Tag Archives: spy

Jew of the Week: Rafi Eitan

The Spy Who Caught Eichmann And Obtained Israel’s Uranium

Rafi Eitan

Rafael Eitan (1926-2019) was born in a kibbutz to Jewish-Russian immigrants that settled in the Holy Land three years earlier. He studied at an agricultural school, as well as at the London School of Economics. His first foray into the military came at just age 12 when he joined the Haganah to defend his kibbutz from Arab attacks. Upon graduating from high school, Eitan was promoted to the Palmach, the Haganah’s special forces. He was part of a team that worked tirelessly to bring Jewish refugees and Holocaust survivors to Israel. In 1946, he participated in the raid on the Atlit detention centre, where the British held many “illegal” Jewish immigrants. In one famous mission, Eitan was tasked with destroying the British radar system on Mount Carmel, which they used to track ships carrying Jews. Eitan reached the radar undetected by climbing through sewer systems (earning him the nickname “Rafi the Stinker”) and successfully blew it up. He was later injured in a mine explosion and lost most of his hearing. Eitan was further wounded in Israel’s Independence War. Following this, he became an intelligence officer, first for Shin Bet, and then for Mossad. During this time, he planned, coordinated, and perfectly executed Operation Finale, the mission to capture Adolf Eichmann, then hiding in Argentina. Following this, Eitan was a secret agent in Europe, where his team captured weapons shipments from Germany to Egypt. In what is certainly his most infamous mission, Eitan visited the US Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation in 1968 disguised as a chemist. Shortly after, it was found that the lab was missing as much as 272 kilograms of highly enriched uranium. Despite many investigations, no evidence was found, and no charges could be laid, though many believe that Eitan secured the uranium for Israel’s nuclear program. (The incident is referred to as the “Apollo Affair”.) Eitan retired in 1972 and started a business raising tropical fish. He was asked by the Israeli government to return to work in 1978 to head a counter-terrorism group. During this time he helped plan Operation Opera in which Israel destroyed Saddam Hussein’s Osirak nuclear reactor. Meanwhile, Eitan worked closely with MI6 counter-terror, and helped them find and eliminate a number of high-profile IRA terrorists. (In response to this, the IRA put out a contract to have Eitan assassinated!) One of the counter-terrorism intelligence agents in Eitan’s portfolio was Jonathan Pollard, who was later exposed and arrested. Eitan was criticized for abandoning Pollard, and resigned over the incident (though he maintains he had an escape plan for Pollard that the spy didn’t follow). Eitan later ran the Israel Chemicals Corporation until retiring at age 67. Eitan wasn’t done yet. He partnered with a few others to start a business in Cuba. The firm, BM Group, has grown to become an important developer in the country, and has built Havana’s World Trade Center and its Holocaust Memorial. After its success on agricultural projects in Cuba (winning it a medal from the Cuban government), BM has spread across Latin America. In 2006, Eitan was asked to run for Knesset under the Gil Pensioner’s party and, despite projections, won a whopping 7 seats. He served as a parliamentarian until 2009, at which point (being 83 years old) he retired for good. Eitan continued to advise his and other governments, and spent much of his time sculpting (he produced over 100 pieces). Sadly, the renowned spymaster passed away last week.

The 7 Prophetesses of Judaism

Words of the Week

It’s in the Muslim consciousness that the land first belonged to the Jews. It doesn’t matter if the Jews were exiled 500 years or 2000 years, the Holy Land, as mentioned in Quran belongs to Moses and his people, the Jews.
– Professor Khaleel Mohammed

Jew of the Week: Tribich Lincoln

The Unbelievable Story of a Jew Who Almost Became the Dalai Lama

Lincoln as “Chao Kung”

