Envoy, Officer to Head Israel Spy Agency

Moving to rehabilitate Israel’s troubled spy agency, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late Wednesday gave the Mossad two new leaders--one a diplomat with friendly ties to estranged ally Jordan and the other a decorated military commander.

The appointments were seen as an attempt to stabilize an agency reeling from failed missions that embarrassed the government and exposed a demoralized, sloppy Mossad.

Efraim Halevy, a former deputy director of the Mossad and Israel’s ambassador to the European Union, was nominated as the new head of the agency, replacing Danny Yatom.

Yatom resigned last week after being blamed for a bungled assassination attempt against an Islamic militant leader in Jordan.

For the post of deputy director, Netanyahu named army Maj. Gen. Amiram Levine, a veteran officer who now commands Israeli troops occupying southern Lebanon.

Halevy, described as an effective decision-maker with strong international credentials, will reportedly direct the Mossad for two years while Levine is groomed to take over. Levine, who once commanded Netanyahu in an elite commando unit, is regarded as a master of operations but has little experience in intelligence.

“I believe the combination of Halevy and Levine, in terms of capabilities and experience, is that which is necessary to the Mossad at this time,” Netanyahu said at a Wednesday night news conference. “I will not deny that the Mossad has suffered damage, both substantive and in image, as a result of mishaps but also as a result of reports that were unnecessary, irresponsible and at times even false. . . . I want to return Mossad to secrecy.”

Israel’s attorney general, apparently on government orders, was reported earlier this week to have launched an investigation into leaks to the press that divulged the tripping up of another Mossad operation in Switzerland last month. In that operation, Swiss police caught five alleged Mossad spies trying to bug a purported Islamic agent. One of the Israelis remains in custody in a Swiss jail.

Netanyahu made the appointments after consulting former Mossad directors. He sought a candidate who was enough of an outsider to be able to institute reform but who was also enough of an insider to command the loyalty of the members of a network that once inspired awe among critics and admirers alike.

Halevy has been instrumental in smoothing over relations with a furious King Hussein of Jordan in the wake of the Mossad assassination attempt against a Hamas leader in Amman, the Jordanian capital, in September. Jordan is Israel’s closest Arab ally and losing its cooperation would prove disastrous. Netanyahu, however, said he was not naming Mossad directors “to please Jordan.”

The decision on the Mossad came as Netanyahu suffered a political setback in elections for the Israeli presidency. His candidate was defeated by popular incumbent Ezer Weizman. The outspoken Weizman was reelected to the largely ceremonial post by the Knesset after an unusually contentious race laced with ethnic innuendo.

On a 63-49 vote, Weizman, scion of an Israeli founding family, defeated Moroccan-born Shaul Amor, a little-known mayor and lawmaker from Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud Party.

No other president had faced a challenge for reelection, and in a departure, Netanyahu campaigned on Amor’s behalf with last-minute calls to Knesset members soliciting their support.

Opposition leaders jumped on the results. “This is a defeat for [Netanyahu], who tried to interfere in the elections in an unprecedented manner,” said Ehud Barak, head of the opposition Labor Party and a supporter of Weizman.

Netanyahu rejected that characterization, saying the election was good for democracy, and he pledged to work with Weizman.

The powers of the presidency are minimal, but Weizman used the post to attack Netanyahu policies that he did not agree with, including the premier’s inability to revive the peace process with the Palestinians. Weizman told reporters Wednesday evening that he was not about to change his ways.

Liberal pundits said Weizman’s contribution to Israeli politics is his role as rhetorical counterbalance to Netanyahu. “As [Netanyahu] insidiously and with surprising success leads an indifferent nation to the ruination of the peace settlement with the Palestinians, we need a president who will not hesitate to take a stand occasionally,” commentator Gideon Samet wrote in the independent daily Haaretz. “It is bitter testimony to the political climate in Israel that an erratic figure like [Weizman], who has already reversed himself more than once, is one of the last remaining hopes to jolt a drowsy nation out of its perilous siesta.”