Efraim Halevy | |
|---|---|
אפרים הלוי | |
 Efraim Halevy in 2014 | |
| 3rd National Security Advisor (Israel) | |
| In office September 2002 – August 2003 | |
| Preceded by | Uzi Dayan |
| Succeeded by | Israel Michaeli |
| 9th Director ofMossad | |
| In office 1998–2002 | |
| Preceded by | Danny Yatom |
| Succeeded by | Meir Dagan |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1934-12-02)2 December 1934 (age 91) London, United Kingdom |
| Alma mater | Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Law) |
Efraim Halevy (Hebrew:אפרים הלוי; born 2 December 1934) is anIsraeliintelligence expert and diplomat. He was the 9th director of theMossad and the 3rd head of theIsraeli National Security Council.
He is known for his part in bringing about theIsrael–Jordan peace treaty. The special relationship he developed with KingHussein of Jordan made it possible for Halevy to open Jordan to the awareness that only a peace agreement with Israel would extricate the Hashemite kingdom from the crisis after the Gulf War.[1]
Halevy was born inLondon,United Kingdom to an establishedOrthodox Jewish family on 2 December 1934. His uncle wasSir Isaiah Berlin. Halevy emigrated to Israel in 1948. He attended Ma'aleh, a religious high school inJerusalem. He later graduated with commendation in law from theHebrew University of Jerusalem.
Between 1957 and 1961 he was the editor of the journalMonthly Survey (סקירה חודשית), published by the Chief Education Officer. In 1961, he began his work in the Mossad. In 1967, he was selected to the Chief Branches Forum.
Halevy remained in the Mossad for the next 28 years, heading three different branches throughout. Halevy had a working relationship withHussein of Jordan which developed into a close personal friendship. Hussein trusted Halevy both with sensitive Jordanian internal issues and clandestine contact to act as a back channel with Israel whenever relations reached an impasse. As a result of his warm relations with Hussein, Halevy, along withYitzhak Rabin, is credited with being a major force in movement towards theIsrael–Jordan peace treaty[2]
Between 1990 and 1995, under the directorship ofShabtai Shavit, he served as deputy director and as head of the headquarters branch. In 1996, he became the Israeli ambassador to theEuropean Union in Brussels.[citation needed]
In March 1998, he became the director of Mossad following the resignation ofDanny Yatom. He askedAliza Magen-Halevy, the sitting deputy director, to stay on.[3] Halevy served as the envoy and confidant of fivePrime Ministers:Yitzhak Shamir,Yitzhak Rabin,Benjamin Netanyahu,Ehud Barak andAriel Sharon. He took an active part in a special mission by Rabin in forging theIsrael–Jordan Treaty of Peace.[citation needed]
After the failure of the Mossad operation to assassinateHamas leaderKhaled Mashal in 1997, he took an active part inBenjamin Netanyahu's mission to return the Mossad men captured inJordan, and to settle the crisis with the King Hussein of Jordan. The King himself had specifically requested that Halevy not be involved because the former did not want the sordid affair to tarnish his personal relationship with Halevy, but ultimately Halevy responded to Netanyahu's pleas and traveled to Amman to break the deadlock.[2]
In October 2002, he was appointed the second head of the National Security Council and an advisor to Prime MinisterAriel Sharon. In August 2003, he resigned from this position[4] afterDov Weissglass, the bureau chief of Prime MinisterAriel Sharon, got too much power and he believed theRoadmap for peace was not favourable for Israel,[1] and Prime Minister Sharon refrained from accepting his recommendations on a host of issues, and went to teach atHebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of the bookThe role of theintelligence community in the age of strategic alternatives for Israel.[citation needed]
Halevy is known as a hard-headed pragmatist on issues involving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, willing to ruffle feathers on the right and the left, unlike many others in the intelligence establishment who are known to take more extreme ideological positions on these issues. He believes that Israel should take up Hamas's offer of a long-term truce and try negotiating, because the Islamic movement is respected by Palestinians and generally keeps its word, he said. He pointed to the cease-fire in attacks on Israel that Hamas declared two years ago and has largely honoured. "They're not very pleasant people, but they are very, very credible," Halevy said.[5] He believes in an aggressive approach, but at the same time in recognising the moderate leaders of Hamas as a partner in the Palestinian government.[4][6]
In 2006 he published the bookMan in the Shadows,[7] covering Middle Eastern history since the late 1980s. Halevy was interviewed about his book onThe Daily Show withJon Stewart on 24 April 2006, and by guest host Brian Ross on theCharlie Rose Show.[8]
In a January 2007 interview with the Portuguese newspaperExpresso, he stated that the world is "in the midst of a Third World War" with radical Islam, and predicted that it will take at least 25 years for the West to win.[9]
In November 2011 Halevy said Iran should be prevented from becoming a nuclear power but expressed opposition to an attack which he said "could affect not only Israel, but the entire region for 100 years." He added "The growingharedi radicalization poses a bigger risk thanAhmadinejad".[10] In 2015 he was one of the few public figures in Israel to support theIran nuclear deal.[11]
Halevy has written extensively on Israel's relationship with the United States, generally taking a moderate, pragmatic view of the Washington-Jerusalem alliance. He wrote, for example: "Never, but NEVER surprise the president of the United States is a dictum I learned very quickly when entering the Mossad in 1961."[12]
For 23 October 2012, during theUnited States presidential campaign betweenBarack Obama andMitt Romney, Halevy published an op-ed piece "Who Threw Israel Under the Bus?" inThe New York Times countering Mitt Romney's assertions about Obama's stance toward Israel. In it Halevy cited several key instances over the years in which the "Republican White House acted in a cold and determined manner, with no regard for Israel's national pride, strategic interests or sensitivities" but that "no Democratic president has ever strong-armed Israel on any key national security issue." He concluded: "That's food for thought in October 2012."[13]
In 2013, Halevy became chairman of theShorashim program, a program that helps immigrants to Israel from theformer Soviet Union verify their Jewish ancestry.[14]
In December 2014 Halevy was interviewed byThe Times of Israel. He claimed that Israel would never have peace unless Palestinians were treated with dignity as equals. He was critical ofBenjamin Netanyahu andNaftali Bennett and their policies, especially regarding Jerusalem. He underscored the importance of the upcoming 17 March 2015 elections, which from his perspective "constitute an unprecedented opportunity to determine Israel's policy vis-à-vis the peace process."[15]
Halevy is also an Advisory Editor at the British journalFathom: For a deeper understanding of Israel and the region. In 2023, Halevy advocated for arapprochement withIran followings news of Iran andSaudi Arabia re-establishingdiplomatic relations.[16]
During 2005-2012 he was chairman of theIntelligence Heritage Center.[17]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). Ari Shavit,Haaretz, 4 September 2003Mossad directors  | |||
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