ylvia Rafael:
The Life and Death of a Mossad Spy is a new book published by University Press of Kentucky chronicling the story of Sylvia Rafael, a young, dedicated Mossad agent, as told by Moti Kfir, the man who trained her, and Ram Oren, a journalist and author. The book details Rafael’s path to revenge and its unintended repercussions and was published in English for the first time on August 22, 2014.
Oren and Kfir draw on extensive research and interviews to tell the story of Rafael’s rise to fame within the Mossad and her intelligence work that tried to locate Ali Hassan Salameh, the leader of Palestine’s Black September organization and the mastermind behind the murder of eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. Rafael’s team’s misidentification of its target would eventually lead to her arrest and imprisonment for murder and espionage.
The Mossad’s psychological evaluation of Rafael said, “There is a lack of quiet in Sylvia that craves for action….She knows that she is special and that she possesses unusual and varied abilities.”
When Kfir, head of the Academy for Special Operations of the Mossad, first interviewed Rafael in a coffee shop, he knew that she would make a great agent for the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency. Rafael was outgoing, resourceful, smart, and had a talent for bonding with others. When Kfir warned her that the mysterious job that they had met to discuss could be dangerous, Rafael simply sat back comfortably in her chair and smiled.
Rafael was part of a group of Mossad agents who assassinated a Moroccan-born waiter, Ahmed Bouchiki, whom they claimed to have mistaken for Ali Hassan Salameh, in Lillehammer, Norway on July 21, 1973. Bouchiki’s pregnant Norwegian wife witnessed the murder.
Sylvia Rafael was born in Graaff-Reinet and attended Union High School in the 1950`s and matriculated early in the 1960`s.Her father Ferdi owned the Plaza Bioscope in Market Square, they lived in Cypress Grove.
Sylvia Rafael:The Life and Death of a Mossad Spy is a new book published by University Press of Kentucky chronicling the story of Sylvia Rafael, a young, dedicated Mossad agent, as told by Moti Kfir, the man who trained her, and Ram Oren, a journalist and author.
The book details Rafael’s path to revenge and its unintended repercussions and was published in English for the first time on August 22, 2014.Oren and Kfir draw on extensive research and interviews to tell the story of Rafael’s rise to fame within the Mossad and her intelligence work that tried to locate Ali Hassan Salameh, the leader of Palestine’s Black September organization and the mastermind behind the murder of eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. Rafael’s team’s misidentification of its target would eventually lead to her arrest and imprisonment for murder and espionage.The Mossad’s psychological evaluation of Rafael said, “There is a lack of quiet in Sylvia that craves for action….She knows that she is special and that she possesses unusual and varied abilities.”When Kfir, head of the Academy for Special Operations of the Mossad, first interviewed Rafael in a coffee shop, he knew that she would make a great agent for the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency.
Rafael was outgoing, resourceful, smart, and had a talent for bonding with others. When Kfir warned her that the mysterious job that they had met to discuss could be dangerous, Rafael simply sat back comfortably in her chair and smiled.Rafael was part of a group of Mossad agents who assassinated a Moroccan-born waiter, Ahmed Bouchiki, whom they claimed to have mistaken for Ali Hassan Salameh, in Lillehammer, Norway on July 21, 1973. Bouchiki’s pregnant Norwegian wife witnessed the murder.
Sylvia Rafael was born in Graaff-Reinet and attended Union High School in the 1950`s and matriculated early in the 1960`s.Her father Ferdi owned the Plaza Bioscope in Market Square, they lived in Cypress Grove.
