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By Way of Deception

By Way of Deception

By Way of Deception

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172 BY WAY OF DECEPTIONI talked to Sherf, who said there was nothing he could do, either."But this is a setup," I said."It doesn't matter" Sherf replied. "There is nothing you can do."So I quit. It was the last week in March 1986.The next day a friend <strong>of</strong> mine from the navy called to ask why myfile had been taken from the special holding place where they arekept so that Mossad <strong>of</strong>ficers won't be called up for the reserves.(Most people in Israel serve 30, 60, or 90 days a year in thereserves. That includes unmarried women and all men up to age55. The higher the rank, the longer the service.)Normally, if you left the Mossad, your file was put back in theregular reserve file, but with the order that this person was not tobe assigned to front-line activities. That was because they knewtoo much. And so, my friend, blissfully unaware <strong>of</strong> the internalproblems, wondered why the file had been transferred. Heassumed it was something I had requested myself, because itusually took five or six months after leaving the Mossad for the filetransfer. I had been gone one day. Worse, the file carried a requestto transfer me to liaison with the Southern Lebanese army, asgood as a death warrant for an ex-Mossad man.I figured this had gone too far. So I talked to Bella, packed mythings, took a Tower Air charter flight to London, then TWA to NewYork. After a couple <strong>of</strong> days there, I flew to see my father inOmaha.The day after I left, a recruiting order was hand-delivered to myhouse in Tel Aviv. Normally that process would take about 60days, with another 30 days to prepare.Bella accepted the order. But the next day, the phone startedringing, with <strong>of</strong>ficials demanding to know where I was. Why Ihadn't shown up for service yet. She said I was out <strong>of</strong> the country."How could that be?" the <strong>of</strong>ficial said. "He didn't get a release fromthe army."Actually, I did. Well, not exactly from the army. I made my ownrelease, stamped it myself, and then flew the coop.

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