Trebitsch Ignácz (1879-1943) was born in the shtetl of Paks, in Hungary. The family moved to Budapest when he was a child, and after finishing school, he enrolled in an acting academy. By this point, Ignácz had left his Orthodox Jewish roots, and would often get in trouble with the police. At 18, he ventured to London and made friends with Christian missionaries. Ignácz converted two years later and was off to a seminary in Germany where he became a reverend. He was sent on missionary duty to Montreal, but didn’t last very long there, and returned to England. He changed his name to Ignatius Timothy Tribich Lincoln, or I.T.T. Lincoln, and got his British citizenship in 1909. He met the Archbishop of Canterbury (the head of the Church of England) who appointed Lincoln to be a parish priest in Kent. There, he met the millionaire politician Seebohm Rowntree, who made Lincoln his personal secretary. Somehow, Lincoln managed to get on a Liberal Party ticket and was elected to the British Parliament in 1910 in an upset victory over the favoured incumbent. However, MPs were not paid at the time, and Lincoln was soon bankrupt. He moved to Romania and started an oil business. When the business failed, he moved back to London and applied to become a British spy. The British rejected him, so he went to the Germans and was hired as a double agent. Lincoln traveled to the US, but then the Germans didn’t want him either, so he revealed his story to a magazine, and then had a book written about him. The book was popular enough that the British government was embarrassed by the whole thing, and had him extradited for fraud. Lincoln spent three years in prison. After this, he returned to Germany and rose through the ranks of various right-wing parties, at one point even meeting Hitler. Later on, he sold government secrets and was deported for treason. Lincoln now headed to China. After working for a number of Chinese warlords, Lincoln apparently had a revelation and converted to Buddhism. He became a monk and quickly rose to the high rank of abbot by 1931, at which point he founded his own Buddhist monastery under his new name, Chao Kung. In 1937, he became a spy for Japan, but at the same time seemed to assist Japan’s enemy, China. During World War II, Lincoln reconnected with the Nazis and offered to raise Buddhist support for them. When the 13th Dalai Lama passed away, Lincoln proclaimed himself the new Dalai Lama! Despite strong support from the Japanese, the Tibetans rejected his claim. Lincoln passed away in Shanghai not too long after. While some think he was a crazy adventurer who dangerously played both sides of every conflict to even the odds, others think he was a smooth-talking con artist who was simply exploring the limits of his acting abilities – and perhaps even surprised himself at how far he could go. It seems his only redeeming quality came at the end of his life: Lincoln protested the Holocaust and wrote a strongly-worded letter to Hitler to end the terror. Hitler requested that the Japanese have Lincoln poisoned, and this was likely the cause of his sudden death in 1943.

Words of the Week

People think of education as something they can finish.
– Isaac Asimov

Jew of the Week: Yolande Harmor

Yolande Harmor

Yolande Gabbai Harmor (1913-1959) was born in Alexandria, Egypt. She went to school in France and returned to Egypt at 17 to get married. Working as a journalist, she soon became a noted writer in Egypt, as well as a popular socialite and member of Egypt’s “high society”. Meanwhile, Harmor was also drawn to Cairo’s Zionist circles. In 1945, she was recruited by the Jewish Agency and became a secret agent, gathering intelligence about Egypt’s royalty and politicians. She was able to get close to people like the Grand Mufti of Cairo, members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and even Egypt’s King Farouk himself. Her intelligence reports included detailed accounts of Arab military plans and troop numbers, giving the nascent Israeli state critical information to win the War of Independence. In July of 1948, Harmor’s cover was blown and she was arrested. However, as a favourite of some of Egypt’s most powerful people (many of whom had fallen in love with her), she was dealt with fairly lightly. After a few months, it became apparent that Harmor had developed stomach cancer. She was released from prison and deported out of Egypt. Harmor moved to Paris, and served on Israel’s UN delegation, and then for the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Throughout this time, she continued to use her sources in Egypt to secure key intelligence information. In 1951, Harmor finally settled in Israel. Unfortunately, her efforts for the State of Israel were soon forgotten. Saddened, and further weakened by the passing of her beloved second husband, Harmor succumbed to her cancer at the young age of 46. In recent years, her incredible story has come to light once again. The city of Jerusalem established ‘Yolande Harmor Square’ in 1997, and a documentary film about her life was released in 2010.

Words of the Week

The Jews have been objects of hatred in pagan, religious, and secular societies. Fascists have accused them of being Communists, and Communists have branded them capitalists. Jews who live in non-Jewish societies have been accused of having dual loyalties, while Jews who live in the Jewish state have been condemned as ‘racists’. Poor Jews are bullied, and rich Jews are resented. Jews have been branded as both rootless cosmopolitans and ethnic chauvinists. Jews who assimilate have been called a ‘fifth column’, while those who stay together spark hatred for remaining separate…
– Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin, ‘Why The Jews?’