Tuesday 8 October 2002

By Way of Deception

The book "By Way of Deception" takes it's name from the motto of the Mossad "By way of deception thou shalt do war". I've read both it and it's successor "Other Side of Deception" and must say that both are superb! Victor Ostrovsky comes across as a highly principled and courageous person, someone who saw from the inside how the system works and was sickened by the excesses of certain of it's members. The book itself reads like a spy novel and succeeds in conveying Ostrovsky's love for espionage and also his love of country. If you want to understand what sort of threat the Mossad poses to all of us then read this book!

One of the main themes of this book is Victor's belief that Mossad is out of control, that even the prime minister, although ostensibly in charge, has no real authority over its actions ...

The Mossad - believe it or not - has just 30 to 35 case officers, or katsas, operating in the world at any one time. The main reason for this extraordinary low total, as you will read in this book, is that unlike other countries, Israel can tap the significant and loyal cadre of the worldwide Jewish community outside Israel. This is done through a unique system of sayanim, volunteer Jewish helpers.

Ostrovsky writes with authority and some courage, bearing in mind what Israel normally does to those of its own people it considers have stepped out of line (the brave Mordecai Vanunu being a prime example).

Visit Victor's Website