Michael Harari

Michael "Mike" Harari (born February 18, 1927 in Tel Aviv ; † September 21, 2014 there ) was a member of the Israeli secret service Mossad . Among other things, Harari was involved in the Operation Wrath of God , ordered by Golda Meir , with which Israel responded to the hostage-taking of Munich .

Life

Harari began his secret service activities in connection with illegal Jewish immigration to Palestine in the aftermath of World War II . He then spent some time in the Israeli armed forces and in the Shin Bet military reconnaissance before being recruited by the Mossad in the 1960s.

During this time Harari was the superior of Israeli secret agents in Europe and eventually he was promoted to chief of the operations department. At that time he built up Operation Wrath of God and also led the team that was supposed to carry out an assassination attempt on the head of the underground organization Black September in 1973 in Lillehammer, Norway . It turned out that instead of Ali Hassan Salameh , the team killed the innocent Moroccan waiter Ahmed Bouchiki . The Norwegian authorities arrested some members of Harari's group, and he himself escaped to Israel with eight others. A Norwegian criminal case was closed in January 1999 due to “lack of evidence”.

Harari was involved in the preparation of Operation Lightning Strikes by the Israeli military in July 1976, which freed abducted air passengers held hostage at Entebbe Airport . Harari had scouted the airport under the identity of an Italian businessman and secured the use of air force bases in Kenya for refueling when the Israeli planes returned. In January 1979, Harari led the team that killed Ali Hassan Salameh in Beirut with a car bomb .

Harari later became station chief of the Mossad for Latin America in Mexico City . He then reportedly said goodbye, but it is not known whether all intelligence links were severed before going to Panama .

Shortly before the US invasion of Panama in 1989 to depose Manuel Noriega , Harari returned to Israel. During a television appearance, he denied being a close advisor to Noriegas and said he had returned to his homeland of his own accord.

In Steven Spielberg's 2005 film adaptation of Operation Wrath of God, the film Munich , Harari was portrayed by Moshe Ivgi .

literature

• Aaron J. Klein: The Avengers: How the Israeli Secret Service hunted the Olympic murderers of Munich. Spiegel Buchverlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-421-04205-7
• Ian Black and Benny Morris: Israel's Secret Wars: A History of Israel's Intelligence Services . New York: Grove Press. 1991. ISBN 0-8021-1159-9 . P. 276.
• Simon Reeve: One Day in September . New York. Arcade Publishing. 2000. ISBN 1-55970-547-7
• Peter Dale Scott and Jonathan Marshall: Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central America . Los Angeles. University of California Press. 1991. ISBN 0-520-21449-8 . Pp. 73-74.

Web links

• Legendary Mossad agent Mike Harari dead at 87. Obituary on the i24news homepage fromSeptember 22, 2014 (English)
• Legendary Mossad commander Mike Harari dies at 87th obituary in The Times of Israel on September 22, 2014
• Bruce Weber: Michael Harari, Israeli Agent Likened to James Bond, Dies at 87. Obituary in The New York Times, September 27, 2014
• Terrorist hunter Mike Harari dies. Obituary on Spiegel Online from September 22, 2014

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Guardian : Norway solves riddle of Mossad killing
2. ^ Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Norway Report on Human Rights Practices ( Memento of the original from January 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . US State Department publication dated February 23, 2000. 
3. ↑ Fredrick Kempe: Divorcing the Dictator: America's Bungled Affair with Noriega . IBTauris. 1990. Pages 119-120.
4. ^ Israeli Denies He Served as Noriega Adviser , The New York Times , January 7, 1990. Retrieved October 22, 2008.