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Inside the Israeli Secret Service
Doron Geller
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Lecture 5:
Israel Beer
Israel Beer played a leading role in the early years of the State of
Israel as a close confidante of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion
(Prime Minister from 1948-53 and 1955-63) and as an acknowledged
expert on military affairs. He lectured frequently to colleagues and
academics and had a leading position at the Ministry of Defense. He
had regular access to Ben-Gurion's private diaries in order to write
an officially sanctioned history of Israel's War of Independence.
He had an impressive military background fighting with the
International Brigade in the Spanish Civil war in the 1930's. At that
point, he said, he was a communist. He claimed to have undergone a
conversion to Zionism in 1938, and thereafter made his way to
Palestine. He joined the Haganah and became a distinguished member of
that underground establishment. "With his sharply analytical mind and
academic military training he rose quickly i
n rank, eventually becoming a colonel, and at the end of the War of Independence he
was chosen to be head of the planning and operations department at army headquarters."
In 1950 he left the army for politics, but maintained his contacts in the military
world. Because of his standing and the high esteem in which Ben-Gurion held him, he
was able to attend "top-secret staff meetings and had
access to whatever information he asked for. Army plans, blue-prints, defense
documents of the highest importance all passed through his hands."
He was able to achieve the prominence he did because he managed to fool everyone about
his background, including the Prime Minister himself. That is, he managed to fool
almost everyone.-- except for the sharp-eyed Isser H
arel, head of the Mossad and Shin Bet from 1952-63.
Beer first attracted the attention of Isser Harel in the 1950's, when Beer was part of
the Israel Communist Party, Mapam. This party was under close surveillance by the
Mossad - which was mainly loyal to the Ben-Gurion do
minated Mapai party.
In 1953 Mapam split, and some of its former members formed a new party further left
called Maki. But Beer moved to the right and joined Mapai - Ben-Gurion's party. Beer
began writing for the newspaper associated with the
party, Davar. Harel saw this as political opportunism. He put Beer under limited
surveillance, although he kept his suspicions to himself.
Moshe Sharett became Prime Minister of Israel in 1953, and remained so until 1955,
when Ben-Gurion reasserted control of the government. Sharrett "admired Beer's ability
to combine military expertise with good writing." T
he IDF (Israel Defense Forces) Chief of Staff at the time, Moshe Dayan, strongly
disliked Beer but that didn't stop Beer from entering Ben-Gurion's good graces with
his return to office in 1955. Ben-Gurion became Defense
Minister at the same time, following the Lavon Affair. Beer enjoyed almost unlimited
access to Ben-Gurion and to classified IDF archives, and was given a "secretary and an
office" in the Defense Ministry.
Mounting tensions on the Egyptian-Israeli border and the Czech-Egyptian arms deal of
1955-56 led to the Israeli attack and conquest of the Sinai in October 1956. At the
time Harel tried to sound out Beer's opinion on thes
e issues. Harel wrote later; "The excuse for our conversation was to hear Beer's views
on Soviet penetration in the Middle East, but its real intention was to gauge his
loyalty�I remained convinced that Beer had not under
gone real political and ideological change and that he was a grave security risk." As
war approached, Beer "was one of several people who were specifically warned to keep
away from foreign agents, especially Russians." Be
er indeed did report on a meeting he had with a Soviet representative in Israel. Harel
kept quiet. But in 1957 he was behind the Shin Bet's decision to break into Beer's Tel
Aviv apartment in search of evidence that might
incriminate Israel Beer. They found nothing.
Beer's prestige and ability to develop ties and gain the respect of men of influence
in the Israeli political/military establishment continued to grow. He began writing
for the newspaper Haaretz. In 1959 he was appointed
"to the chair of military history at Tel Aviv University." Beer became close to Shimon
Peres, who in the late 1950's was an ambitious and extremely influential deputy
minister of defense. Beer "began to go on regular visi
ts to West Germany, touring NATO bases there." The Austrian-born Beer spoke German
fluently, and that plus his academic reputation "and close ties with the senior
echelons of the defence establishment in Tel Aviv made him
an honoured guest, and he was received in Bonn by the defence minister, Franz-Josef
Strauss, the key figure in the evolving relationship between the two countries."
At the end of 1957 members of the non-Mapai parties got news of the planned trip to
Bonn by Moshe Dayan and Shimon Peres, who were trying to buy two submarines from the
Germans. The news was leaked to the press. "Beer was
an obvious suspect." There was a public outcry, and Harel's suspicions intensified.
In mid 1958 Beer requested to meet the head of West Germany's Intelligence Service
(the BND), Richard Gehlen.
Gehlen had an interesting past - one that may have even made him anathema to Israel.
