When Israel's Mossad Set Out to "Break" Me, It Found Its
Helpers Here at Home

by Victor Ostrovsky

[The Washington Report On Middle East Affairs, October/November 1997, pp 37, 84-85]
 
 

"We will get to him by other means, we will break him economically," stated the chief of the
Mossad, Israel's CIA, to a Knesset committee after the failure of the government of Israel's attempt
to ban publication of my first book, *By Way of Deception*, in the U.S. and Canada. This
statement made on camera was purposely leaked to an Israeli reporter and printed in the weekend
edition of *Ma'ariv*, Israel's leading daily newspaper, with the military censor's approval. Since that
day, Israel's foreign intelligence agency has waged a war of attrition against me with the enthusiastic
cooperation of its cabal of North American Zionist organizations.

For years as a Canadian-born, Israel-raised former Mossad caseworker I was unwilling to accept
the possibility of a wide conspiracy against me. After all, my book had finally been published. What
more harm could I do to the country I had left in disgust to return to the land of my birth. Only hitting
rock bottom has finally jolted me out of this state of innocence--and optimism that a change of luck
is just around the corner. I'm now convinced that I am the target of a broad collusion between
elements of the Israel government and their gofers, mostly in the American Jewish community.

Following publication of my *By Way of Deception* I wrote a spy novel, *Lion of Judah*, using the
spycraft I'd learned with the Mossad as background. The book described a fictional Mossad
operation aimed at thwarting a secret peace process underway in the Middle East. (The book was
written and published before the real-life, year-long secret negotiations that led to the Oslo accord
came to light.)

In the book I revealed considerably more about Mossad techniques than I had in *By Way of
Deception*. But, despite the wide publicity garnered by my first book due to the Israeli
government's unsuccessful effort to suppress it, my second book was ignored.

Radio and television interviews that were scheduled by my publisher were canceled almost as soon
as they were booked. A speaker's bureau in Toronto, which seldom had trouble arranging speaking
engagements with student and other groups eager to have me as a speaker, found that the
engagements were cancelled before I could appear. In fact, the cancellations occurred each time a
loal B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation League (ADL) chapter got wind of them, and they always did.

But, of course, the less I spoke, the more time I had to write. In 1995, when my third book, *The
Other Side of Deception*, another work of non-fiction, was published, the efforts against me were
stepped up.

So, on Oct. 21, 1995, I was surprised to be invited by Canadian Television (CTV) producer Ron
Fine to do a guest appearance on "Canada AM," the widely viewed Canadian version of "Good
Morning America." Scheduled to appear on the same program, via satellite from Israel, was Israeli
journalist Yosef Lapid, the former head of Israeli television.
 
 

An Appeal To Murder

Lapid had earned his 14 minutes of North American media fame by appealing openly on the Israeli
television show "Popolitica" for the Mossad to seek me out in Canada and kill me for writing my
books. He had followed this with an article making the same appeal in the Tel Aviv daily *Ma'ariv*
headlined "By Virtue of Murder" [see accompanying article].

On cue, Lapid repeated, as I listened, his call for my assassination on the Canadian television show,
but this time with a twist. He said that, since Israel's Mossad could not kill me in Canada without
causing a diplomatic incident, "I hope that there would be a decent Jew in Canada who would do the
job for us."

My reaction was horror mixed with relief. Now it was going to be hard for media gatekeepers to
pretend that there were not "ugly Israelis" every bit as vicious and fanatical as the Iranian ayatollah
who had called for the assassination in Britain by a British Muslim of author Salman Rushdie.

Along with the producers of the show, a large percentage of the Canadian public had just seen for
themselves a former Israeli government official calling upon Canadian Jews to murder me on
Canadian soil for the books I had written. But, to my astonishment, there seemed no inclination by
the Canadian media to follow up the story when it was an Israeli rather than an Iranian inciting the
murder of a published author. I had never felt more alone and isolated in my life.

Mt spirits brightened when a reporter from *USA Today* viewed the tape of the "Canada AM"
show and was outraged. "I'm going to write a story about this," he declared, and proceeded to
interview me for over an hour. Then, while I was still in his office, his editor told him by telephone to
kill the article. "It's not a story," the editor said. The silence around me intensified.

It was a year later that Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing zealot
who got his legitimization for murder from an extremist rabbi and his marching orders from the likes
of Lapid. If by Lapid's rules I should be killed according to category "D" [see the acompanying
article], in the eyes of Yigal Amir, Rabin's assassin, so should Rabin. I have no doubt in my mind that
all those like Lapid who make their own rules as to who may live and who must die are partners in
Rabin's murder.

