He was asked to take part in writing a book about the Rebbe’s involvement in policy and security issues during the most critical times in Eretz Yisroel. When he delved into the materials, he was shocked to discover the extent of that involvement in the most top secret military and policy matters. * Menachem Ziegelboim sat down with him for an in depth interview about the book, the details behind the scenes, and his personal impressions of the Rebbe’s leadership.
Photos: Kobi Har TzviBOOK EXCERPT
The year was 1988 and the place was JFK airport in New York. The face of Yaakov Peri, the newly appointed head of the highly secretive Shin Bet security service, registered shock. He stood in a corner of the arrivals hall, and was at a loss for words in the face of the surprise reception that had been arranged for him.
These were the days when the identity of the head of the Shin Bet was kept secret, and it was forbidden to even publish the initials of his name. Very few of the residents of Eretz Yisroel were privy to this intelligence secret. Peri, who had just entered into the position, without the public even being aware that there had been a change in staff, had no idea how in the world he found himself being greeted by three Chassidim warmly wishing him “Mazel Tov” on his new appointment.
“Who are you?” he asked the three young men.
“We are Chabad Chassidim,” was the response. “We came to invite you to visit the Rebbe.”
“I was in shock,” recounted Peri to us, when we sat in his office for a conversation in which he reminisced about his unique encounter with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, an encounter that he cannot easily forget. “My identity was a total secret,” he emphasizes, “and my name was known to no man. My appointment, as was the accepted practice in those days, was done under highly classified cover. And suddenly, a moment after I landed in Kennedy airport, three young Chabadniks are standing in front of me, and they not only identify me and know that I am the head of the Shin Bet, but they even knew my flight schedule. For a fact, they knew to lie in wait for me at the exact time that I landed in New York. This reception, to tell the truth, shocked me to the extreme.
“For a moment,” Peri recalls, “I thought to myself that maybe the guys in Ben Gurion airport in Israel had passed along the information to their friends in Brooklyn about my trip to New York. However, I immediately rejected that notion, since I had not passed through the departures hall in Ben Gurion. I always arrived at the plane’s ramp in a secure vehicle with tinted windows. The passports and papers were passed along by my assistants. And even when I waited for a flight to leave, I sat in the VIP lounge, far from peering eyes.”
How did the three Chabadniks know about the arrival of the head of the Shin Bet, whose name and identity were a closely guarded secret? “To this day,” admits Peri, “I do not know how to explain it, but the fact is that they knew. They blessed me in honor of the appointment, and informed me that the Lubavitcher Rebbe would be happy to meet with me.”
TREMENDOUS INFLUENCE
So it was in a moment of truth, two days before the deadline for the magazine, when I finally met with him in a coffee house in Yerushalayim, a few feet from the light rail track, to discuss his book “B’rega HaEmet” (“In the Moment of Truth”). The book documents the involvement of the Rebbe in sensitive affairs of state and security in Eretz Yisroel, along with his extensive contacts with the leaders of the security services, with its various branches, and his influence on their policies.
Shalom Yerushalmi (64) is a veteran Israeli journalist, who served as assistant editor of the Kol HaIr paper in Yerushalayim, political commentator in Maariv, and from 2006 serves as the editor of the local Yerushalayim paper of the Maariv publishing group, Kol HaZman. In 2014, he joined their other paper, Mekor Rishon, and their online news site, nrg.co.il. He also serves as a political pundit on television news.
Yerushalmi was not familiar with the Rebbe before getting involved in the writing of the book. Like every Israeli, he heard here and there about the Rebbe. As a political commentator, he was generally aware that the Rebbe was involved and present at many key junctures and in various processes of Israeli statecraft, but no more than that. This was the reason that when he was asked to assist in the writing of the book In the Moment of Truth, he hesitated. He was not sure that he was the right person for the job, but he decided to investigate the matter more deeply before rejecting the offer. He investigated and was mesmerized. “During the writing of the book, I became aware of the deep involvement of the Rebbe in matters of state, politics, and security, at critical times; in situations of intimate, top secret matters, the military, and discussions with leaders of the country. To me this was a shock.”
Since those early beginnings, Yerushalmi is not only the author of a book about the Rebbe, but he also gives talks about the Rebbe to broad and varied audiences in Eretz Yisroel and around the world.
