“Shin Bet will investigate itself.”
“That’s ridiculous!” Tanya explored his poker face. “Are you teasing me?”
He shook his head.
“But they’ve gone rogue! There must be an external investigation!”
“Not going to happen. Peres wants this whole affair wrapped up quickly. We must concentrate on healing the nation, and so on.” The chief of Mossad patted the cast on her arm. “We have enough external enemies, don’t we?”
“No! I won’t go along with this!”
“Don’t make it personal.”
“But they’re criminals!”
“Misguided men, even incompetent, but with good intentions.” The chief pulled out a piece of paper. “Last night, shortly after chairing his first cabinet meeting, the interim prime minister signed this order. I flew here especially to deliver it to you.”
“What is it?” She reached across her broken body with the left hand, the IV lines swaying with it. “An order to shut up and play dead?”
“Something like that.”
Tanya looked at the sheet of paper. It bore the menorah emblem at the top and the letterhead: State of Israel – Office of the Prime Minister
Above a scribbled signature, the page carried a single sentence: By authority granted to me under a unanimous resolution of the Government of Israel, I hereby appoint Tanya Galinski as Chief of Mossad, effective immediately.
THE END
Author’s Note
While the characters populating this novel are fictional, the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on November 4, 1995 is a historic fact, and so are the political figures, public events, and the social unrest portrayed in this story.
In an effort to remain true to the historic record, I relied on newspaper and magazine articles, several books, the unclassified sections of the Shamgar Commission Report, and available video footage of the violent political rallies in Israel in the months preceding the assassination and of the actual shooting, which was captured by a lone cameraman.
It is now a matter of public record that the real-life, right-wing militant group EYAL played an active role in events leading up to the assassination. EYAL resembles the fictional ILOT group described here.
Yigal Amir, the law student who shot Rabin, was a member of EYAL. He told his interrogators: “I would not have done what I did if not for my religious duty to defend the people of Israel, based on the law of
Rodef/Moser
, which applied to Rabin, as was decreed by many rabbis.” He was convicted of murder by an Israeli court and is serving a life sentence. He has since married and become a father.
The Israeli attorney general also indicted a Shin Bet agent who, according to the Shamgar Commission and various news reports, was a mole inside the Israeli right-wing activists and the leader of EYAL. He was fully aware of Amir’s assassination plans. His trial (for allegedly failing to report Amir’s concrete plans to Shin Bet) was postponed repeatedly, eventually resulting in an acquittal.
Shortly after the investigative commission chaired by retired Supreme Court President Meir Shamgar submitted its report to the Israeli government, the chief of Shin Bet resigned. No explanation was given, and the report remains largely classified.
The historic record leaves many questions unanswered. Why had Shin Bet taken no action despite having Amir identified as an extremist by Shin Bet’s own informant inside EYAL? Why did Shin Bet allow Amir to hang out in the secure sterile area behind the stage while Rabin was departing the rally? Why did Shin Bet bodyguards violate routine protocol by leaving Rabin’s back exposed to an easy shot just at the moment they passed by Amir? And why did a bodyguard yell “They’re blanks! Blanks!” immediately after the shooting, preventing Amir’s elimination by Rabin’s guards?
In a
New York Times
piece, published days after the assassination, Likud leader Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu wrote that “
the most outrageous charge is that we are guilty because we share with the assassin the idea of opposing the Oslo agreements. This is McCarthyism at its purest.”
Less than a year later, Netanyahu won the general elections, beating Shimon Peres, who had inherited the premiership from Rabin. In one of its first acts, the Likud government fulfilled Israel’s commitment under Oslo to hand over control of Hebron, another West Bank city (and the resting place of the Jewish patriarchs), to Arafat’s Palestinian Authority.
Did the assassin achieve his goal of derailing the Oslo peace process? As always, history is prone to conflicting interpretations. But the fact is that the Oslo process followed Rabin to the grave as disillusionment grew deeper with each deadly terror attack on Israeli civilians. Nevertheless, when Israelis elected Rabin’s protégé Ehud Barak, who in 2000 offered Arafat at Camp David practically all of the Palestinians’ territorial and political demands, Arafat declined and incited another intifada. And when Arafat died in 2004, he left a divided Palestinian population and a Mideast conflict dominated by Iranian-sponsored Hamas, Hezbollah, and myriad other militia groups sworn to the destruction of the Jewish state.
Against this grim reality, it is worthwhile to recall the hopeful 1993 White House ceremony for the signing of the first Oslo Accord, where Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said: “We, like you, are people, people who want to build a home, to plant a tree, to love, to live side-by-side with you in dignity. We are, today, giving peace a chance.” Alas, like other Mideast leaders who gave peace a chance, Yitzhak Rabin paid with his life.
Acknowledgments
My research has benefited from the works of many scholars and biographers, particularly those who participated in the political and military events surrounding the Oslo Accords, Palestinian terrorism, and the Rabin assassination. For readers interested in further exploration, a list of my primary bibliographical sources appears next.
In writing this book I relied on the warm support of family members and close friends, whose thoughtful input, critical comments and enthusiastic encouragement were instrumental and invaluable to this work. Special thanks to editor Renee Johnson, as well as the professional staff at CreateSpace.
*
Bibliography
Ross, Dennis.
The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace.
New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2004.
Indyk, Martin.
Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East.
New York: Simon & Shuster, 2009.
Gold, Dore.
The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City.
Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 2007.
Beilin, Yossi.
Touching Peace.
Tel Aviv: Miskal – Yedioth Ahronoth, 1997 (Hebrew ed.).
Rabin, Yitzhak.
The Rabin Memoirs
. New York: Random House, 1979.
Harris, Bill (Director).
Yitzhak Rabin – Biography
. New York: A&E Television, 1995 (VHS).
Dallas, Ronald.
King Hussein – A Life on the Edge.
New York: Fromm Int’l, 1999.
Wallach, Janet & Wallach, John.
Arafat – In the Eye of the Beholder.
Secaucus, NJ: Birch Lane Press, 1997.
Lewis, Bernard.
The Crisis of Islam – Holy War and Unholy Terror.
New York: Modern Library, 2003.
Dawidowicz, Lucy S.
The War Against the Jews – 1933-1945.
New York: Bantam, 1986.
Raviv, Dan, and Melman, Yossi.
Every Spy A Prince – The Complete History of Israel’s Intelligence Community
. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990.
Raviv, Dan, and Melman, Yossi.
The Spies: Israel’s Counter-Espionage Wars.
Tel Aviv: Miskal – Yedioth Ahronoth, 2002 (Hebrew ed.).
Katz, Samuel M.
Soldier Spies – Israeli Military Intelligence.
Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1992.
Gutman, Yechiel.
A Storm in the G.S.S. (Shin Bet).
Tel Aviv: Yediot Ahronoth, 1995 (Hebrew ed.).
Netanyahu, Benjamin.
Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorists.
New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2001.
Carroll, James.
Constantine’s Sword – The Church and the Jews – A History.
New York, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001.