A radio host named Tim Kern from a station in Denver, Colorado, called me up for an interview.
Several days later he sent a file on me he had received from the "Mountain state regional office of the
Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith." The ADL communication suggested that the station drop
the interview, claiming that I am an unreliable subject. This sequence was repeated over and over at
radio and television stations in the United States and Canada. Ironically, supposedly separate Jewish
organizations around the United States kept coming up with the same wording in their efforts to shut
me up.

The same people who presumably would praise someone from the CIA or the U.S. armed forces
who exposed serious wrongdoing in those institutions were now hard at work to smother my
criticisms of an intelligence agency for a foreign country that, to put it as charitably as possible, does
not have America's best interests at heart. The Americans who call me a traitor to Israel for exposing
the Mossad's efforts to kill the peace process hail as a hero Jonathan Pollard, a traitor to the U.S.
who spied on the American government for Israel.

In an attempt to break the vicious cycle, I decided to sue in a Canadian court Yosef Lapid for
inciting my murder and "Canada AM" for airing his incitement to the public. I assumed that bringing
the issue to public attention would expose the attempts of organizations in both the U.S. and Canada
that in fact are agents of Israel to suppress the truth through intimidation and, if necessary, economic
or physical terrorism.

After accepting a hefty retainer and completing the preparations for trial, my lawyer, Paul B. Kane of
Perley-Robertson, Panet, Hill and McDougall in Ottawa, Canada, informed me that he could not
continue with the case. His explanation was that the safety of his staff would clearly be jeopardized if
he proceeded.

Then HarperCollins, my publisher, informed me it was keeping the last portion of my advance, some
$46,000, against advertising. I pointed out that since this was something I had never agreed to, they
had no right to do it. "Sue us," was their response.

At the same time, my daughter, a television producer, was denied a job she had been offered in a
Vancouver television station after its Toronto head office learned of her relationship to me.

Then my Canadian publisher, Stoddart, informed me it had decided not to publish my newest spy
novel, *Dominion of Treason*, and also that it was holding back all the monies coming to me from
*By Way of Deception* and *Lion of Judah*.

Meanwhile I had suggested to my agent in Toronto a new (fifth) book on the American militia
movement. I proposed to interview supporters of the movement to ascertain their motivations, and
then define the movement in terms of its members rather than simply labeling them as the enemy and
shutting the door on them. I believe the growth of misunderstanding and mistrust within a nation, and
particularly between regions as is the case between America's Eastern seaboard on the hand and its
Midwest and Far West on the other, is courting disaster.

My agent was enthusiastic about the proposed project . We called it *We the People*. For several
months he told me how this proposed book was being received in literary circles of New York.
Then he dropped out of sight, and I have not been able to make contact with him to this day. I know
he is in his office and doing business, but he will not return my calls.

In 1996, a new, New York-based agent struck a light at the end of a very long, dark tunnel.
Regnery Inc., a Washington-based publisher, signed a contract with me for a tongue-in-cheek guide
to espionage called *The Spy Game*. They had some suggestions, however, for making the book
more serious on the grounds that readers don't regard spying as a laughing matter.

As I was in the final stages of the first draft, however, my house burned to the ground. The fire
marshal's report declared it arson. No one was hurt, since we had moved out several weeks earlier
and I was using only one room in the house for writing. Luckily, aside from the house itself, very little
was lost--only my computer and several boxes of documents.

As I was sifting through the ashes of what used to be my bedroom, however, I realized that things
were starting to get out of hand. By then, under the Likud government of Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu, both the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and the Israeli ambassador to Canada were
former Mossad officers. I couldn't identify the perpetrators of the fire, or blame it on one group or
another, but it was clear to me that those who had vowed to break me "economically" were
becoming more confrontational and taking greater risks.

After several days of soul-searching I realized I could no longer allow my wife, who had stood by
me through thick and thin, to remain in the line of fire. This was my battle, my choice. Knowing full
well she would not abandon me, as almost everyone else had, I told her I needed to be alone, to sort
things out for myself.

Our separation lasted several weeks. But we both realized we couldn't remain apart.

So I wasted no more time and re-wrote *The Spy Game*, having kept my notes on Regnery's
suggested revisions with me. The work on the book was moving along well, and most of the editing
had already been completed. The publisher, through his project editor, asked that I add a chapter on
espionage and the Internet and also bring in some biographical material on myself. I complied and he
expressed his satisfaction in a letter to me.

On July 9 of this year the Regnery publicity department faxed me a copy of their catalog page
depicting my book, slated to be released in October. One day later, on July 10, 1997, I received a
letter from Regnery informing me that the company had decided not to publish my book. I felt as
though I had been hit by a freight train.

It suddenly occurred to me, for the first time, that the forces of racism, bigotry and apartheid may
win, even here in North America. In calling out, finally, for help, I suddenly fear that I may only be
shouting into the wind.

