Efraim Halevy
| Efraim Halevy link NNDB Powerbase (Spook, Deep Politician) | |
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| Born | 2 December 1934 London, United Kingdom |
Director of The Mossad, March 1998 - October 2002 | |
Efraim Halevy is an Israeli spook who was head of Israeli intelligence at the time of 9-11 and became head of Israel's national security council in 2002.
Director of The Mossad
In March 1998, Efraim Halevy took over as Director of The Mossad following the resignation of Danny Yatom. He asked Aliza Magen-Halevy, the sitting deputy director, to stay on.
Halevy served as the envoy and confidant of five Prime Ministers: Yitzhak Shamir, Yitzhak Rabin, Benjamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon. He took an active part in a special mission by Rabin in forging the Israel–Jordan Treaty of Peace.
After the failure of the Mossad operation to assassinate Hamas leader Khaled Mashal in 1997, he took an active part in Benjamin Netanyahu's mission to return the Mossad men captured in Jordan, and to settle the crisis with the King Hussein of Jordan. The King himself had specifically requested that Halevy not be involved because the former did not want the sordid affair to tarnish his personal relationship with Halevy, but ultimately Halevy responded to Netanyahu's pleas and travelled to Amman to break the deadlock.
In October 2002, he was appointed the second head of the National Security Council and an advisor to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. In August 2003, he resigned from this position.
Aiding Al Qaeda but not Hezbollah
In 2016, Halevy admitted that Israel gave medical treatment to Al Nusra Front (Al Qaeda) fighters in Syria, claiming that "the main consideration, the immediate consideration is humane, but admitted assistance to Al Nusra Front fighters could also be "tactical". Asked whether he would also support the treatment of wounded Hezbollah fighters, Halevy said "no, as far as Hezbollah fighters are concerned we have a different account" pointing out that the difference between Hezbollah and Al Nusra Front was that Israel was "not specifically targeted by Al Qaeda". Halevy did not seem to think that this would create blowback: "No. I don’t think so. I don’t think there’s going to be blowback."[1]
Rapprochement with Iran
In March 2023, Halevy urged Israel to explore whether a rapprochement with Iran is possible, following a dramatic breakthrough in relations between Tehran and Riyadh.
“Israel should understand what it is that brought the Iranians to their rapprochement with Saudi Arabia.
Halevy went on to ask whether “the time has come for Israel also to seek a different policy towards Iran.”[2]