Alongside the author's previous "By Way of Deception." This book, also a best seller, contains a depressing and chilling expose of The Mossad, Israel's intelligence service.
Unlike any other 'true espionage account' you might have hitherto read it is, as the saying goes, impossible to put down. Absolutely riveting. Though by the end the question is not 'Who are the good guys?' It's more like ' Who in The Middle East is NOT completely insane ? '
Ostrovsky was a former colonel in the Israeli armed forces before he joined Mossad. No one contends that he was a field officer, well connected and in the know. He was fired after a fracas in Cyprus, in which he contends he was forced to take the fall for his incompetent superiors. This would never have happenned in the Israeli Defense Forces, not without a proper hearing. However The Mossad, as he never tires of telling us, is a law unto itself.
According to the author it has become a 'rival state' comprised of good ole boys answerable only to the Prime Minister--at least in theory. In fact, it answers to no one.
Dissatisfied intelligence officers who have been, rightly or wrongly, given the boot writing scathing memoirs is not news.
However if, say, a CIA operative turned 'liberal' upon termination of employment alleged ONE TENTH of what Ostrovsky alleges, the scandal that would follow dwarf Watergate and Iran/Contra combined.
Among a few:
* The Mossad regards anyone in Israel who believes in peace with the Palestinians, or withdrawal from the occupied territories as little better than a traitor. It has sold arms and provided information to fundamentalist extremist Muslim groups via third parties in order to undermine the stability of Arab States and the credibility of their leaders with The West. Anything to keep the conflict burning.
* The Mossad planned to assasinate president George Bush Sr at the Madrid peace talks in 1991, due to his policy of pressuring Israel to the negotiaing table by freezing their loan guarantees.
A special Kidon (bayonet, i.e; hit men) unit took three Palestinian extremists from Beirut and set them up. The Mossad was to kill the 'perpretators' in the ensuing confusion after they had shot the president. Due to inside info Ostrovsky obtained, he was able to blow the whistle and the plan was cancelled--as were the three Palestinians, at the Nes Ziyyona facitlity, an ABC (atomic, bacteriological, chemical) warfare lab where the author contends top epidemiogical scientists routinely use enemies as human guinea pigs.
* The Mossad, did indeed murder their billionare operative Robert Maxwell, let Jonathan Pollard hang out to dry, and (ready?) assasinated Israeli general Yekutiel Adam a.k.a. "Kuti" because he had been appointed its head and they didn't want an 'outsider' taking over.
Now if all this---and much more---sound like the ravings of a lunatic, he's an extremely meticulous and detailed one.
Still, one wonders if the Mossad is a loose cannon, why Ostrovsky chose to trust anyone in it, after fleeing Israel.
He tells us that after getting sacked he got news that he was about to be made a liason to South Lebanon (as good as a death sentence) and a certain Ephraim---a higher ranking officer saved him by helping him escape to the U.S.
Whereupon Ephraim called in the favor qnd talked him into 'reforming' the organization by doing everything possible to undermmine it, thus bringing 'liberals' like Ephraim to power.
If we're not through the looking glass yet, here we go: The undermining consisted in Victor volunteering his services as an ex-Mossad agent to The British, The KGB, The Jordanians (!) and The Egyptians, among others.
