David Kimche: Israel's Leading Spy and Would-Be Mossad Chief

By Leon T. Hadar

The name David Kimche became vaguely familiar to Americans who followed the Iran-Contra scandal, yet few now can recall exactly what role he played. It's just the way this shadowy Israeli intelligence official and spin control artist operates. Since he figures prominently in many of his government's more spectacular "dirty tricks," it was no surprise to hear from a US television team that returned from Tehran this summer that, "whenever we went to interview Islamic revolutionary government officials, David Kimche seemed to be just leaving their offices. "

This quiet but influential Israeli official's name first surfaced frequently in the world press in connection with the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, three years before the Iran-Contra revelations. Throughout the 1980 to 1988 administration of US President Ronald Reagan, Kimche was one of the leading figures in the efforts to cement the "strategic alliance" between Israel and the United States. Today, as a "private businessman, " he undoubtedly is still at the center of some Israeli covert activities abroad.

Kimche is a descendant of an aristocratic Jewish family that settled in Switzerland and produced several famous rabbis. His own parents moved to England, where both he and his older brother, Jon, were active in Zionist politics after World War II.

Jon pursued a successful career as a journalist, writing in Western publications on Middle Eastern affairs. His close ties with the leaders of the new Jewish state, including Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, helped him secure Israeli government funding for a magazine on Middle Eastern affairs which he began to publish in London in the late 1950s.

The magazine folded in 1965 after Israeli financial support was withdrawn. The withdrawal resulted from Israel's Byzantine politics and espionage activities. After the ruling Mapai party split over responsibility for the "Lavon affair" (the firebombing of US diplomatic establishments in Cairo and Alexandria by Israeli agents in July 1954 in order to poison US-Egyptian relations), Jon Kimche sided with BenGurion. As a result, Kimche incurred the wrath of the Old Man's more moderate political rivals who, under the leadership of Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, took control of the party and the government in the mid 1960s.

What directly triggered the decision to stop the funding for the magazine, however, was an editorial written by Kimche which accused Eshkol of ordering the Mossad to assassinate the Moroccan opposition leader, Mehdi Ben Barka, in 1965. (Eshkol argued that it was Mossad chief Meir Amit, Ben-Gurion's ally, who gave the order without consulting Eshkol, even though he was prime minister at the time.)

Kimche was a rare breed among the rough and tough Mossad crowd.

Although his magazine is defunct, Jon Kimche is currently an editor of a London newsletter that deals with Afro-Asian affairs, a topic that was always of interest to his brother David, who immigrated into Palestine in 1946. The two collaborated in the early 1950s in writing a book about the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, in which "Dave" served in a combat role.

Following that war, the young David Kimche worked for a while as a night editor at the Jerusalem Post. After failing to pass an entrance exam for the Israeli foreign ministry (his sweet revenge was to return to the ministry as a director general almost 40 years later), he pursued an academic degree in Middle Eastern studies. In 1953 he was asked to join the newly organized Mossad.

Kimche, with his British accent, aristocratic European mannerisms and low key personality, was a rare breed among the rough and tough Mossad crowd. At that time most were either Eastern European aparatchiks; or Israeli born military officers. In that environment the young spy, who was not tied to any of the political cliques that dominated the Israeli security service at the time, developed a reputation as a detached and sophisticated professional. His colleagues described him as "urbane" and "brilliant."

The Mossad sent him abroad where, in the 1950s and 1960s, he appeared mainly in Africa and Asia, either as an Israeli diplomat with the cover name " David Sharon " or, at other times, as a British businessman. Journalists who covered Africa during that period remember "Sharon" as a source of information (and disinformation) on the politics of the newly emerging states.

Kimche's activities were part of an Israeli effort to establish ties with non Arab entities on the "periphery" of the Middle East such as Iran and Turkey. He traveled frequently to Iran during the shah's reign, where he developed a close friendship with Ya'akov Nimrodi, then the Israeli military attaché in Tehran, who became an arms dealer after his retirement. Nimrodi and David Kimche emerged later as central characters in Irangate. Kimche also served for several years as the Mossad liaison with the Maronite community in Lebanon, a role that would come to haunt him later.

David Kimche's real "baby" for several years, however, was Africa. He made a major effort to shore up the power of Christian ethnic groups, and other approachable entities in Africa, by befriending military cliques affiliated with them.

The "Man with the Suitcase"

The "man with the suitcase," as Kimche became known by colleagues in Israel, would appear in an African country a day or two before a major coup, and leave a week later after the new regime was firmly in control, often with the aid of Israeli security teams. (One of Israel's protege allies in Africa whom Kimche helped to groom was none other than the continent's most infamous ruler, Col. Idi Amin of Uganda.)

As many emerging Third World countries, under the influence of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, adopted an increasingly hostile attitude toward Israel, Kimche's reach expanded. He used Israeli aid packages, which included military training and support (financed occasionally by the CIA), to establish Israeli footholds in developing nations as far afield as Costa Rica, Panama, Singapore and Thailand.

