[Ramat Gan, Israel] In 2006, at his modest walk-up apartment in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv, Meir Amit looked back at his long career as kibbutznik, general, spymaster and satellite entrepeneur and shared some of his fears for the future of the Middle East.
A member of Kibbutz Alonim, Amit said he was saddened by the decline of the kibbutz movement, which he credited with producing a generation of Israeli leaders who cared more for their country than for themselves.
He began his military career in the parachute regiment and became commander of the Golani infantry brigade and head of the central command, but he was forced out of the army for a while after breaking his leg in a botched parachute jump.
“I was commanding the paratroopers in central command. Personal example was one of our codes, so I parachuted with my soldiers,” Amit recalled as his adult daughters hovered in the background serving drinks and preparing a family dinner.
“When you touch the ground you have to make a roll to lighten the touch. I parachuted and it was sand. My right foot went deep in the sand and I made this roll as I was taught and all of a sudden I see that my shoe is on the other side. I spent 15 months in the hospital,” he said.
Amit went to the United States for two years to study. On his return, he took over military intelligence and in 1963 was appointed head of the Mossad secret service.
He set about forging ties with Morocco and with the Kurds in northern Iraq.
“We brought the MiG21,” he said, recalling one of his great intelligence triumphs.
“We helped the Kurds to fight against the Iraqis. I was in Kurdistan many times. At that time we had very good relations with Iran. I was meeting the Shah once a month. We were sitting and chatting and appraising the situation. The Kurds were against the Iraqis and we took the opportunity because they were spread all over Iraq. Of course they were concentrated in the north in Kurdistan. I made the contact and then we sent a mission.
We used to have a mission there of ten people or so. We didn’t participate in the fighting but we were instructing them. I took a hospital, a field hospital and brought it there. They had only one doctor in all Kurdistan. I brought 8 doctors, a field hospital.
“We were very active in Morocco. I went to Morocco when they had the fight with Algeria. I saw the king. I told him: Look, we are ready to help you. I was many times in Morocco meeting him with instructors, weapons and things like that. We also learned from them because they had Russian equipment – Tanks, T54 – so we also learned from them and we had excellent relations.”
Looking to the future, Amit said he was concerned about Iran’s nuclear ambitions and disheartened by the failure of the West to coordinate their opposition.
“I look at the situation as World War III,” he said. “Namely, all the Muslims, all over the world, are united. Unfortunately the western world is not united. Russia is not cooperating, China is not cooperating. Israel is just a small thing in the picture. We have to look at that as a global war and act accordingly. There is a competition between Russia
and the United States and Putin is trying to push Russia against the US and they are helping Iran in all kind of things.”
Amit said he didn’t trust the then-Russian President (now Premier) Vladimir Putin and would, regretfully, back the assassination of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"Personally I am against assassinating leaders and all my life I was against it when I was head of Mossad. But Ahmadinejad has crossed the line. With all he is doing on the nuclear front, saying Israel should be wiped off the map and arranging a conference on the Holocaust where he said it never happened. From my point of view, he is somebody who shouldn’t be with us," Amit said.