Every indexed document

and seemed uncomfortable in making eye contact. Yet once he

I was invited to see Yitzhak Rabin ten days later.

the command post in the Negev was receiving the first

secured the cart and took off. Within a minute

I suddenly saw the outline of the landing gear and then the underbelly. But

they glued on real tire tread from one of the Egyptian

which would surely raise the suspicions of the Egyptians.

small enough to get in the door of the helicopter

a colonel from his personnel section said: “Why not

he brought along his entire staff. When I raised my concern

we conducted a series of run-throughs in which we simulated

setbacks and frustrations as well. Many months

in a nighttime exercise to see whether we could avoid detection by

” he said. “And I want you and your team to do it.”

cover our tracks and get out again in one piece. “Still

he began by saying it would be “by far the greatest challenge

recognized that getting intelligence access to

not just our unit’s overall commander in the kirya but Chief

the Egyptians would discover what we had

we would still have to dig up the Egyptian