Kimche used his knowledge of the Third World in preparing his doctoral dissertation, written under the auspices of the Shiloah Institute at Tel Aviv University. It included profiles of the new leaders of several developing nations. His dissertation was edited into a book that is used today in academic courses on Third World issues in the US and Europe. Kimche also taught Third World politics in the intelligence community's special academy in Jerusalem.

The coming to power of the Likud in 1977 initially posed a dilemma for Kimche. Although regarded as apolitical, his professional and personal ties were with the Labor oriented leadership of the Israeli defense establishment. Like many other Israeli national security professionals, Kimche worried that the crude ideological orientations of Israel's first Likud prime minister, Menachem Begin, would endanger their more pragmatic approach, based on close intelligence ties with the US and on covert understandings with two or three moderate Arab leaders. On a more personal level, Kimche and his intelligence and security colleagues were concerned that the Likud government would replace those of them who had worked closely with such Labor figures as Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin.

That, however, did not happen. Instead, one of Begin's first steps was to nominate Moshe Dayan, a Labor politician as well as a military figure, as foreign minister. Moreover, Begin was an admirer of the Israeli military and fascinated by the Mossad's glamorous covert work. Aware of his own reputation as an extremist, and determined to coopt the Labor oriented intelligence chiefs, including Kimche, Begin provided them with more professional latitude than they had enjoyed under Rabin and Peres. Unlike the latter, Begin had little familiarity with the personal and political intrigues in Israel's security services. Hence, with weakened civilian control, the intelligence operatives expanded their professional turf and increased their influence over Israel's foreign policy.

Only a few months after Begin came to power in the 1977 election, Kimche was able to present him with the opening to Egypt. Serving as deputy to then Mossad director Yitzhak (Haka) Hofi, Kimche utilized ties he had developed within the Moroccan secret service to convince King Hassan to play the role of middleman between Begin and Sadat. The way had been paved by Mossad intelligence reports provided Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, through Morocco, concerning an assassination attempt against him, and a Libyan campaign against Sadat's regime.

Morocco was the site of several secret meetings between Israeli and Egyptian officials that preceded Sadat's visit to Israel, and the Egyptian-Israeli peace process. In particular, Kimche accompanied Dayan to a critical meeting in Morocco with an Egyptian presidential aide, Hassan Tohami, in which the Israelis promised to return all of Sinai in exchange for peace.

These successes, however, were offset by the lowkey Kimche's poor relationship with the cruder Hofi. Begin was inclined to select Kimche as Hofi's successor as chief of Mossad. Likud's other major leader, and former Mossad European operator, Yitzhak Shamir, also supported the move. The Mossad chief, however, vetoed the plan, accusing Kimche of intriguing against him and of trying to establish a personal bureaucratic and financial empire within the Mossad. When the struggle between the two threatened to turn into a major scandal, Kimche resigned from the Mossad in 1980.

After his resignation, Kimche first looked for employment to the Jerusalem Post to which, writing under various pseudonyms, he had contributed many articles, particularly on Third World issues, during his Mossad service. The newspaper was looking for an editor and its owners hoped that Kimche's international reputation would help turn the Post into a major global media organization.

The newspaper's editorial staff, however, rebelled against the nomination of a former intelligence official, with one writer comparing it to the selection of a former CIA head as an editor of The New York Times.

Kimche then accepted an offer from his former Mossad colleague, Shamir, who became foreign minister in 1980, to serve as foreign ministry director general. Shamir promised in return to lobby for Kimche's future appointment as Mossad chief.

Selling His Soul to Sharon

In his new position, Kimche cultivated ties with his friends in the different secret agencies. However, so ` me of his critics later charged, with the goal of becoming Mossad chief uppermost in his mind, Kimche also sold his soul to the devil, personified by then Minister of Defense Ariel (Arik) Sharon, who regarded himself as a natural successor to Begin as Israel's prime minister.

Sharon was developing a far-reaching blueprint for Israeli "security," suggesting in one of his major speeches that the Jewish state's interests extended beyond the Arab Middle East to Pakistan, North Africa and most of sub-Saharan Africa.

During the presidency of Ronald Reagan, Sharon tried to market to the heads of American anti-Communist extremist groups such fantastic ideas as establishing Israeli military and diplomatic alliances with Saudi Arabia, Zaire, and the military clique in Argentina, along with the formalizing of Israel's clandestine ties with South Africa. Sharon also advocated toppling the Khomeini government in Tehran, returning the Pahlavi dynasty to power, and expanding Israeli ties with the Maronite Christian leaders in Lebanon.

Kimche's former colleagues in the Mossad treated such ideas with disdain, pointing to their impracticality and suggesting that they might clash with American interests in the region. They cited reports prepared by Kimche himself, as Mossad liaison with the Maronites, stressing the unreliability of the Lebanese Christian leaders and warning the Israeli government against trying to base its policies in Lebanon upon them.

Kimche, however, abandoned his low profile and pragmatic approach to join Sharon's effort to develop his own independent cadre of foreign policy experts in the Defense Ministry. Among Sharon's cadre of "Wise Men," who clashed occasionally with the Mossad over various covert operations, were Kimche, and such shadowy figures as Nimrodi; Al Schwimmer, another arms dealer; and the director general of the Defense Ministry, Abraham (Abrasha) Tamir.

