Kfar Sava

*The cast: Dalia (79) and Galil (80), married for 57 years ("in November").

*The home: A 2.5-room apartment ("the biggest") in Beit Gil-Paz, an assisted living facility in Kfar Sava.

*The building: Red-roofed, stone-covered, built by former members of the air force, but open to the general public, with lawn, marble lobby, silent corridors, minimalist decoration and a faint aroma of chicken soup.

*The price: $250,000 upon entry (a deposit, which loses a third of its value in 10 years, and a monthly payment of NIS 7,000. They have lived here for three years and are satisfied.

*Other services: Housecleaning (once a week), electricity, water, payment of municipal tax, close medical supervision (a nurse will come if necessary to the apartment), gym, Feldenkrais, anti-osteoporosis exercise, enrichment groups, pool and cultural activities.

*Cultural activities: Four lectures a week, one film, a Saturday evening concert ("chamber music") and a ceremony welcoming the Sabbath on Friday evenings, with a performing artist ("Last week Zadok Savir suddenly showed up here").

*Food: NIS 37 for lunch ("five dishes") in the adjacent restaurant ("with waiters"). Dalia and Galil are not among its clients: They make a habit of preparing their meals in their apartment.

*The apartment: Couldn't be tidier. Every item seems to have been polished and set in its place with maximum care. Along with the ornately carved dressers, the small stacked coffee tables and the black leather sofas, the apartment is filled with wooden statuettes from Southeast Asia poised next to porcelain vases painted with blue dragons. On the walls is Israeli art, including prints and aquarelles by Bergner and Kossonogi. A peek at the bedroom shelves reveals Amos Oz; proceeding, we reach the study (Galil's).

*The study: Well organized and equipped, including a desk, computer, sofa and a library that contains, among other items, the complete works of Sholem Aleichem and of S.Y. Agnon, plus all the volumes of the "History of the Haganah" (the precursor of the Israel Defense Forces), and Yossi Melman's "The Imperfect Spies." On the shelf, next to photos of the grandchildren, is a shield.

*The shield: Bears the text "Without stratagems a nation shall fall." Awarded to Galil Elyashiv (1991) in appreciation for his years of devoted service. Signed by S. Shavit (former chief of the Mossad espionage agency). Back to the living room.

*Occupations and livelihoods: Galil is a Mossad pensioner. At present he spends three days a week documenting episodes from the organization's history on a volunteer basis. He drives back and forth in his Mazda 3. Dalia, a pensioner and confidante, is responsible for all the rest of the household affairs, including the finances.

*Refreshments: We take a chocolate wafer (from a gilded box).

*Galil's bio: Born in 1926 in Rishon Letzion to parents who arrived from Lithuania a year earlier. His father was a freelance house painter, his mother a housewife. Theirs was a General Zionist home. In his youth, he attended school with Shmuel Rosen, the radio quiz master, whose father, Dr. Leo Rosenblitt, was the town's pediatrician ("They had a radio in the house"). He completed his high-school studies at age 16, was recruited into the Haganah, did a squad commanders' course and a platoon commanders' course ("with Shaikeh Gavish," later GOC Southern Command), did not join the Palmah commandos ("Because my father was not in the Mapai party and I was in Young Maccabi"), served in the Field Corps, and at the age of 18, when he was already a company commander, was sent to a course in Shai (the Haganah's intelligence unit). He has been in the profession ever since.

*Career: Galil studied Arabic in 1946, served as an intelligence officer in the Rehovot-Negba sector (under the command of Binyamin Gibli), specialized in getting to know the local Arabs ("I drew up village files"), joined the Givati infantry brigade as an intelligence officer and later the 8th Brigade under the legendary Yitzhak Sadeh, in which he served until the end of the 1948 war.

*The War of Independence: "[The Arabs] were certain they would return. Their leaders promised them [they would] and said, 'First, leave.'" Galil is convinced that despite everything, the Arabs will ultimately accept Israel's existence. He admits that they have changed, however: "In those days I would not have been able to find anyone who would be a suicide bomber."

*Bio (cont.): Served in the career army in intelligence, was loaned to the Mossad and in 1958 was sent for two years to Algeria and Morocco ("I saw a wonderful Jewry there"). He returned with an important conclusion: "If the French had been here instead of the British, we would not have had a state." They would have done away with us, he adds. After leaving the IDF (1963), he got a job in the Finance Ministry (deputy director of the Property Tax department), was bored ("They worked there until 2 P.M."), completed his high-school matriculation certificate, went back to the Mossad (1970) and was sent to Morocco.