Yerushalmi, a veteran journalist, knows full well that I am looking for a scoop, and he does not keep me waiting too long. “If you ask me what amazed me the most, it was the stunning extent of the connection that the Rebbe had with the top man in the intelligence community, perhaps the top intelligence leader in Israeli history, General Aharon Yariv, the head of military intelligence during and after the Six Day War. You can read in the book about the extensive correspondence dealing with secret campaigns, secret actions on the part of the military and even sharp rebuke from the Rebbe to the head of military intelligence and about leaks to the media about classified actions.” The book reveals the full correspondence, not only with him, but also with Arik Sharon, Yitzchak Rabin, and other top military leaders.
Do you think that in the current atmosphere, in which everything is highly scrutinized and investigated by various committees, the degree of involvement on the part of the Rebbe in security decisions would be accepted in silence as in the past, considering that it is the interposition of a rabbinic figure from a foreign country?
Nowadays, there are public debates about the imposition of religion in the army, about the influence of the rabbis in the army, about drafting the chareidim, about attempts to influence the military through a rabbinic authority or traditional religious sources. All of these debates are creating a religious commotion. In my mind, this sharpens ever more the power of the connection that the Rebbe had with the leadership of the military and the government, since in those years his involvement was regarded in an entirely different fashion.
It is possible that if there were a rabbinic personality today on par with the greatness of the Rebbe, perhaps it would be regarded the same way, but the Rebbe is something entirely different. Undoubtedly, this reflects on the personality of the Rebbe.
The Rebbe, by force of the quality of his personage, led the military men and the politicians to come to him, as he did not go to them. Throughout the book, I attempt to decipher the secret of his influence, why it happened that people listened to him willingly.
In the book, you focus a great deal on the classified information that reached the Rebbe, and less on the practical influence that the Rebbe had on various operations. To what degree did the Rebbe have an active influence on military and political operations?
The distinction that you make is accurate, in that the influence of the Rebbe was more on the political and personal level, and less on the security decision making level. When it came to matters of security, they very often did not listen to him, which almost always they came to regret afterward. For example: The Rebbe’s suggestion to Dayan to conquer Damascus. The proposal was brought up for debate in the cabinet, but was not accepted.
There were also the pieces of advice that the Rebbe gave to Shimon Peres before the Six Day War; not to accept the separation of forces agreement; to blow up the Aswan Dam; and to bomb the Egyptians in order to neutralize their war preparations. These ideas were not accepted on the practical level, in the political and military spheres.
You say that the politicians regretted, after the fact, not listening to the Rebbe. They already had enough experience to know that his prognostications were accurate, so what is the real reason that his defense proposals were not accepted?
This issue is actually quite complex. It is possible that despite the fact that they shared with the Rebbe the most sensitive military secrets, they only relied on him on the spiritual and personal level and on the political level, but they were more hesitant to implement his military advice.
You can see his direct influence on Eliezer Mizrachi and Avrohom Werdiger not to vote for the Peres government, which led to a change in the policy approach of Eretz Yisroel, but that is a religious faith influence, and through that he set into motion events in history that define the current era. Similarly, when he pleaded with Ariel Sharon to remain in the army and not to retire, that was influence on a personal level.
However, to blow up the Aswan Dam or not to sign the Camp David accords, simply because the Rebbe said so, those were far more complex stories involving a lot more players in the decision making process. It was not a personal decision to be made by Shamir or Begin.
Despite all of that, the very fact that they sat with him for hours and held operative discussion together with him, to me that is something stunning. I can recall no other such precedent.
VAST KNOWLEDGE, TREMENDOUS SENSITIVITY
In the past year, since the release of the book, Yerushalmi has given many talks about the book and the persona of the Rebbe. This is not only as a marketing tool, but also because of the deep interest he feels for the subject of the Rebbe’s involvement in political and military life in Eretz Yisroel. “This did not just astonish me, but every person who comes to hear my lectures is so surprised by all this. Nobody in the world could have imagined the powerful extent of the Rebbe’s being informed and involved in secret military actions at crunch time. The coded language of the Rebbe and the head of military intelligence or the prime ministers are fascinating unto themselves.”
What really speaks to the hearts of your listeners?
“Many people are drawn to the mystical aspect, the fact that the Rebbe saw things that others did not see. This is from direct testimony from people whom you would not expect to hear such things. For example, Ariel Sharon testifying that the Rebbe saw everything in advance. The Rebbe clearly saw the Yom Kippur War like an open book long before it broke out, or the story of the Gulf War, which people relate to as something mystical.