He had been Hitler's espionage chief on the eastern front. Things had changed after
the war, when "his semi-private organization was tak
en over by the OSS and then financed and run by the newly-founded CIA, until it became
the official West German external intelligence service, the BND, in 1956." Gehlen
formed a close relationship with CIA chief Allen Dul
les, who asked Gehlen to work to improve the Egyptian secret service. At the same time
Gehlen felt that Germany "had to do what (it) could to contribute to the survival of
Israel."
After the Sinai Campaign of 1956, Gehlen wrote that West Germany "began to take a more
professional interest in the Israelis. We gave them expert advice on the development
of their small but powerful secret service; we ma
de facilities available to them and (helped) them in placing key agents in the Arab
countries, especially since Nasser was becoming increasingly involved with Moscow, and
we recognized that Israel was as much an outpost o
f the free world as West Berlin."
Israel Beer finally met Richard Gehlen in May 1960. Harel had been abroad for much of
the first half of the year preparing for the Eichmann kidnapping in Argentina, so he
hadn't had time to keep tabs on Israel Beer. When
he returned, however, he was angry. He had explicitly forbidden Beer's repeated
requests to meet Gehlen.
One day in the autumn of 1960 Harel summoned Beer to his office. He demanded an answer
as to why Beer had visited Gehlen. Harel was convinced that "only a KGB agent would
want to try so hard to meet the legendary German s
pymaster." Moreover, Harel was also "annoyed by Beer's efforts to convince the Germans
of his own importance and present himself as an official conduit of the policy-makers
in Tel Aviv." According to Harel, the Mossad "ha
d only limited contact with the BND at the time. Gehlen wanted more."
Beer had also been leading a more extravagant lifestyle than the puritanical Harel,
who already suspected Beer, was willing to tolerate. Beer was pursuing women much
younger than himself - and succeeding. He had been beat
en up by the jealous young husband of Ora Zehavi, who had had an affair with the
balding professor. Beer explained his injuries to his colleagues at the Defense
Ministry as a result of a car accident.
Harel's ire was raised, and he told Beer "'I think the Prime Minister is naive about
you.'" Harel then went to see Ben-Gurion and expressed his suspicions about Beer to
him. Harel had done so before but Ben-Gurion had ign
ored the criticism. It seemed Beer was safely ensconced in his position in the inner
circle of the Prime Minister's entourage.
Harel was worried about Beer, however, and returned to tell Ben-Gurion his concerns
about him. Harel reported: "Beer has been gathering military information which is of
no concern to him. He had been visiting communist ci
ties on his trips through Europe. He has been too friendly with the Russian diplomats
serving in Israel. He meets them frequently." He went on to tell Ben-Gurion about
Beer's social life, and mentioned that in addition to
seeing lady friends and buying them expensive clothes, he was on bad terms with his
wife and was drinking heavily. Harel asserted that Beer was "undergoing some kind of
strain - the sort of strain which an agent leading
a double life suffers from."
Ben-Gurion was unmoved. But that didn't faze Isser Harel. He only increased his
surveillance of Beer and his inquiries into Beer's past.
On the night of March 28, 1961, Israel Beer left his Tel-Aviv apartment and made his
way to a small cafe nearby with a briefcase in his hand. He sat there silently,
sipping a cognac, ignoring the owner's attempt to strike
up a conversation with him in the nearly deserted cafe.
About five minutes later another man walked into the cafe. They didn't speak. A few
moments later, the second customer walked out with the briefcase.
Beer walked home to his address at 67 Brandeis Street. He carried nothing. He entered
his home and waited. At midnight a car came driving down the street, parked, and a man
made his way upstairs. He had the briefcase Beer
had given him in the cafe.
Soon after Isser Harel's telephone rang. He picked up the phone immediately. It was
the voice of a top agent; "'Our man has just seen the Russian contact for a second
time this evening. They met in a small cafe you know a
bout. Our man had a briefcase with him which he handed over to the contact, and they
parted�I followed our man home, I am outside the place now. The Russian has just
walked in with the same briefcase ho took in the cafe.
He is inside with the money now.'"
Harel decided to make a move on Israel Beer then. He obtained a search warrant, and
insisted that his agents wait until the Russian diplomat left before making a move.
Then Isser Harel called David Ben-Gurion. "Isser said
simply: 'I am acting against Israel Beer tonight.' Ben-Gurion hesitated only a
moment. The he said: 'Do your duty.'"
Israel Beer sat in his home at Brandeis Street in Tel Aviv. At 2:30 a.m. there was a
knock on the door. Beer had not time to hide the briefcase before the door came
crashing down. The officers wasted no time: "'You are un
der arrest. We have a search warrant.'"
Whatever doubts the arresting officers may have had about Beer's identity "were
quickly dispelled when the senior officer opened the briefcase that was lying on the
table near Beer. Inside the briefcase he saw a large num
ber of top-secret documents, including a detailed list of Israel's major armaments
factories." One source claims that parts of Ben- Gurion's diary that were in Beer's
hands at the time were never recovered.
