Israel's own X File

Australia is counted among Israel’s best friends in the world. It is the kind of country that can always be relied upon, say, in important votes in international institutions. Not that people there don’t criticize Israel, but its attitude is positive and relations are friendly. In countries where the conditions of service are difficult, the Israeli ambassador always knows that the Australian ambassador will be supportive in times of trouble. This writer knows a thing or two about that from personal experience.

But there’s no doubt that the relationship suffered in 2010 when, according to foreign reports, Mossad agents assassinated senior Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai — and the hotel’s security filmed the assassination team. Australia was displeased that four Israeli passports had been used in the operation and even expelled an Israeli diplomat over the affair.

During my most recent visit to Melbourne last summer, I heard from my hosts in the Jewish community that the Australian media had criticized Israel harshly without even putting the emphasis on what al-Mabhouh had done. Even MP Michael Danby of Melbourne, a member of the Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, complained to me then about the negative press Israel was getting, and reminded me once more of the true friendship and good relations between our two countries.

As if the al-Mabhouh affair were not enough, then came the expos on “Foreign Correspondent,” a program produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), this week. The program host, Trevor Bormann, told the story of a young Australian man named Ben Zygier, known as “Prisoner X.” Zygier had immigrated to Israel, joined the Mossad, been arrested under mysterious circumstances and committed suicide in the Ayalon Prison’s most heavily-guarded cell. He was 34 at the time of his death.

Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr, who was interviewed on the program, said that Australia had not known of the arrest and that the first contact was made after the prisoner had died in his cell. Carr said he found the accusations troubling and would ask the Israeli government for an explanation.

Meanwhile, a new report came from Australia that is embarrassing to the Australians themselves. The Sydney Morning Herald reported two days ago that the Foreign Affairs Ministry there had ordered an investigation into the incident by order of Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr — even as Carr’s own spokesman admitted that the embassy in Tel Aviv had known about Zygier’s arrest.

The Australian newspaper The Age, which is published in Melbourne, pointed out that an Australian diplomat had been aware of Zygier’s imprisonment in Israel before his death. The Age also reported that the government confirmed the story that Zygier had been a Mossad agent and had been known as Prisoner X during his confinement.

The Age reported that the Australian Foreign Affairs Ministry had been forced to correct an earlier statement from Australia claiming that the Australian Embassy in Tel Aviv had known nothing of the Zygier affair until after his death in Dec. 2010, when his family in Melbourne requested the repatriation of his remains for burial. According to the newspaper, a diplomat from the Australian embassy (not the ambassador) knew of it.

Melbourne has a large, active Jewish community. ABC’s report became the topic of the day. “There’s a fear that this will affect relations between the two countries,” an Israeli who has lived in Melbourne for many years told me. “You have to understand that here in Australia, the subject of human rights is very important, and I’m afraid that they’ll turn the subject into part of the elections campaign. Suddenly, people in Australia are starting to wonder about what they call the ‘dual loyalty’ of the Jewish community. It wasn’t like that in the past.”

Incidentally, at least ten mourning notices, published by the Australian Jewish community’s news agency, appeared after Zygier’s death. The notices were taken out by various institutions, from universities to the Jewish Holocaust Museum and Research Centre. None of the institutions agreed to comment in the Australian press yesterday.

During the report in Foreign Correspondent, Bormann interviewed Warren Reed, a former agent of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS). Reed said that passports from countries such as Australia and New Zealand were important in intelligence work because of the clean, innocent image those countries enjoy throughout the world. That’s why Australia is angry with Israel: not only because it used Australian passports, but also because it used Australian citizens. However, in the report that was broadcast on television, Carr did not say a single angry word. He noted that while Australia expected clarifications from Israel, the demand for them had to come from Zygier’s family, which has kept silent in the meantime.

“I think this story will leave the headlines in Australia quickly,” a high-ranking Jewish official in Australia who requested anonymity told me over the telephone. “Despite the great friendship between the two countries, the Australians still don’t understand the neighborhood Israel lives in or Israel’s heightened sensitivity to security matters. There’s no comparison between the situation in Australia and the situation in Israel.” He added, “The story definitely made a splash in Australia, but it will go off the agenda quickly. It’s not the leading story on the Australian news sites anymore.” Still, the Jewish official was careful to emphasize that Australian government officials knew that it was a big story in Israel.

And that’s precisely the point. The Australian authorities admit in conversations with reporters that none of the information they’ve had until now has indicated that any crime was committed, nor was any use made of an Australian citizen — in this case, a Jew. No passport that could have annoyed the Australians was used either. As a rule, Jews’ reservations about the Mossad is nothing new, and it is considered acceptable for very obvious reasons.

An organization such as the Mossad sees an advantage in recruiting people who hold foreign passports, particularly those who have a real cover story that needs no effort to construct. At the same time, many Jews throughout the world want to contribute. Most Jews who contact the Mossad on their own, asking to join, are turned down straightaway. Usually, the Mossad finds them. Some of them are the last ones who would fit the James Bond image of one of the most respected intelligence agencies in the world.