“In the interview that we did with Yaakov Peri, he said that in 1989 the Rebbe foresaw the Islamic terror that occurred with the Twin Towers in 2001, and I have many more such examples.”
And how do you see it personally?
“Apparently, there are people who are connected to pipelines to other places…
“Look, I bring people the facts that appear in the book – the Rebbe foresaw each of the wars, and this is something that Ariel Sharon himself testified to, along with other national leaders – and let every person draw his own conclusions.”
Shalom Yerushalmi looks at things from a sober and coldly logical perspective, and he attempts at times to connect the puzzle pieces on a rational level, but is not always able to do so:
“Even if you will say that the information that was in the Rebbe’s hands got to him in some natural way, maybe there were those who leaked to him what was discussed in secret cabinet meetings, the mystery still remains as to how he always knew all the details in the moment of truth. We tried to track all of the people who updated the Rebbe non-stop, like Yigal Alon, Shazar, Menachem Begin, but it still does not cover the entire range. The scope of information at his disposal in real time, secret decisions made by the government which he knew about at crunch time and in the moment of truth … it is not feasible to assume that it was all leaked to him.”
So how do you explain it?
“Behind it all, there is a mystery here. The mystery link. This entire phenomenon really fascinated me.”
* * *
The book B’rega HaEmet came out about a year ago. The research materials were gathered from various archives by Dov Greenberg. Moshe Sheilat and the journalist Yossi Elituv proffered a proposal to Shalom Yerushalmi, a respected and renowned professional, to take part in writing the book. The journalist Aryeh Ehrlich was another one of the authors. Yerushalmi did not jump at the opportunity.
“I asked them, ‘What have I got to do with this?’ My ideological and political worldview is totally different. I am a man of the left and do not observe all of the mitzvos.”
The more he looked into the story and delved through the documents that were sent to him, the more he found himself being pulled in. He admits, “A new world was opened up before me.” He describes sitting down with various top officials in order to question and interview them. “I sat with former Supreme Court justice, Elyakim Rubenstein, and I was shocked and could not believe what he was telling me.
“I also sat for an interview with Yosef Chachnover, who is careful not to do interviews. To this day, Chachnover is a presence at every important crossroads and is privy to many of the secrets of the state. He was involved in all of the secret dealings of captive exchanges and was more recently involved in dealing with Turkey in wake of the Mavi Marmara incident. He testified that he was very close to the Rebbe, and he is the one who handed us the story of how the Rebbe sent him to Moshe Dayan with the suggestion to conquer Damascus.”
Looking at the Rebbe from the perspective of years later, how would you characterize the Rebbe’s involvement in what was going on in Eretz Yisroel?
“I think that what is behind all 450 pages of this book is a four letter word (in Hebrew) charada (i.e. apprehensive concern). Charada for the future of the country, charada for the future of the Jewish people, charada for the future of chinuch, charada for every individual, for the soldiers, and for the land.”
Along with that, there was also a lot of faith on the part of the Rebbe that things will one day get better, that the policy makers and security officials will ultimately make the right choices…
“Absolutely! Why did all the leaders want to meet and sit down with him, why did they share their most hidden secrets with him? Why did they find a listening ear with him? Because the Rebbe infused them with the faith and confidence that they so desperately needed. I know many of these politicians well for many years, I have been following them for decades, and they are all frail humans of flesh and blood. Even the person, who appears supremely confident when he is sitting high up on top, has times that he is terrified. He needs some boosts and a supportive crutch. They were in need of the confidence and the Rebbe provided them with that confidence.
“In addition, these people understood that he was truly concerned for the welfare of the Jewish people, without any personal or side interests. He had no party interests as did other rabbinic figures. The Rebbe does not deal in cynical politics, but seeks out what is best for the good of the people and the country. And when he came armed with these things, they believed in him. He came and told them, ‘You are representing the Jewish nation,’ and they took his messages and passed them along. Binyamin Netanyahu said as much in an interview that he gave especially for this book. Even Chaim Herzog took the statements of the Rebbe and passed them forward in his speeches.
“There is no public figure who does not require a supportive crutch, a spiritual support. And apparently, they found that only with him, by a man of his great stature.
“You are talking about people like Yaakov Peri, Avraham Shlonsky, Elie Wiesel, and other influential thinkers who found in the Rebbe a fascinating conversation partner, and they listened to his opinions and positions.
