other-side-of-deception-victor-ostrovsky

per in Israel called Maariv, published an extremely devastating interviewwith me that he claimed to have conducted in Toronto. The interviewcovered almost two full newspaper pages. The man onlyneglected to mention that we'd never met and that I'd never spoken tohim.The Canadian judge had barred all discussion of the book for a~eriod of ten days. I knew that this was the interval of time that theMossad had to try to stop me. From time to time, I caught them followingme, and I would take steps to get away. Whenever I did, Ithanked Mousa and Dov for the great training they'd given me.Before the ten days were up, I realized it was time to get out ofToronto and go back home. I was running out of ways to leave theStoddart offices without developing a pattern. I was also extremelyfrustrated. By then, I'd been on the ABC evening news with Peter Jennings,on NBC with Tom Brokaw, and on just about every major network,but because of the gag order, I could say almost nothing. ThereI was, like a dummy, in front of the whole world.When I got back to Ottawa, I was met by a second wave of mediathat was with me from the moment the plane landed.There were Israeli reporters and crews from the local media. WhatI found stranger than anything else was the fact that I was barred fromtalking about the contents of my book or even handling a copy, whileOded Ben-Ami, the representative of Israeli radio, was reading sectionsof it over the phone to his audience in Israel.When I finally got to the house, I was surprised to receive a shortmessage from my father, who'd heard about the book for the first timethrough the media. "Call me," the message said. "Whatever happens,I'm always your dad." I really needed that. We'd already established arelationship since I'd come to live in Canada. But this was somethingthat I'd really hoped for. When I needed him most, he was there. Icalled him, and we took it from there, as if nothing had happened. Isuppose I shouldn't have been surprised. After all, it was he who'dalways maintained, even after the great frenzy of triumph that hadswept the Jewish world after the Israeli victory in the Six-Day War in1967, that Arabs should be treated with dignity and respect, that notall Arabs are bad and not every Israeli is automatically an angel. Fromthat telephone call on, we were the best of friends.Several days later, I managed to make contact with Ephraim. Ilearned that the Mossad was going to let me be for now. If any stepswere to be taken against me, they would be in the disinformationdepartment and not against my person. I still knew that this was avery unstable guarantee and that if I should leave Canada and venture-THE OTHIK Sll)k OF DECEFTIOS / 265even as far as the United States, things could change rather fast.Accordingly, I decided to publicize By Way of Deception by doingshows across the United States and Canada via phone. I managedover two hundred shows in less than three months, and I also dida long string of television shows by satellite.From Toronto, I appeared on Good Morning America with CharlesGibson, and found him to be as charming an interviewer as he was ahost. It was quite a treat for me, since I'd watched him every morningfrom the day he'd debuted on the show.Then there was the Larry King Show, by which time the gag orderwas lifted, where I received somewhat rougher treatment. To buildsome contentiousness into the hour, the show's producers had invitedAmos Perelmuter, a professor from the American University in Washington,D.C., to join King and me. From the start, it was clear thatPerelmuter was an enthusiastic supporter of the state of Israel, andthat what he'd heard about my book-he admitted he hadn't read ithedidn't like.There was never enough time on such shows to put Perelmuterand other "designated champions of Israel" on the spot. How did theyknow that everything I was saying was lies? I was the one who'dserved in the Mossad, not they. Why was it that these loyal Americanswere willing to accept any mud thrown at the CIA without even givingit a second thought, but insisted on defending to the hilt an intelligenceagency of a foreign country that had been known to spy on theUnited States (as in the Pollard case) and hadn't refrained from attackingAmerican interests (as in the case of the Lavon2 affair in Egypt,among " others)?The first wave of fury the book caused was due to its revelationthat the Mossad had advance knowledge of the notorious suicidebombing in Beirut (including the make and color of the car) but didn'tpass on that information to American intelligence. In October 1983,two hundred and forty-one U.S. marines were killed when the car,rigged with explosives, rammed their barracks in Beirut. In manyinstances, this story from the book was taken out of context and told2. Lavon affair: This affair took lace in the 1950s and concerned Pinhas Lavon,then the Israeli minister of defense. Several Egyptian Jews were organized into aterrorist cell and sent to sabotage American targets in Egypt, the point being totry to sour the relationship between Israel and America. The plan failed, and themen were arrested. A lengthy and politically painful ordeal followed in Israel; itnever became clear who gave the order for this disgraceful operation, but as minsterof defense, Lavon was made ultimately responsible.