Epstein Secrets

er 1939, the Germans, and then the Soviets, invaded, overran and divided Poland. Two of my mother’s three sisters fled to Moscow. Her teenage brother Avraham went underground, joining the anti-Nazi partisans. All three would survive the war. Yet in the autumn of 1940, the rest of her family found themselve

rief attempt to interrogate the general, but quickly reached the limits of my linguistic proficiency. So we marched them away and handed them over to Talik’s intelligence officers. 89 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_011560 This interlude instantly conferred on us the desert equivalent of street cred. The next morning,

I got a Jeep and we set off. We crossed into Egypt around four o’clock in the afternoon and headed for the field headquarters of Israel Tal. Known as Talik, he was the commander of Israel’s armored corps, and Avraham knew him well. His wartime division consisted of the country’s premier tank unit, the Se

have to broaden its reach, moving beyond the kind of intelligence operations we’d done before the 1967 war to become the SAS-like special forces unit Avraham ultimately envisaged. But that was not 104 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_011575 going to happen soon, if only because the intelligence missions now required were

ack. When I got to the airport, I found Dayan and Dado huddling in a room below the control tower, unfurnished except for a small table in the comer. Talik was there with them. He was now head of all military operations in the kirva. Rechavam Ze’evi as well, the head of the central command area, which in

ning, and there was no way I could see mounting our assault in broad daylight. If we didn’t get the go-ahead soon, the chance would be lost. I called Talik several times, making the point that if we were going to do it, we needed to use darkness as an ally. The sayeret was a breed of night animals. Other

er 1939, the Germans, and then the Soviets, invaded, overran and divided Poland. Two of my mother’s three sisters fled to Moscow. Her teenage brother Avraham went underground, joining the anti-Nazi partisans. All three would survive the war. Yet in the autumn of 1940, the rest of her family found themselve

rief attempt to interrogate the general, but quickly reached the limits of my linguistic proficiency. So we marched them away and handed them over to Talik's intelligence officers. 89 HOUSE _OVERSIGHT_027937 This interlude instantly conferred on us the desert equivalent of street cred The next morning,

I got a Jeep and we set off. We crossed into Egypt around four o'clock in the afternoon and headed for the field headquarters of Israel Tal. Known as Talik, he was the commander of Israel's armored corps, and Avraham knew him well. His wartime division consisted of the country's premier tank unit, the Se

have to broaden its reach, moving beyond the kind of intelligence operations we'd done before the 1967 war to become the SAS-like special forces unit Avraham ultimately envisaged. But that was not 104 HOUSE _OVERSIGHT_027952 going to happen soon, if only because the intelligence missions now required were

ck. When I got to the airport, I found Dayan and Dado huddling in a room below the control tower, unfurnished except for a small table in the corner. Talik was there with them. He was now head of all military operations in the kirya. Rechavam Ze'evi as well, the head of the central command area, which in

ning, and there was no way I could see mounting our assault in broad daylight. If we didn't get the go-ahead soon, the chance would be lost. I called Talik several times, making the point that if we were going to do it, we needed to use darkness as an ally. The sayeret was a breed of night animals. Other