David Kimche

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David Kimche (1928-2010) was Deputy Head of Mossad before becoming Director General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry in 1980. He was a key player in the Iran-Contra affair.[1]

Background

Kimche came from an eastern European family which moved from Switzerland to England. He emigrated to Palestine in 1946.[2]

Mossad

Kimche was recruited into the Mossad in 1953. As an intelligence officer, he sought to build links with non-Arab and non-Muslim minorities in the Middle East.[3]

Africa

In the 1960s, Kimche was a key player in Mossad operations in Africa, sometimes working under the pseudonym "David Sharon".[4]

He was present in Zanzibar in 1964, during a revolution in which the island's black majority overthrew the Arab sultan.[4]

Kurdistan

In 1965, Kimche became the first Israeli envoy to visit Iraqi Kurdistan.[5]

Moroccan negotiations

By 1977, Kimche was assistant to Mossad chief Yitzhak Hofi. Shortly after the May 1977 Israeli election, the new Prime Minister Menachem Begin ordered Hofi to Morocco to meet King Hassan II and the Deputy Prime Minister of Egypt, Hassan Tohami.[6]

Kimche accompanied Moshe Dayan to another meeting with Tohami in Morocco on 16 September 1977. Dayan offered to withdraw from the Sinai, paving the way for President Anwar Sadat's visit to Jerusalem two months later.[7]

Lebanon

At some point, during his career, Kimche was responsible for Mossad activities in Lebanon.[8]

Retirement from Mossad

Kimche hoped to take over as head of the Mossad, but Hofi blocked his succession, according to Melman and Raviv, because he resented him acting as a "one-man organisation", wasting money and running operations that were not reported to his chief. Kimche retired from the Mossad in 1980.[9]

Foreign Ministry

Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir recruited Kimche as director-general of the Foreign Ministry, although Kimche retained his ambition to head the Mossad, and kept up his contact there.[6]

Arik's Court

Kimche was an occasional participant in the unofficial forums that came to be known as 'Arik's Court' around Defence Minister Ariel Sharon in the early 1980s.[10]

Kimche continued to believe in the 'peripheral strategy' which saw Iran as a potential ally of Israel. In February 1982, he and Yaakov Nimrodi appeared on the BBC's Panorama programme calling for a coup in Iran.[11]

Kimche along with Yaakov Nimrodi and Al Schwimmer, accompanied Sharon to a meeting with Sudanese President Gaafar Numeiri and Adnan Khashoggi in Kenya on 13 May 1982. On his return, he informed Hofi that Mossad would be permitted to set up a station in Sudan. However, Hofi vetoed the covert operations that had been planned at the Kenya meeting, including a coup attempt in Iran.[12]

On 4 November 1982, Kimche defended Israel's actions in Lebanon in the wake of the Sabra and Shatila massacres, in an address to the Royal Institute of International Affairs marking the anniversary of the Balfour declaration, which was also attended by his brother Jon Kimche:

Kimche stated: "I am sure you don't want me to belabor this point further. Israel is doing something about what happened in (the Shatila and Sabra camps) in Beirut which no other country in similar circumstances -- and they are legion -- has done ... I need hardly remind you that the massacre was committed by Lebanese and not by Israelis, and that no Israeli soldiers took part in the horrible episode, and that as soon as we realized what was happening we put a stop to it."[13]

Iran-Contra

In April 1984, US national Secuurity Advisor Robert McFarlane asked Howard Teicher to discuss Israeli aid to the Contras with Kimche.[14]

In the mid-1980s, Kimche was one of three Israelis authorised by Shimon Peres to cooperate with the US in trading arms to Iran for hostages in the Lebanon.[15]

Kimche informed US National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane of potential contacts with Iran and passed on an analysis of the regime by Manucher Ghorbanifar.[16]

After a visit to Israel by Michael Ledeen, Peres sent Kimche to Washington to brief McFarlane.[17]

According to McFarlane, Kimche raised the issue of a possible arms deal with Iran in July and early August 1985.[18]

Andrew and Leslie Cockburn suggest that the arms for hostages deal may have been conceived by Shimon Peres following his party's return to power as a way for Labour financiers to muscle in on the Iran arms trade over the objections of Mossad.[19]

Shaul Eisenberg

After leaving full-time government service in 1985, Kimche went to work for Shaul Eisenberg, according to Andrew and Leslie Cockburn.[20]

Affiliations

Connections

External Resources

Notes

  1. ↑ Isabel Kershner, David Kimche, an Israeli Adept as Spy and Diplomat, Dies at 82, New York Times, 9 March 2010.
  2. ↑ Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv, Every Spy a Prince: The Secret History of Israel's Intelligence Community, Houghton Mifflin, 1991, p.154-155.
  3. ↑ Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv, Every Spy a Prince: The Secret History of Israel's Intelligence Community, Houghton Mifflin, 1991, p.155.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv, Every Spy a Prince: The Secret History of Israel's Intelligence Community, Houghton Mifflin, 1991, p.154-155.
  5. ↑ Andrew and Leslie Cockburn, Dangerous Liaison, The Bodley Head, 1992, p.105 .
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv, Every Spy a Prince: The Secret History of Israel's Intelligence Community, Houghton Mifflin, 1991, p.221.
  7. ↑ Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv, Every Spy a Prince: The Secret History of Israel's Intelligence Community, Houghton Mifflin, 1991, p.222.
  8. ↑ Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv, Every Spy a Prince: The Secret History of Israel's Intelligence Community, Houghton Mifflin, 1991, p.266h.
  9. ↑ Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv, Every Spy a Prince: The Secret History of Israel's Intelligence Community, Houghton Mifflin, 1991, p.258.
  10. ↑ Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv, Every Spy a Prince: The Secret History of Israel's Intelligence Community, Houghton Mifflin, 1991, p.257.
  11. ↑ Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv, Every Spy a Prince: The Secret History of Israel's Intelligence Community, Houghton Mifflin, 1991, p.331.
  12. ↑ Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv, Every Spy a Prince: The Secret History of Israel's Intelligence Community, Houghton Mifflin, 1991, pp.261-263.
  13. ↑ Maurice Samuelson, [ Meeting to Note Anniversary of Balfour Declaration Marked by Denunciation of Britain’s Policy], Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 5 Nov 1982.
  14. ↑ Andrew and Leslie Cockburn, Dangerous Liaison, The Bodley Head, 1992, p.230.
  15. ↑ Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv, Every Spy a Prince: The Secret History of Israel's Intelligence Community, Houghton Mifflin, 1991, pp.324-328.
  16. ↑ Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv, Every Spy a Prince: The Secret History of Israel's Intelligence Community, Houghton Mifflin, 1991, p.335.
  17. ↑ Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv, Every Spy a Prince: The Secret History of Israel's Intelligence Community, Houghton Mifflin, 1991, p.
  18. ↑ Andrew and Leslie Cockburn, Dangerous Liaison, The Bodley Head, 1992, p.338.
  19. ↑ Andrew and Leslie Cockburn, Dangerous Liaison, The Bodley Head, 1992, p.339-340.
  20. ↑ Andrew and Leslie Cockburn, Dangerous Liaison, The Bodley Head, 1992, p.12.
  21. ↑ Patrons & Trustees, Next Century Foundation for Peace, archived at the Internet Archive 16 December 2004, accessed 16 january 2013.
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