To all who believe that "it can't happen here," I say beware.

It is immensely satisfying to take a stand and speak out against coercion and tyranny. But eventually
there may be a price to pay.

And when that day comes, and the bill is handed out, you may find that although your friends cherish
you, they may choose to do it from a distance. I wonder now if the thousands who have called and
written still think of me as a prophet and a hero, or only a fool?
 
 

By Virtue of Murder

[The Washington Report On Middle East Affairs, p. 85]

(Translation of a 1995 article in the Tel Avib daily *Ma'ariv* by Yosef Lapid, a former head of
Israeli television.)

Meir Shnitser, in an article elsewhere in this newspaper, defends the dangerous traitor Victor
Ostrovsky, the ex-Mossad man, who is publishing, from his refuge in Canada, nine measures of
treacherous, hateful lies against Israel and its security arms, mixed with one measure of truth, which
makes it even worse. Who knows better than I, having been the executive director of the Israeli
Broadcasting Authority, that as Shnitser said, incitement to murder on the television screen is, from
the beginning, an improper action?

I have told Ostrovsky in a telephone interview on "Popolitika" that I hoped the Mossad would
eliminate him. Meir Shnitser, who is always ready to fight, in the name of freedom of speech, for the
right of every Palestinian to preach for the destruction of the state of Israel, wants to prevent my right
to express my opinion in public. Yes, I think Victor Ostrovsky should be eliminated. Not because of
his opinions, but because of his actions. Not because he is the enemy of Israel, but because he is a
traitor. And not because this would be a sweet revenge, but because for its own sake Mossad
cannot afford to let someone who was its agent of his own free will profit from selling state secrets,
even if most of the things he says are lies.

It would be preferable, of course, to kidnap Ostrovsky, as Eichman was kidnapped or as Vanunu
was. To kidnap him and put him on trial and punish him according to the law. The tables could even
be turned. In the early '50s the Israeli security forces found out that a Yugoslav Christian woman
who had collaborated with the Nazis had married a Jew and come with him to Israel to escape the
"Ozna," which was Tito's secret police.

Yugoslavia and Israel didn't have an extradition agreement. So the Israeli security service kidnapped
the woman from her home in Israel and smuggled her onto a Yugoslav ship that happened, whether
by accident or design, to be anchored in the Israeli port of Haifa. She stood trial in Yugoslavia and
was found guilty of committing war crimes.

But you cannot always kidnap. Ostrovsky could not be kidnapped today from Ottawa. Even if it
could be done, it would not be worthwhile to cause the disruption of relations between Israel and
Canada.

But there are ways to do away with him. As the German scientists who helped Egypt were
eliminated. As the Canadian ballistics expert, Gerald Bull, who tried to build a supergun for Saddam
Hussain, was assassinated. As the murderers of our athletes in Munich were assassinated with the
authorization of then-Prime Minister Golda Meir. As an Israeli commando unit eliminated, even
before the creation of Israel, Nazis who were hiding in Germany and Austria.

It is, of course, not permissible to sanction an official institution to carry out assassinations without
specific criteria. Without a thorough system and the approval of a ministerial body in charge of
security matters. A man who could be brought to justice should not be eliminated.

Nor should a man be eliminated unless the security arms have proof beyond a reasonable doubt that
the man is guilty of one of the following:

      a) Collaboration in the genocide of the Jewish people.

      b) A terrorist act against Israelis that has caused many deaths.

      c) Collaboration with the enemy in creation of weapons that can endanger the existence
      of the state of Israel.

      d) Treason that can cause damage to the state of Israel.

Ostrovsky belongs in the latter category.

In the mid-50s it was learned that Andrea Artukovich was living in Los Angeles. When he was the
minister of interior in the Nazi puppet government of Croatia, he was personally responsible for the
elimination of Croation Jewry.

In the heat of the Cold War the American government was not willing to extradite him into the hands
of the communist Yugoslav government. As a Yugoslav expatriate I was deeply offended that such a
war criminal was walking about freely. The thought that Artukovich would spend the rest of his life in
America, while tens of thousands of Jews were buried in the death camps that he had built, was
unbearable to me.

As I was a penniless young reporter for the newspaper *Ma'ariv*, I offered the editor to whom I
was responsible, Shmuel Shnitser, a deal. If *Ma'ariv* would finance my travel to the United States,
and my expenses there until I could kill Artukovich, *Ma'ariv* would have the scoop whether or not
I was caught.

Shnitser said that he would consult with his friends. Several days later he informed me that my offer
was turned down. The reason was that if it became known that a reporter for *Ma'ariv* had been
sent on a murder mission, the newspaper would not be able to send another reporter anywhere in
the world.

I regret that to this day.

Meir Shnitser would never understand this.