Controversy Over Book on Mossad

According to your report (Part A, Sept. 14), the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court has dismissed a stay issued by a lower court judge, which had been sought by the Israeli government on the grounds that publication of a book, “By Way of Deception,” would endanger the lives of members of Mossad, its intelligence agency. The work, authored by Victor Ostrovosky, a former member of Mossad, who had been dismissed because of his unreliability, is being published.

Certain people will see in this an opportunity to have a field day. Alexander Cockburn, your far-left, Jew-hating, Israel-bashing columnist, has been one of the first (Commentary, Sept. 14).

Let us suppose that a dismissed, former American CIA agent writes a book in which he accuses the U.S. of various actions harmful to Israel, and in which he names and thereby endangers the lives of secret CIA agents stationed in various parts of the world. He then goes to Israel and there has it published and distributed. Can you possibly imagine the uproar that would be directed against Israel?

One of Ostrovosky’s accusations is that Israel withheld from the United States information it had obtained regarding the planned Arab attack in Beirut in 1983, which took 241 American lives. Such a charge is absurd. About the same time, an Israeli installation in Southern Lebanon was also bombed with great loss of life. Over the years, Israeli intelligence has transmitted to the United States hundreds of pieces of vital intelligence information worth tens of billions of dollars.

Every rogue is now trying to cash in on the false notion that because of the end of the Cold War, Israel is no longer of importance as a strategic American ally. Hopefully, they will not succeed. The alliance should remain intact.

SOL MODELL

Woodland Hills