With their ties to such shadowy Saudi and Iranian figures as Adnan Khashoggi, the members of "Arik's kitchen," as they came to be known, envisioned the formation of an Israeli-Saudi-Iranian alliance under US sponsorship which would counter radical forces in the region and, not incidentally, enrich the alliance's creators through arms deals and economic reconstruction projects.

Sharon's global plans, contrary to the Mossad's earlier predictions, attracted some backing from highly placed and politically naive Cold Warriors within the Reagan administration. They, too, fantasized about formation of an Arab-Israeli anti-Communist "strategic consensus." Together these Israeli and US officials took the military forces of both countries to major and bloody defeats, particularly in the Lebanese quagmire.

The First Nail in the Coffin

Kimche's role as one of the architects of the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon destroyed his reputation as a cautious operator. Using his connections in the Israeli press, however, he tried, with little success, to distance himself from some of the most adventurist aspects of Sharon's policies. Nevertheless, Sharon's war in Lebanon put the first nail in Kimche's professional coffin.

It was Irangate, however, masterminded by Kimche and the other members of "Arik's kitchen," their Saudi and Iranian friends, and their influential American allies, that destroyed what was left of the career of Israel's "sophisticated spy."

As early as 1982, Kimche, together with Nimrodi, Schwimmer and Khashoggi, and with Sharon's blessing, had tried unsuccessfully to trigger an anti-Khomeini coup that was supposed to bring the shah's son to power in Tehran. In 1985, Kimche and company, again bypassing the Mossad, succeeded in winning support for the more complex idea of an Israeli-American opening to Tehran from then Prime Minister Peres (who presided over a national unity government), as well as from such intelligence and national security managers in Washington as CIA Director William Casey, Nat Security Adviser Robert McFarlane NSC staff member Oliver North.

The major outlines of Irangate revealed in 1985. They included, among other things, the sale of American weapons through Israel to Iran to free US hostages held by Iran funded militias in Lebanon to strengthen the role of present Iraqi President Ali Akhbar Rafsanjani in Iran's chaotic Islamic Revolutionary government. It was Kimche's reputation as a serious effective intelligence operator that he convince both Peres and Reagan administration officials to support the plan.

Kimche apparently participated in of the critical meetings involving Americans, Khashoggi, and Iranian dealer and Israeli agent Manoucher Ghorbanifar, which took place in Europe Middle East and Washington. Moreover according to various reports, Kimche us contacts in Latin America, especially Panama, to develop the Central American component of what developed into the Iran Contra affair.

Still a Formidable Manipulator

As implementation of Kimche's general game plan reached a dead end, largely result of Kimche's total misunderstanding of the Iranian leadership and its interests in the deal, and as the information on Iran began to leak to the American press, Kimche showed that although he had lost touch as a spy, he remained a formidable media manipulator. He began to leak stories to the Israeli and American press, blaming failure of the operation on one of the participants in the affair, Peres aide Amiram Nir. As a result, despite his own obvious involvement in Irangate, and his knowledge of its evolution, Kimche, thanks to string pulling by some of his friends Washington, was not called to testify be the Iran-Contra congressional committees.

Irangate revealed Kimche's enormous power in the Israeli foreign policy establishment. But it also exposed his series of m blunders. Behind the facade of the urbane British gentleman lay a compulsive conspirator whose political and professional ambitions helped produce a bizarre tragicomic intrigue that greatly weakens US-Israeli ties and cast a sinister shadow over Reagan's second presidential term.

The affair also derailed Kimche's dream of becoming the chief of Mossad. After moved from the prime minister's office foreign ministry, Kimche resigned from foreign ministry post to enter "private business. " Since then, he has been working with another mystery man, Shaul Eise whose arms dealings are said to have made him the richest man in Israel. Eisenberg helped his government establish trade and military ties throughout the Far East, including the lucrative transfer of Israeli (and American) technology to China, with which the Jewish state does not have diplomatic relations.

According to various press reports, Kimche has been instrumental in his new job in expanding Israeli arms exports to China, now estimated to have totaled nearly three billion dollars over the past decade. Kimche is a frequent visitor to the United States and, in recent interviews with the Israeli press, has been warning that, based on his talks with administration officials, President George Bush has not given up on his goal of pressuring Israel to adopt a more moderate posture on the Palestinian issue.

Such pressure is bound to set off new upheavals in Israeli politics, as Labor coalition leaders seek to blame Likud intransigence for the downward spiral in US Israeli relations, and the Likud seeks to ignite new geopolitical explosions to arrest it. Such an environment favors operators like Kimche, whose frequent sightings in Tehran indicate that, perhaps, he has never quite abandoned his dream of heading Israel's resilient and unpredictable Mossad, and sees now as the time to make that dream come true.

Leon T. Hadar teaches at the School of International Service at the American University and is the author of the upcoming From the Cold War to the Gulf War: Romancing the Middle East Paradigm.