an electronics specialist who had been engaged on Nazi Germany’s
V-2 project in World War II, survived an assassination attempt by
Shamir’s team.
After initial successes, Damocles Operation came to an end in the fi-
asco in Switzerland on 15 March 1963. That day, the Swiss police ar-
rested outside a Basel hotel two Mossad agents, Yosef Ben-Galand
Otto Joklik, for threatening the daughter of Paul Görke, one of the
German scientists in Egypt, to force her to persuade her father to leave.
Harel believed that the Egyptians had not stopped building their
missile capability program; eventually, again of his own accord, he
decided to go public, to convince the world and the people in Israel
of the menace. He dispatched Mossad agents to European capitals to
brief journalists on the magnitude of the Egyptian missile threat to Is-
rael. He also planted stories in the Israeli newspapers about the
Egyptian missile program. Ben-Gurion was outraged; Harel was
forced to resign from the Mossad, which he did on 25 March 1963.
Ben-Gurion likewise left office, three months later.DANIN, EZRA (1903–1985).A citrus farmer, born in Jaffa, Danin lived
in Hadera, Israel. From 1933 to 1934, he headed the Arab Department
in the Jewish Agency. Because of his excellent relations with the Arab
community in Palestine, he was asked by the Haganah underground
militia to investigate the murder of two Jews killed by Arabs in an am-
bush on the Hadera-Qalqilya road in the early summer of 1936. Im-
pressed by his detection of the perpetrators, the leaders of the Haganah
asked Danin to establish an Arab Department in the Haganah for col-
lecting and interpreting information on the Arabs in Palestine. After
the establishment of the Information Service(Shai) in 1940, the Arab
Department was incorporated into the Shai.
Danin was intelligence minded and adopted a scientific approach,
analyzing every fact and every incident to distinguish an ally from an
enemy. He may be regarded as the man who laid foundations for the
establishment of the intelligence organization within the Haganah.
Nevertheless, Danin retained his independent status and was never
formally employed by the Haganah.DAR, AVRAHAM (1919–?).Born in Petah-Tikva, Israel, prior to the es-
tablishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Dar worked for the Mossad74 • DANIN, EZRA06-102 (02) A-G.qxd 3/24/06 7:23 AM Page 74