Historical Dictionary of Israeli Intelligence

Retiring from the IDF with the rank of major general, Shaltiel

joined the Foreign Ministry as Israeli minister in Brazil and Mexico

and later as ambassador to the Netherlands.

SHAMAI, SHAUL.An intelligence officer in Military Intelligence,

Shamai at the beginning of the 1967 Six-Day Warsucceeded in

breaking the Egyptian army code. This enabled the Israel Defense

Forces to confuse the Egyptian army and air force with false orders.

Israeli officers ordered an Egyptian MiG pilot to release his bombs

over the sea instead of carrying out an attack on Israeli positions.

When the pilot questioned the veracity of the order, the Israeli intel-

ligence officer gave the pilot details on his wife and family. The pi-

lot indeed dropped his bombs over the Mediterranean and parachuted

to safety.

SHAMIR, YITZHAK (1915– ).Born Yitzhak Jazernicki in Ruzinoy,

Poland, Shamir eventually served as prime minister of Israel

(1983–1984 and 1986–1992). In 1935 he moved to Palestine and sub-

sequently joined the Irgun, a Jewish underground militia opposed to

the British Mandate in Palestine. In 1940, when the Irgun split into

different groups, Shamir joined Abraham Stern’s radical breakaway

faction, called the Stern Group. British authorities imprisoned Shamir

in 1941 and executed Stern in 1942. After managing to escape from

the British, Shamir became one of three leaders of the Stern Group in

1943. Under his leadership, the group carried out numerous actions,
      including the assassinations of Britain’s state minister for the Middle
      East, Lord Moyne, in 1944 and the UN’s Middle East representative,
      Count Folke Bernadotte, in 1948.
      In 1955 Yitzhak Shamir was recruited to the Mossad by its direc-
      tor, Isser Harel, whose policy was to seek out former militia mem-
      bers from the prestate period who had skills in carrying out under-
      ground activities. Once in the Mossad, Shamir was appointed head of
      covert operations, and in that capacity he recruited his former Stern
      Group comrades to undertake Mossad operations.
      In 1956 Shamir was stationed in Paris, where he served as a case
      officer under the code name Samuel Singer. In February 1963 he be-
      came a pivotal figure in the Damocles Operation, in which he di-
      rected a hit team in the assassination of Dr. Hans Kleinwachter, a

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