other-side-of-deception-victor-ostrovsky

236 / VICTOR OSTRO\'SKY THt OTHER SIDE O F DECEPTIOS / 237"There is no expert in this world," Ephraim said (and Uri noddedas he spoke), "who will doubt you once they see the questionnaire.You'd have to be from the Mossad to be able to know so many thingsto ask about."I had to agree. We hashed over more subjects. It was importantthat we not include things in the book that might nurture anti-Semitism-at least, that was the way we saw it. We all agreed, forexample, that the subject of testing medications on blacks in SouthAfrica was too much and would strike too hard a blow against Israel,since the medical personnel who'd been sent to Africa would be associatedwith the state and not understood as being totally controlled bythe Mossad. The same treatment was given to the direct links theMossad had with the Kahane people, the Anti-Defamation League ofthe B'nai Brith, the AIPAC, and the UJA. The only subject that wedecided needed airing was the ~ramesl and the youth camps calledHets va-keshet (meaning "bow and arrow") that the Mossad organizesto bring young Jewish kids to Israel for the summer. After fillingthe kids with a large dose of militant Zionism, the Mossad sends themback as the spies of the future.They all agreed that I should include in the book all the names ofcase officers that I knew were burned. That meant people whose photosI saw in Egypt, in Jordan, and in the British embassy. Ephraimwould make sure they weren't in the field when the book came out.Having their full names in the book would prevent them from workingoutside the country again, which was good for their own protection.!"So what do you think will be the book's biggest point?" askedEli."If I had to choose one thing people will focus on, I'd say it will bethe cooperation the Mossad gets all over the world from the Jewishcommunity and the way it takes advantage of that trust." They allagreed with me. And we were all wrong.I headed back home from the meeting and hid the list that I'd preparedat the meeting in a safe place where Bella wouldn't find it. Shewas still at the T-shirt store we'd opened on Bank Street in downtownOttawa.The following day, I scouted the bookstores and the library fornames of local authors, searching for a man with the writing ability1and the courage to join me in this effort to right wrongs. I knew find--I.2. Frames: Jew~sh self-protection units set up by the Mossad all over the world.IIiing him was not going to be an easy task. It had to be a man with agood reputation who had a nose for politics but who was not such anexpert on the world of intelligence that he would try to make the bookfit his idea of espionage. He had to live in the area, not be Jewish, andhave the time and the interest to do it.At a store several blocks from our place on Bank, I saw a bookcalled Friends in Hlgh Places about the Canadian prime minister. Theauthor, Claire Hoy, was a local reporter working in the parliamentarypress gallery. I decided to call him and see what happened. Heresponded well, and we had a meeting at a small coffee shop on BankStreet. After I'd explained to him what I was proposing, he was all forit. I had a partner, and I was on my way to putting a real dent in theMossad's armor. We were going to attack, from the outside, and putthe ,Mossad in the only place in which it's vulnerable: in the spotlight.Claire and I spent almost a month preparing the first chapter ofthe book and tightening the outline. Then we made our first approachto a publisher.We had a meeting at the Toronto offices of the company that hadpublished Friends in High Places. The publisher we spoke to turned usdown. At the time, I was very nervous, since I realized the secret wasstarting to get out. There was no guarantee that the publisher who'dturned us down would not talk about what we'd told her in the meeting.All I know today is that if she did talk, then someone was asleepat Mossad headquarters, because they did nothing.Claire continued with the writing while he tried to set us up with anew publisher. His work was cut out for him because he couldn't tellthe publisher much, and he had to find one who would be willing towork in secret. The fact that we'd come out of the meeting with hisfirst publisher in one piece was more a matter of luck than anything,as was the fact that I couldn't detect the Mossad anywhere in thevicinity. Nor did news of our unsuccessful meeting reach the ears ofEphraim or Uri, who by then were back in Mossad headquarters."We have a meeting with a man by the name of Nelson Doucet,"Hoy said to me one day. "He's from a publishing house in Torontocalled Stoddart, and he's a good man." By then, I'd come to knowClaire and I trusted him, something I've never regretted. We met withNelson at a restaurant in Ottawa called Hy's, and over a great steak(which I hardly got to eat because I was doing all the talking) and abottle of good French wine, we closed a deal. Claire and I were goingto be fifty-fifty partners as far as the authorship was concerned, andStoddart was going to give us an eighty-thousand-dollar advance. Nelsonbelieved the book would cause quite a stir. Stoddart had had expe-