When Palestinians keep Israelis safe
Just as the Mabhouh affair hurt the Mossad, revelations of Israel's Gaza mole will damage Shin Bet.
By Amos Harel Tags: Shin Bet Israel newsThe damage felt by the Mossad over the release of footage of the hit on Mahmoud al-Mabhouh is now likely to be suffered by the Shin Bet security service with next week's publication of Mosab Hassan Yousef's memoir.
"The Green Prince" was apparently among the highest ranking agents the security service operated among Hamas' military wing in the West Bank, the most murderous terror network ever known in the Palestinian territories.
In his book, and in his interview with Avi Issacharoff (to be published in full Friday), Yousef exposes the methods by which the Shin Bet almost entirely obliterated the network by which hundreds of Israelis were murdered in terrorist attacks between 2000 and 2005.
Whether the Shin Bet learned of the book when Haaretz filed its article to the military censor earlier this week, or whether it knew of it earlier, Israel's internal security service had two options: try to prevent the book's publication or come to terms with it in the hopes of somehow using it to its advantage in the future.
Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin certainly remembers the precedent of Victor Ostrovsky. When in 1990, Ostrovsky, a former Mossad case officer, was preparing to release his memoir in Canada, then-prime minister Yitzhak Shamir and Mossad chief Shabtai Shavit tried to use the court to keep it off bookshelves.
Their efforts had the opposite effect. Not only did the Canadian court refuse to intervene, but the clumsy Israeli reaction seemed to add credibility to the book's accounts, some of them clearly exaggerated, and catapulted Ostrovsky to the international bestseller list.
This time, Shin Bet decided not to comment on the matter. As far as is known, no significant pressure was applied on him to prevent the book's release, or even to prevent Yousef's former handlers from responding.
It's doubtful such efforts would ever have worked. Yousef is an extraordinary person who for years has lived on the edge, having violated his loyalty to his father, a Hamas leader in the West Bank, and the movement and nation in which he was raised. He unflinchingly put his life in danger to save Israeli lives, and both Yousef and his former handlers maintain money was not his primary motive.
Since fleeing the West Bank in 2007, he has burned every possible bridge, starting with his Haaretz interview the following year in which he denounced Hamas as a bloodthirsty band of terrorists and announced he had converted to Christianity. Now he has taken this betrayal a step further, revealing that for over a decade he worked for the Shin Bet.
To the Israeli reader - on the assumption that most of the book's contents are accurate - Yousef is an encouraging figure. As with other reports to emerge in recent years, his collaboration reflects the impressive intelligence coverage Israel has attained over its enemies.
It is common to speak of Israel's aptitude in signal intelligence, particularly the technological achievements of Unit 8200, the central collection unit of Military Intelligence.
But here is a human source who apparently operated for years in the heart of Hamas' operational apparatus, providing invaluable intelligence without being exposed.
Israel's success against Palestinian terrorism, obtained with tremendous effort, has restored the feeling of relative security to citizens' everyday lives.
The case of the "Green Prince" is now proving that this success may be attributed in no small part to Palestinian agents. It's safe to assume that unlike Yousef, the vast majority would prefer to remain anonymous.
Posted by Amos Harel on February 24, 2010
Look for Avi Issacharoff's post on Thursday about his experience interviewing Mosab Hassan Yousef.
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You are right, Judaism is not a religeon of peace. Judaism is the religeon ofsurvival, enlightenment and human values such as freedom in the first place; Judaism is also diagonally opposed to the old religeon of the Molekh, that requires submission and human sacrifice. There you have also the reason why Islam is so afraid of Judaism. Peace is not to be trusted anyway; peace with the Molekh is wrong. Molekh needs to be fought. not turning the other cheek.
Sin beth was threatening to kill the family, an old mob practice. Thats a good reason for treason. But now the Sin beth can sacrifice yousef and blame it on Hamas.