“I think that the Rebbe’s broad general knowledge also had an influence on them. When you are sitting with people with no religious background, and you show them that you are not just a rabbi, but someone with vast horizons, who knows history, chemical engineering, archaeology, and has a mastery of just about every topic, that person will find you to be worth speaking to.”
We have discussed the Rebbe’s access to information, his general knowledge, and his brilliant analyses. I want to ask you about the Rebbe’s sensitivity, and if and where you came across that in your work on the book.
“Actually, this is a subject that does not come up much in the book, but it is there in the underlying subtext.
“The thing that really moved me pertains to the story of the first Gulf War. There were many missiles pointed at Eretz Yisroel, and there was someone who spoke sharply, saying that since we are filling up cups with sins, it is possible that there would be another Shoa (Holocaust). He actually used that word. The Rebbe spoke out against him very sharply, arguing that it is prohibited to make accusations against the Jewish people. This piece, where he went out to strongly protect the Jewish nation, moved me on a personal level. I had said to myself that it could well be that the Jewish people have sins, but it is forbidden to level accusations against them, and then the Rebbe actually said that, and that we need to argue in defense of the Jewish nation.
“We spoke earlier about the mystical element of the Rebbe’s conduct. I think that in this case of the Gulf War, it was an open prophecy that Jews would not be harmed or injured!
“There was also a prophecy before the Six Day War. I was around then in those days, and people here spoke about ‘the destruction of the Third Temple,’ a ‘Second Holocaust,’ and other such expressions. It was only the Rebbe who told people to travel to Eretz Yisroel and to remain in Eretz Yisroel. It was the same thing with the Gulf War and throughout that whole period. As is the nature of the mystical, it sort of hovers over the entire book, but it is hard to pin down. I am not a mystical person, but a man of facts, and that is what I cite in the book.”
Tell me honestly, after writing this book, if you had to present a question to the Rebbe today, what would you ask?
“Generally speaking, I would want to talk to him and learn from him on general topics. I saw in one of the books written about the Rebbe that he knew what was in every pyramid in Egypt. The writer describes an encounter in which the Rebbe told someone every finding that was made within every pyramid. That’s astounding knowledge.
“As for your question, if I could ask the Rebbe anything, I would be very interested in knowing his opinion about what is happening here today.”
Knowing his positions, what do you think he would say about the political situation today?
“The Rebbe’s political line of thinking is consistent and absolutist; uncompromising. Based on this, I can imagine that if his voice was heard today, he would not be at all pleased that till today they have not declared ownership of Yehuda-Shomron, and that they are not deciding what to do with the people living there. He would not be pleased that things there remain unresolved and disordered.
“On the other hand, I think he would be pleased with certain recent changes. One of the things the Rebbe insisted upon, and Netanyahu says this in an interview for the book, is that the Israeli government should stand by its positions and display Jewish pride, and display Jewish might openly. The Rebbe insisted that if this will be the approach of the Israeli government, it will only profit. It is possible he would come now and say: I told you; Trump is moving the U.S. embassy to Yerushalayim and Abu Mazen is running away from committing to any agreements.
“Netanyahu can come today and stand behind the advice that the Rebbe gave him to develop Jewish pride and determination, and he was successful.
“In the last chapter of the book, he says what he learned from the Lubavitcher Rebbe: ‘In the talk that we had, the Rebbe said to always remember who and what I represent, Israel and the Jewish people; you need to stand strong and with pride. He added that my job is to bring light to dark places; this is the mission and what I must do for the Jewish people.’
“If we were to strip away all cynicism in regards to Netanyahu and not look at him with suspicion, and regard him neutrally, it turns out that he is the prime minister most to the right that we’ve ever had from 2009 till today (I’m not talking about giving away Chevron, which was at the beginning of his first time in the position). It is possible that he is operating based on the guidelines that the Rebbe gave him.
“So, if you’re talking about the Rebbe’s influence, then that is a perfect example.”
While working on the book, was there anything that particularly moved you?
“The story about the massacre in Kfar Chabad, as well as the Rebbe’s meeting with IDF war wounded. That was amazing. The tears that flowed there. Afterward, I watched that encounter on video, when he says not to call them ‘IDF disabled,’ but to call them the ‘IDF outstanding.’ I don’t understand to this day why they haven’t adopted that.”
The Rebbe was particular about language like calling a hospital a “Beit Refua” (house of healing) rather than “Beit Cholim” (house of sick people). This is something that the medical world has adopted.
(Smiling): “Well, they still haven’t adopted the term ‘Eretz Yisroel.’”