*Morocco: Based in Rabat, he helped foil the coup attempt engineered by then defense minister Mohammed Oufkir against King Hassan II ("In effect I directed their intelligence"). He then spent time in several African countries ("I cannot divulge which of them") and afterward was an unofficial ambassador in Southeast Asia (Dalia: "I suffered terribly there; we were isolated and spoke only English"). Following several staff positions in Israel, he concluded his state career as the Mossad representative in Greece.

*Secrets: "There is nothing I didn't tell Dalia." That was allowed, he says.

*Dalia's bio: Born in Gedera in 1928, a granddaughter of Eliahu Sverdlov, one of the seven members of the pioneering Bilu group who founded the village in 1882. Her father Yigal owned orchards and vineyards; her mother, Hanna, was a housewife and "volunteer." After attending elementary school in Gedera she went to high school in Tel Aviv, living there from the age of 13 and a half in a rented room with a girlfriend. She also remembers another student from that time.

*The other student: Ariel Sharon. Arik, as they called him, was, she recalls, a plump boy, a good student, not especially a hunk, but very prominent ("a macher"). She remembers that he "always" wore a blue shirt of the Hanoar Haoved (Working Youth) movement and arrived by bus from his home in Kfar Malal at the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station, from which he would walk to school. Parties? Dalia doesn't recall any ("I went home every Friday").

*Bio (cont.): In 11th grade she transferred to Levinsky Teachers College ("I wanted a profession") and after graduating as a kindergarten teacher (1946), she worked in Tiberias. A year later she joined the Haganah, serving as a radio operator in Gedera, and when the 53rd Battalion of the Givati Brigade arrived in the village she met its intelligence officer for the first time, though they didn't really have a chance to talk. She and Galil would never have become a couple had it not been for one day, "during the first truce," when she was at the bus station in Tel Aviv ("I was living in Holon at the time"), waiting for the No. 4 bus.

*The meeting: Summer 1948. He stopped next to her in an open jeep, she gazed at him with wonder, he asked, "Do you remember [that we met]?" and she replied, "I remember." They have been together ever since.

*The wedding: November 1949, Gedera ("The whole town came to the community hall"). The artistic part of the event (piano) was provided by a daughter of friends, Naomi Polani ("She was a star then"). They honeymooned in Haifa, returning two days later, and lived in Ramat Gan and Givatayim, from where they moved (1986) to Kochav Yair ("We spent 17 enjoyable years there"), until entering their present abode.

*Children: Nitzan (54) and Guy (49), both married. They have five granddaughters, one grandson and one great-grandson.

*Decision to move: "We had a large house, on a lot of 700 square meters, the children had left, friends pressured us and I was fed up with working in the garden" (Galil).

*Parenthood vs. career: "I wasn't around much as a father," Galil says. "There was a mother who took my place." Dalia: "I knew he was doing important work."

*Daily routine: Galil gets up about 7; Dalia a half-hour later. He sets the table, she serves granola, he drinks black ("mud") coffee, she partakes of granulated instant coffee, they both listen to Israel Radio's morning current events show, anchored by Aryeh Golan ("He's terrific") and read Haaretz ("I read TheMarker from first to last page," Dalia says). As part of her financial responsibilities she makes "solid" investments ("short-term debt certificates at 5.5 percent a year"). At 8:15 she leaves for exercise (five times a week), he for his volunteer work in the Mossad.

*Lunch: "I'm no great cook," Dalia admits. If Galil is home, they eat together. She makes boiled chicken and vegetables (frozen). She then reads (she recommends "The Kite Runner"), he surfs the Internet (to which he was introduced by his grandson Rom). There is no Schlaffstunde. At about 5 they both go out, either to an enrichment group, a lecture, bridge or the gym (Galil: "Half an hour on the treadmill at 4.8 KPH, up to 15 degrees [incline]"). Supper is at 7 (salad and omelet); Dalia makes the meal, Galil does the dishes ("We gave the dishwasher to a granddaughter"). At the same time they watch "London and Kirshenbaum," the Channel 10 current events program. They stick to the Channel 1 news; Galil can't stand Channel 2 because of the commercials ("They depress me"). Lights out at 11 P.M.

*Romance: "For three years we haven't budged from one another," Dalia says. "That adds." Galil: "The truth is I was afraid of the pressure of being together, but that didn't become a problem." They admit that they sometimes "get angry over trifles," but then "I try and be conciliatory" (Dalia).

*God: "We're not into that" - Galil. They know death will come ("We drew up wills long ago"). The only disadvantage of assisted living, Galil notes, is that "you see the decline in others in a concentrated form."

*The recent war: "The worst performance was by the media" (Galil). He's optimistic about the outcome.

*Happiness quotient (scale of 1-10): 9 (both of them). "Nothing is perfect," Galil says.