Its a good thing for him he didn't do it to Israel...Mossads arm being so long and all.......P.S...What ever happened to Gerald Bull
Nothing in my book was "clearly exaggerated". It's time Israeli reporters start dealing with facts and not just wishful thinking . Victor Ostrovsky
No religion is a religion of peace, look what the catholics did to jews and moslems from 11th to 16th ceturies in Spain. what they did and still do in Pakistan, and Iran. what the budhists did in the far east in the 10th century etc etc etc
In torah david is not blessed for the wars he waged but for the great nation he founded. torah never blesses the part of his war waging but it is acceptable since he served his nation. as a punishment he cant build the temple... in Kuran as i know wars of mohamed re blessed and glorified but again i dont think neither of the 3 religion glorifies the massacres. Islam teaches peace Judaism too, christianity i dont have much knowledge but i dont think it teaches the war too. judging religions philosophies by its followers is wrong.search for the message they give before judging it. they teach peace but they re not effective and they certainly fail to pass the message to people. cuz priests imams and rabbis fails to pass it. cuz they dont understand it correctly, they abuse it, or they dont believe it. u can judge them but not the religion
Funny timing! Just as Mossad and Israel come under international fire and are on the ropes for their extra-judicial state murder in Dubai and theft of people's passport identities... up pops this old intelligence 'success' story to show them in a good light (to the gullible end of the domestic Israeli audience anyway). Call it coincidence! Or call a spade a spade and recognise it's just a deliberate bit of re-heated hasbara for the masses. Every intelligence service targets the weak, the easily-led, blackmailable, sexually exploitable, greedy and particularly those rejected by their peer group who have an axe to grind. The difference is that other nations don't boast about it or use it for party-political hasbara.
former demonic self (thanks to the herculean efforts of the Shin Bet apparatchiks)... one less excuse to delay the establishment of a Palestinian state.
It only proves that there may be more Palestinians who do not believe in innocent bloodshed and murder of Israelis, i.e. that many such Palestines may not be the 'murdering terrorists' so favoured in judgements by this particular reader, but rather quite 'decent' people respecting the lives of 'innocents': the faultless Jewish Israelis she sees populating her one-sided world. The ones that only murder because they are thought to have special permission from their personal god... and are not accountable to the international laws applicable to all the other lesser mortals on earth.
to tell the Israeli people just how good their security forces are and how they should keep funding them. Before the real fallout of the Dubai assassination befalls Israelis. I presume after Avigdor (the nightclub bouncer) Liebermans little act in Brussels. Whats the betting he has been given the prove he requires of Israeli involvement?
if Palestinians are so good why do you take their homes and kill them. Youssef, I am a Christian and I call you a traitor.
Judaism is not a religion of peace. Just look at Israel, where the majority votes for far-right war mongers and for continuation of the occupation.
Virtually the entire Israeli left has deemed the occupation "criminal", and do so every day in speeches, books, protests etc. There's a difference better that and the son of a Hamas founder providing Israel with actionable intelligence for nearly a decade. The only propaganda effort I see is your attempt to diminish this man's role in Israel's ultimate victory over the second intifada.
Jewish is NOT a religion of peace, the prove is on Dubai nowadays, and we can realize from the ancien Bible: king David, the macabeus, Aaron, Samson... untill David ben Gurion, Dayan, Sharon... all of them truly peacelovers...
thanks to Haaretz exclusive revelations, Mosab Hassan sooner o later will be a death man... everybody knows any israeli is no trustable anyway!!
as a result of this courageous, moral man? You neglected to mention them in your post.
corrupt ,twisted ,pervert ......obaying masters . shin bet cowards work in darkness , they are like vampires who live from sucking blood and can,t walk in sunlight .
Musaab was a disturbed boy from the very beginning. He dreamt of comfortable life and money. He was never really taken seriously by Hamas. They knew he was unstable, disturbed, and unreliable. He might well have been a Shabak agent, but to claim that he prevented suicide bombings and that he was influential and knew much is in my opinion nonsens. Even his father had no knowledge of Izzedin al Kassam. And Hamas' people in Ramallah knew that Musaab was not to be trusted. This is what made him hate the Movement. I think this article is part of the propaganda war between the two sides. A few days ago, there was a story about the grandson of Menachem Begin who called the Israeli occupation "criminal." Things of this nature happen. But it doesn't mean much.
It would be interesting to know how this whole affair will work out. It is not going to sleep .....
the knowledge that israel had a spy in the heart of hamas will benefit israel. if even sons of hamas leadership cannot be trusted, and semingly for ideological reasons, hamas has much to fear.
Clearly understands that Islam is NOT a religion of peace - to some. And they make war. This is the problem. Look at Nasrallah, a small group making war and the majority suffer.