Beer was taken into custody and the Prime Minister was informed of what had
transpired. A man he had trusted with his innermost secrets had been found to have
deceived him. "'I have been surrounded by lies,'" he responded
when told the news of Beer's arrest.
For the first few days of his interrogation, Beer admitted nothing. He repeated his
old story that he had been born in Vienna in 1912, he had studied at the University if
Vienna, had taken part in street battles against t
he Nazis in 1934, and had attended a famous Austrian military academy for training. He
became an officer, he said, in the Austrian Schutzbund. He claimed to have taken part
in the Spanish Civil War fighting for the Intern
ational brigade. He claimed to have left Spain in 1938, and soon came under the
influence of Zionism- which led him to Palestine.
After four days of interrogation Isser Harel paid Beer a visit. Beer had not been
cooperative. Harel planned to do something about that. "He looked Beer in the face,
just as he had done at their first meeting so many mont
hs before. In a calm but unyielding tone of voice he said to him: 'I know you are a
Soviet agent. Tell me the truth. If you are cooperative you will make it easier on
everyone, including yourself. Tell me your story.'" Be
er proceeded to repeat his oft-used story again. "When he was finished Isser calmly
told him: 'You are a liar.'
'We can find no trace of your parents in Austria. If they were typical Jewish parents,
as you make them out to be, then why aren't you circumcised?'
'We have checked all the records in Austria. You never fought on the barricades. You
never received a doctorate, as you claim you did, nor did you ever attend the
university. You did not go to the military academy because
Jews were not allowed to at the time. They have checked their lists for us and your
name is not there. The Schutzbund has no record of your membership either.'
'We have gone through the records of the international Brigade and your name is not
there. You never fought in Spain�'
'Now tell me: who are you? We want the truth.'"
The Mossad had obviously found him out. He told a full account of his activities. But
not everything was cleared up. "Some entries in Beer's personal diary contained three
or four Xs, with a total number of Xs appearing a
t the end of every month. Harel was convinced that the entries were a coded summary
relating to meetings with his KGB controllers. Beer insisted to his interrogators -
who were privately impressed by his worldly manner an
d his success with women - that the Xs were a register of his sexual accomplishments."
Mrs. Zehavi had to admit that Beer's version of his liaison with her was true, despite
the embarrassment.
It turned out that during the period leading up to the Sinai Campaign of 1956, when
France was supplying Israel with arms, Beer had been passing details of the deal to
the Soviets. He also reported Israel's arms purchasin
g activities from Germany.
Harel discovered that Beer had first met the Soviet diplomat he had given the
briefcase to in 1957, and had regularly visited Soviet bloc embassies in Israel and
abroad.
Beer's trial began in June 1961. It was mostly a closed affair. Many of the secrets
learned from Beer were never revealed to the public. "It is known, however, that he
gave the Russians secret army plans relating to battl
e tactics and lists of secret military installations, in addition to information about
Israel's foreign arms suppliers." Beer defended what he had done on patriotic grounds
at his trial. "'I felt I had to play a part in s
aving Israel from falling into the hands of the western powers�My belief is that
Israel should be allied to the Communist countries. I never betrayed Israel. I was
trying to save my country."
His arguments didn't impress the judges, and he was sentenced to ten years in prison.
This was raised to 15 years soon after. He died in prison in 1966. His book Israel's
Security: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow was publi
shed after his death. It "was deemed by historians of the war of independence to
contain many original ideas and penetrating insights into the military and diplomatic
realities of the period."
Israel Beer never revealed his true identity, nor did he ever admit to have worked for
the KGB. But it may well have been that the Soviets waited almost 20 years before
sending their man into action. He transferred a lot
of information to the Soviets regarding Israel's military and political positions
during the time he worked for the Haganah and later, in the Israeli military and
political establishments. Yet even now we don't know who I
srael Beer really was. It is fortunate that Israel had a Mossad chief like Isser
Harel, who was willing to bet on his "hunches" even when those more powerful than
himself never suspected Israel Beer of a thing.
Bibliography
Ian Black and Benny Morris - Israel's Secret Wars: A History of Israel's Intelligence
Services
Dennis Eisenberg, Uri Dan, Eli Landau - The Mossad: Inside Stories
Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman - Every Spy a Prince - The Complete History of Israel's
Intelligence Services
[Week 1] [Week 2] [Week3] [Week 4] [Week 5] [Week 6]
[Week 7] [Week 8] [Week 9] [Week 10] [Week 11] [Week 12]
[Juice Index] [Homepage]
The Department for Jewish Zionist Education
The Pedagogic Center
Director: Dr. Motti Friedman
Web Site Manager: Esther Carciente
Updated:
14/4/1999
Created: 29/04/99 Updated: 22/08/1999
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