(JTA) — An Iranian nuclear scientist was smuggled out of the country and into the United Kingdom in a joint operation involving the Mossad, the CIA and MI6, England’s intelligence service. After the MI6 and CIA questioned the scientist about Iran’s nuclear program and its future plans, he was… Read more »
Tagged Mossad
Netflix film ‘The Angel’ spotlights Egyptian spy who helped Israel

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — In 1993, filmmaker Ariel Vromen was part of an Israeli air force rescue unit sent in to Lebanon to evacuate both Jewish and Arab soldiers wounded during a battle. During the fighting, two of Vromen’s closest friends died in front of his eyes. For several months… Read more »
Ben Kingsley carried a photo of Elie Wiesel with him while filming ‘Operation Finale’

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Ask Ben Kingsley about why he was keen to portray Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann in the new film “Operation Finale” and he describes the traumatic childhood incident in which he first learned about the Holocaust. The 74-year-old British actor was then in grammar school and… Read more »
Israel is suspected again of assassinating an enemy’s rocket scientist. Do these killings pay off?

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Aziz Asbar was a leading Syrian rocket scientist, working with Hezbollah and Iran to develop systems that could reach deep inside Israel. Now he’s dead, blown up in a car. The natural inclination in the Middle East and even farther afield is to blame the Mossad,… Read more »
Ex-Israeli generals target Netanyahu’s security image

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Against a soundtrack of dramatic music, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lists his government’s security accomplishments, declaring over the shouts of opposition lawmakers that his Likud Party has stopped terrorists, stood up to Iran and secured Israel’s borders. Released Wednesday, the video is the latest… Read more »
The wisdom of a former Shin Bet Chief
Washington – In the past week, I had the honor of spending several days with Ami Ayalon, a decorated Israeli war hero and former commander of the Israeli navy and head of the Shin Bet security service from 1995 to 2000. Ayalon was in the United States to address… Read more »
Prisoner X affair raises charges of dual loyalty for Australian Jews

SYDNEY (JTA) – As more details have seeped out about the mysterious life and death of Israel’s Prisoner X — identified last week by an Australian TV program as Ben Zygier — the wall of silence surrounding those who knew him has begun to show some cracks. On Tuesday,… Read more »
More details trickle out about Israel’s Prisoner X, aka Ben Zygier, an Australian Jew
SYDNEY (JTA) — More information has begun to trickle out about the mysterious man known as Prisoner X who hanged himself in Israel’s Ayalon Prison in 2010. The Australian Broadcasting Corp.’s “Foreign Correspondent” program made headlines worldwide when it reported this week that the prisoner, whose identity was so… Read more »
Shamir remembered for saying little, staying strong

WASHINGTON (JTA) — When Yitzhak Shamir was Israel’s prime minister, he liked to point American visitors to a gift he received when he retired as director of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service. It was a depiction of the famed three monkeys: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no… Read more »
Are Netanyahu and Barak bluffing on Iran, or are they already committed to war?

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Has Israel’s game of chicken with Iran jumped the shark? Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak in recent months have been more explicit than ever about the likelihood of an Israeli strike on Iran to keep it from obtaining nuclear weapons capability.… Read more »
‘The Debt,’ remake of an Israeli Mossad thriller, far surpasses the original

A taut, beautifully crafted thriller with an Israeli accent, “The Debt” is easily and best appreciated as edge-of-your-seat entertainment. At the same time, though, the English-language remake of the 2007 Israeli film “Ha-Hov” echoes a question raised far more egregiously by “Inglourious Basterds” but otherwise rarely… Read more »