Historical Dictionary of Israeli Intelligence

(coco) #1
the trial began in camera in a Swiss federal court in Lausanne. Ben
Tal was convicted and sentenced to a one-year suspended prison term
and to deportation from Switzerland, in addition to paying costs of
100,000 Swiss francs. He was released and returned to Israel.
Al-Zayn denied any connections to Hizbullah. He subsequently ac-
quired Swiss citizenship by paying the large sum that obtaining that
status required—the money most probably paid by the Mossad to
forestall Al-Zayn’s possible civil suit against Tal.

FEINBERG, AVSHALOM (?–1917).One of the founders of NILI, a
secret intelligence network set up during World War I. In January
1917, Feinberg and Yosef Lishansky,disguised as Bedouins, at-
tempted to enter Egypt by land. They were ambushed by Bedouins
close to El Arish, near the British front in the Sinai Peninsula. Fein-
berg was killed and Lishansky was wounded, but he found his way to
the British lines and joined Aharon Aaronsohn.
In 1967, during the Six-Day War, Israeli soldiers came upon a date
palm which had been named “The Grave of the Jew” by the desert no-
mads. Upon investigation, it was revealed that the Jew buried under
the tree was Avshalom Feinberg and that the tree had grown from a
date in his pocket. Feinberg’s body was exhumed and reburied on
Mount Herzl in Jerusalem among the graves of Israel’s heroes.

FIELD SECURITY.See MILITARY INTELLIGENCE.

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE AUTHORITY/RASHUT LE’MOD-


I’IN BE’HUL. See CENTER FOR POLITICAL RESEARCH;
MOSSAD.

FRANK, PAUL.See BAD BUSINESS; ELAD, AVRAHAM (AVRI).

FRANK, YA’ACOV (1913–1993).Ya’acov Frank was a member of
the Haganah in his youth. During World War II, he fought in the U.S.
Army in the Philippines and was seriously wounded, for which he
was awarded U.S. citizenship and a lifelong pension. During his so-
journ in New York, Frank was an operative of the Mossad Le’Aliyah
Beth, engaged in acquiring cargo vessels aboard which he smuggled
illegal immigrants from Europe to Palestine. In Israel’s War of Inde-

92 • FEINBERG, AVSHALOM

06-102 (02) A-G.qxd 3/24/06 7:23 AM Page 92

Free download pdf