Although Kimche was regarded as apolitical, he identified him-
self with the Israeli Labor party. At the time of the 1977 general
elections, Kimche was concerned that the Likud party would defeat
Labor because of the latter’s pragmatic stance on political matters.
But when the Likud did in fact form a government, under Men-
achem Begin, the new prime minister’s first step was to appoint
Moshe Dayan, a Labor politician, to be foreign minister. A few
months after Begin came to power, he requested Kimche, by now
deputy director of the Mossad, to utilize his relations with the Mo-
roccan Secret Service to persuade King Hassan to play the role of
middleman between Begin and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat.
Morocco thus became the venue for several secret meetings be-
tween Israeli and Egyptian officials that preceded Sadat’s visit to
Israel and the subsequent Egyptian-Israeli peace process. In partic-
ular, Kimche accompanied Dayan to a critical meeting in Morocco
with Egypt’s deputy prime minister, Hassan Tohami.
The initiation of the peace process with Egypt altered Kimche’s atti-
tude toward the Likud. In 1980 Begin even considered making Kimche
director of the Mossad, to succeed Yitzhak Hofi. The new foreign min-
ister, Yitzhak Shamir, also supported the nomination of Kimche, who
in the Mossad had won a reputation for keen perception and excellent
analysis. But Hofi, with whom Kimche had strained relations, vetoed
the plan, accusing Kimche of plotting against him and of trying to es-
tablish a personal bureaucratic and financial empire within the Mossad.
The struggle between the two threatened to turn into a major scandal;
after a bitter row with Hofi, Kimche resigned from the Mossad.
Kimche then approached the Jerusalem Postfor a position on the
daily’s staff. He had published many articles under various pseudo-
nyms while still serving in the Mossad, particularly on Third World
countries. The editor and the owners of the newspaper hoped that
Kimche’s international reputation would help turn the Jerusalem Post
into a major global medium. However, the editorial staff rebelled
against the nomination of a former intelligence official.
Foreign Minister Shamir, himself a former Mossad official, then
offered Kimche the post of director-general of the Foreign Ministry.
He accepted the job and approached it still with the mind of a Mossad
officer. Because of his highly developed relations with the Maronite
community in Lebanon, Kimche became one of the architects of Is-148 • KIMCHE, DAVID06-102 (03) H-P.qxd 3/24/06 7:24 AM Page 148