***
After writing the book and his lecture tour, Shalom Yerushalmi has met many people who told him about their special connection with the Rebbe. He has collected many stories having to do with the Rebbe’s involvement in security and political matters. “It is a little hard to start all over with such an undertaking,” he says about a second edition. “I would like to translate the book into other languages and add some other topics.
“On a regular basis, someone tells me about his connection with the Rebbe, about things that happened. There is no end. I am personally sad that I did not go to the Rebbe even though, to a certain extent, I was aware of him when I was in the U.S. and I did not go to see this personality up close.”
Where do you stand after writing the book?
“I say this also in my lectures – although I do not agree with all of the Rebbe’s positions, and don’t forget that my political stance is the opposite – I am still proud to belong to the Jewish nation that has people of the Rebbe’s stature. There aren’t many people like the Rebbe; people like this who are above us, above humanity.”
FROM THE BOOK
It was at the height of the Yom Kippur War, Tishrei 5734, October 1973. The Egyptian army crossed the Suez Canal and advanced into Sinai, breaking through the chain of fortification set up by Israel. The Syrian tanks surged toward the Golan Heights and there was hardly anybody to stop them. Hundreds of officers and soldiers fell in battle.
With tremendous effort, the situation slowly changed and the chaos that prevailed following the Arabs’ successful surprise attack on Israel began to give way to effective management of defense and offense. In the south, they began to talk about us crossing the canal [into Egypt]. In the north, the Syrians were pushed back on most fronts. The turning point was visible on the horizon.
The Defense Minister, Moshe Dayan, had been tremendously pessimistic throughout. The military commentator, General (Res.) Chaim Herzog, maintained that this bad feeling even “muddied his deliberations and assessments.” It’s not hard to imagine Dayan, a straight and powerful man, subject to conflicting mood swings, returning from the front to his office in Tel Aviv during the war. It was not a good idea to disturb him during those moments.
Yosef Chachnover was the legal counsel for the defense ministry at that time. Chachnover was also one of the people close to the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s court, to the point that he was nearly considered a member of the family. Shortly before Dayan entered his office, Chachnover received a phone call from New York; the Lubavitcher Rebbe had given him an assignment. “The Rebbe tells me, ‘Go to Dayan and tell him to conquer Damascus and make it into ‘afra d’ar’a’ (like dust of the earth),” Chachnover told us.
Chachnover hesitated. “What? I should go to Dayan? What does he know of the Rebbe? He came from the front. I’m going to tell him the Lubavitcher Rebbe said you should conquer Damascus? He won’t understand what I want from him. But I had an assignment. When you have an assignment, you need to carry it out.
“Dayan came back from the front and I said to him, ‘You can throw me out of the room. I have an assignment. I must tell you. Then you can do with me as you please and I’ll understand.’ And then I told him what the Lubavitcher Rebbe said.”
To Chachnover’s amazement, Dayan treated what he said seriously. “He said, go back to the Lubavitcher Rebbe and tell him that I can’t do it. Explain why. We are still at war on other fronts. In order to capture Damascus, I don’t only have to capture it; I might be able to accomplish that. I need to maintain an army there in order to enforce order. There are a million, three million, four million Syrian residents. I need this army on other fronts; I can’t do it. And another thing, in the morning I will need to feed millions of Arabs in the middle of a war. How will we do that?”
The subject of conquering Damascus during the Yom Kippur War continued to preoccupy the political-defense echelons, as can be seen in the recorded protocols of cabinet sessions. The discussions continued, the ministers dragged their feet, and the idea was shelved.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe, who got reports from these sessions in real time, was very disappointed. He believed that conquering it, even temporarily, would break the morale and power of the Syrians, would take them out of the war and enable the IDF to concentrate its power on the decisive Egyptian front. In his opinion, the strategic approach he suggested would portray a clear victory, which would give Israel a demonstrable advantage on the political front and in talks after the war. The Rebbe was convinced that Syria, whose capital was conquered by Israel, would be forced to accept a peace agreement with terms favorable to Israel.
After the conversation with Dayan, Chachnover called the Rebbe. “The Rebbe listened and said, ‘a big mistake.’”
43 years after that conversation, Chachnover was forced to agree with the Rebbe. “We see it today. Imagine they had wiped out Damascus. Imagine even a tactical 48 hours occupation. It is written, ‘The evil will begin in the north,’” Chachnover concluded, as he rested his head in the palm of his hand.