Historical Dictionary of Israeli Intelligence

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War of Independence, Yariv served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)
as deputy battalion commander in the Alexandroni Brigade and bat-
talion commander in the Carmel Brigade. He fought in battles in the
north of Israel and in the conquest of Nazareth. He became section
head in the Operations Department of the General Staff in 1951. Yariv
headed the team that established the Command and Staff School
(1952–1954) and served as its first commander (1954–1956). He was
chief of staff of the Central Command in 1957, and thereafter military
attaché at the Israeli embassies in the United States and Canada
(1957–1960). Upon returning from the United States, he became com-
mander of the Golani Brigade (1960–1961). Yariv served as director
of Military Intelligencefrom 1964 until 1972.
After retiring from the IDF in 1972, Yariv became an adviser on
terrorismto Prime Minister Golda Meir (1972–1973). During the
1973 Yom Kippur War, Yariv performed IDF reserve duty as a spe-
cial assistant to the chief of the General Staff, and shortly after the
war he conducted the disengagement negotiations with Egypt. He
served as a member of the Knesset (1974–1977) and, in his last posi-
tion, Yariv headed the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studiesat Tel
Aviv University (1977–1994).

YASSIN, ADNAN.Yassin was a deputy to the Palestinian ambassador
in Tunisia, Hakam Bala’wi, and later Yasser Arafat’s security chief.
He was recruited to the Mossadin Europe under a “false flag,” be-
lieving he was working for NATO instead of Israel. The ploy was as
follows. In Paris in 1990 Yassin met an Egyptian, Abu Hilmi, appar-
ently a Mossad agent. Yassin told Abu Hilmi about his financial prob-
lems due to his sick wife having to undergo expensive medical treat-
ment in Europe. Abu Hilmi introduced Yassin to “George,” a Mossad
case officer, who presented himself as a wealthy Lebanese business-
man working for NATO.
George asked Yassin for updated information on the Palestinian
Liberation Organization (PLO), then headquartered in Tunis, for pay-
ment. Initially the sum was fairly substantial, but after the “fish was
landed,” the amounts dwindled. Yassin was no longer in a position to
refuse; if he did not provide the merchandise, his handler could ex-
pose him to the Palestinians. At one of their meetings, George sug-
gested that Yassin, as a “gesture” to his boss Arafat, take him an or-
thopedic chair: it was well known that he suffered back pains after

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