When former deputy Mossad chief Aliza Magen, 88, died last week, she was eulogized by Efrayim Halevy, who she worked with as her director in the final year of her career.
Speaking to The Jerusalem Post recently, Halevy said that Magen - who remains the highest ranking female Mossad or defense establishment operative in Israeli history to date – was highly unique and precise in her talents with people and attention to detail in operations.
Discussing her beginnings at the Mossad, Halevy said Magen joined at the age of 21 in 1958 and that, “Immediately the agency saw a person with considerable qualities, including creating relationships with people, objects [those targeted by the agency] and other aspects of this particular capability.”
According to the former Mossad chief, Magen “rose in the ranks, at one time becoming the head of a complex Mossad station abroad in Germany. At the time, the division of Germany was into two areas – West Germany and East Germany” – a highly challenging situation.
He added that she had “Very unique leadership qualities of befriending people with whom she associated with and was very precise in the way she handled operations.”
Halevy had served as deputy Mossad chief under Shabtai Shavit from 1990-1995. When Shavit was not going to recommend Halevy to succeed him, Halevy was given the prominent post of Ambassador to the EU instead and Magen eventually became deputy Mossad chief crossing through the end of Shavit’s era, through Danny Yatom’s era 1996-1998, and through the early phases of Halevy’s term.
“When I came back to become the head of the Mossad, I asked her to stay on. She stayed on for quite some time, until the prime minister appointed Amiram Levin, who he intended would succeed me, though this was not officially specified. Ultimately this deputy [Levin also] left,” and did not succeed him, said Halevy. His successor, Meir Dagan, would be appointed by Ariel Sharon during a 10-year period 1999-2009 when Benjamin Netanyahu was out of office.
“There was no problem. She never expressed any ill feeling,” about Halevy being chosen over her to lead the agency, adding, “Simply, I was brought back to be head of the Mossad and we worked very well together.”
Moreover, he stated, “There were complex situations where she handled the full running of the Mossad when I was absent. I could always rely on her that the Mossad would be in safe hands.”
“She knew what to decide on her own and when she needed to consult me, even if I was out of the country,” for specific decisions, he said.
According to Halevy, “We had many difficult situations - at one moment we had a Mossad agent arrested in Switzerland. This was very delicate. She was very attentive to understanding how to run things and to consult me when I was not around.”
“I could always talk with her freely, which was a very important aspect. I will always attach great value to the advice that she gave me,” he noted.
Speaking at a managerial level unique to the perspective of a Mossad director and his deputy chief, he stated, “she was very helpful in many other ways when it became necessary to deal with questions of personnel, and had already served as the head of the personnel division.”
When she “reviewed people working in the business, she could make very useful propositions of where to station people, in one place or another place.”
In one specific operation, he noted that an Israeli youngster was captured and sent abroad by ultra orthodox religious groups ultra who wanted to preserve his loyalty to extremist religious activities.
She played a key “role in that operation apprehending him where he was…this was a unique situation which the Mossad usually does not deal with regarding its own Israeli citizens,” he said.
Although Halevy stayed vague about that saga, it has been previously published that Magen was assigned by then Mossad director Isser Harel, along with Mossad officer Yehudit Nessyahu, to locate Yossele Schumacher, who had been abducted by his haredi Orthodox Jewish grandparents.
Reportedly, Magen succeeded at convincing Ruth Ben David, who had smuggled Schumacher out of Israel, to disclose Schumacher's location.
Questioned about whether Magen could have fit the bill for Mossad director at the time, he responded, “There was no such possibility at the time because Netanyahu had decided who would be my successor.”
'No reason there cannot be lady head of Mossad'
However, he added, “in modern times, if there has already been a lady heading the CIA [Gina Haspel], there is certainly no reason that there cannot be a lady head of the Mossad. Regarding the British services, MI-5 [like Israel’s Shin Bet], there were even women who succeeded each other running the agency, so it is not even" an original idea.
Magen spent nearly four decades in the Mossad.
Besides some of the above issues, she was involved in: Operation Diamond, which brought an Iraqi MiG-21 fighter jet to Israel allowing the whole West to better analyze USSR and its allies aerial capabilities, Operation Wrath of God, the assassinations of conspirators involved in the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre of Israeli athletes, and efforts to block German scientists from working for Egypt in the 1960s.
When Magen’s death was announced, the Mossad said that, “bows its head in deep sorrow over the loss of our comrade Aliza – a respected, trailblazing, and dedicated commander who devoted her life to the security of Israel and its citizens. Aliza was one of the pillars of the Mossad, and she left a profound legacy on generations of Mossad agents, who were trained based on her legacy and values."