[Reader-list] Victor Ostrovsky: When Israel's Mossad Set Out to "Break" Me

[Sopan Joshi]

a little dated, but relevant nevertheless

from:
http://www.codoh.com/newsdesk/970900.HTML

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Bookburners and Their Victims:
First-hand accounts of pro-Israel McCarthyism

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?

[End]

----------------------------------------------------

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.

[End]

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