Historical Dictionary of Israeli Intelligence

rael and the Palestinians, and the peace process that followed this

declaration.

MI believed that Syria’s military movements in the Golan Heights

in 1996 were preparations for war. This assessment proved incorrect.

The Israeli intelligence community did not foresee the Palestinian

uprising in response to the opening of the Jerusalem tunnels leading

to the Western Wall in 1996.

In the 1990s MI’s apocalyptic and unequivocal evaluation of the

danger inherent in an Israeli pullout from the security zone of Lebanon

prevented such a withdrawal. In retrospect, there was clearly no foun-

dation for the grim prospect. The price paid by IDF forces remaining

in the security zone was extremely costly in terms of human life. Israeli

intelligence overestimated Hizbullah’s military reaction to Israel’s uni-

lateral withdrawal from Lebanon, and recommended that Israel retain

a military presence in southern Lebanon to defend Israeli civilians liv-

ing in northern towns.

No one in the Israeli intelligence community predicted the 11 Sep-

tember 2001 terrorist attack on the United States. MI overestimated

Iraq’s nonconventional weapons capability.

AVENGERS.A small group of soldiers of the Jewish Brigade and Holo-

caust survivors who called themselves Avengers or Nokmim. The

members of this group secretly searched for Nazi criminals in Italy,

Austria, and Germany after World War II. Shimon Avidan, Yisrael

Carmi, Chaim Laskov, and Meir Zorea commanded this group. The

Avengers operated for about half a year and executed the Nazi crimi-

nals they found. The members of the group operated in British uni-

forms, using British military documentation, equipment, and vehicles.

AVERGIL, HAIM.An Israeli citizen who had immigrated from Mo-

rocco, Avergil left his home in Lod, Israel, in summer 1957 and

crossed the border to Jordan. There he offered to spy for Jordanian in-

telligence against Israel in return for their promise to help him return

to his parents in Morocco.

Later in 1957 Avergil interrogated Israelis who had inadvertently

crossed the border into Jordan, or had done so illegally as an adventur-

ous exploit, a relatively common activity at that time. On their release,

some of those interrogated reported to the Israeli authorities that their

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