Peres. As official biographer of David Ben-Gurion, he wrote the screenplay for the full-length documentary film “Ben-Gurion Remembers,” which features Ben-Gurion telling his life story in the company of his friends. He also wrote the screenplays for a documentary based on his book Beyond Hitler’s Grasp (2000) and for a feature film, Tuvianski (2015). Among Bar-Zohar’s several novels, The Enigma was later made into a movie starring Martin Sheen, Sam Neil and Derek Jacobi.

Bar-Zohar has won many honors, including the Ben-Gurion award, Israel’s Prime Minister’s prize for literature, the Israel Sokolov award, Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (France), Order of Madara and Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Sofia (Bulgaria).