But in Australia, people are having trouble understanding why Prisoner X was arrested in Israel. What was his crime, and what made the Israeli authorities imprison him in such complete secrecy-

An operation gone wrong

According to the ABC report, Zygier moved to Israel in 2000 and became a Mossad agent. But according to the report, “something went dreadfully wrong in [his] spy career.”

Zygier’s father, Geoffrey, the executive director of the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission, refused to comment on the affair. Quite a few reporters tried to get information from members of the Jewish community, but most of the Jews who knew Zygier kept mum. ABC’s report revealed that Zygier had been born in 1976, attended a Jewish primary school in Melbourne, was a member of a Jewish youth movement and went on to study law. In around 2000 he moved to Israel, where he changed his name to Ben Alon, though he was listed in his Australian passport as Ben Allen. After he allegedly joined the Mossad, he married and had two children.

The Age reported that the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) investigated at least three Australian citizens with dual citizenship over their connections with the Mossad. Zygier was one of them.

Although Australian officials asked for a response from the Israeli Embassy, none came. Julie Bishop, the deputy leader of the opposition in the Australian parliament and Australia’s shadow foreign minister, met last week with Israel’s ambassador in Canberra and expressed her concern over the case. Two days ago another newspaper, The Australian, reported that an Australian citizen had been jailed in Israel for “treason.”

There is much speculation about the case in Australia. But meanwhile, the British newspaper The Guardian interviewed an Australian reporter, Jason Katsoukis, who had spoken with Ben Zygier for the first time in 2010 and mentioned, for the first time, the allegations that Zygier was working for the Mossad. Katsoukis said that during his work in Israel in 2009, he was contacted by a source who had connections with the intelligence services. This man gave him the names of three people who had both Israeli and Australian citizenship who worked in a front company that the Mossad had set up in Europe.

The company sold electronic equipment to Iran and the United States — and Katsoukis discovered that it really did exist. He said the fact that Zygier had changed his name four times made the Australian intelligence service suspicious.

While both The Age and the Fairfax news agency reported that three people who had both Australian and Israeli citizenship were suspected of working for the Mossad, the Australian media did not report about the front company at first.

The transcript of the telephone conversation between the reporter and Zygier was later published. “Who the f–k are you-” Zygier asked Katsoukis when the latter confronted him with the allegations. “What is this total bullsh-t you are telling me-”

What led to Zygier’s arrest

“There’s no doubt that the Australians knew. When Zygier came back home in a coffin, the Australians didn’t make a big deal of it. They didn’t go to the media. It’s the kind of affair that should be closed between the intelligence agencies,” a high-ranking source familiar with the affair told Israel Hayom.

There is no doubt that Trevor Bormann’s expos is doing Israel no favors. The report, which is presented in a dramatic fashion, recounts how Zygier was whisked to Ayalon Prison in Ramle under a veil of secrecy. “The guards were not to ask questions and other prisoners knew nothing of the newcomer,” the program’s narration said. The report goes on to tell how Zygier was placed in Wing 15, which includes an isolation cell equipped with closed-circuit television. The cell was originally built for Yigal Amir, who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. During his imprisonment, Zygier was allowed no visitors, and lived in complete isolation.

The question that has the media most curious is why Zygier was being held. Two days ago, late at night Israel time, but early in Melbourne, we spoke with an Australian-Jewish journalist.

Q. Is this a big story in Australia-

“Without a doubt, it’s a big story in the local Melbourne media. The story is also fascinating because Israel kept the arrest a secret.”

Q. Australia didn’t know about it-

“They know because relations between the two countries are good, and they also know because relations between both countries’ intelligence agencies are good.”

Q. Could the affair affect relations between the two countries-

“The Australians know Zygier was also an Israeli citizen living in Israel. He had the right to join the Mossad if he wanted to. In Australia, people are aware of the complex situation Israel has to deal with. They’re aware of the military and existential threats. If an Australian Jew wants to help Israel, that’s his right. As far as we know, he didn’t falsify his identity, and if he wanted to change his name, he had the right.”

Q. And the fact that he committed suicide-

“Many prisoners commit suicide. It saves them from having to take their punishment, and it also saves them from humiliation. In Australia, people know that if a person goes to prison, there’s a reason, certainly when it comes to a Mossad agent and an Israeli citizen. In the end, this is not a nice incident, to put it mildly, between Australia and Israel. The common interest of both countries was to bring things back to normal as quickly as possible.”

Q. So what do you find so fascinating about this story, then-

“It must be asked why he was buried in Australia. He has family living in Israel, and by all logic, he should have been buried there. For me, that’s a big enigma.”

Q. Do you know his family-

“No, I don’t know them. There’s a large Jewish community in Melbourne. It’s impossible to know everybody. But today, after all the publicity, there isn’t a Jew who hasn’t heard the name Ben Zygier. On the other hand, I ask myself how come the Australians woke up about this story only now. After all, people knew about it for two years already.”

More than a decade ago, I was asked to cover the story of a Mossad agent who operated in a European capital. After I got the details, I decided not to publish the story, which had a very personal and tragic character.

It seems that people acted differently in this case.

Meanwhile, we’re left with many questions. Who was this man, and why was he imprisoned-

Right now, questions are all we have.

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