Yuval Aviv

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Juval Aviv was the source of the book by George Jonas, on which Spielberg's film is based

Yuval Aviv, born 1947 in Israel, is the President and CEO of Interfor, Inc., a corporate investigations firm in New York. He was the source of the 1984 book, Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team, by George Jonas, on which Steven Spielberg's film Munich is based. In the book and in the movie, he is understood to be the character "Avner".

1 Early life
2 Mossad & The Wrath Of God
3 Views of Victor Ostrovsky
4 Security work
5 Yuval Aviv: Author
6 Works
7 See also
8 References

[edit] Early life

Aviv was born in Kibbutz Kfar Menachem in 1947 as Yuval Aviof ^{[citation needed]}. He enlisted in the Naval Commandos but did not complete the training program and transferred to the Armored Corps ^{[citation needed]}. According to Mr. Aviv, he was recruited by the Israeli Secret Service (Mossad) and served from 1968-1978. Shortly thereafter he moved to New York where he started his corporate investigations firm, Interfor, Inc., and worked as a security consultant for El Al.

[edit] Mossad & The Wrath Of God

Aviv claims that, while he was a Mossad agent, he took part in Operation Wrath of God, a Mossad operation to assassinate the Fatah ("Black September") terrorists involved in the 1972 Munich massacre, but senior security sources, including Zvi Zamir, who headed the Mossad from 1968-74, have told Haaretz that they do not know of anyone named Yuval Aviof or Aviv.

All other sources active in Israeli intelligence at the time deny the existence of an "Operation Wrath of God" that specifically targeted the Munich assassins. They claim that the Mossad instead targeted the Fatah network in Europe to prevent future attacks. This would explain the inability of journalists or historians to find a connection between the victims and the Black September events.

While it should be emphasised that it is not unusual for any private or public sector organisations, let alone intelligence agencies, to deny information about current or former employees, Israeli officials generally comment freely on matters of purely historical interest. Mr. Aviv has stated in interviews that he was told when he was recruited to be an agent for the Mossad that they would deny any association with him.

[edit] Views of Victor Ostrovsky

However, Victor Ostrovsky argues in his controversial and challenged book By Way of Deception that assassins of the description of the character "Avner" in the subject book are typically not regular katsa case officers and do not have all the institutional knowledge that regular line officers have because of the need for compartmentalisation of sensitive information in the intelligence world, especially with combatants. If Ostrovsky's claim is true, the group described in the book "Vengeance" is particularly out of the ordinary, as the characters in "Avner's" group are all described as having been in previous and regular line officer work with Mossad. Curiously, in the book "Vengeance", the case officer assigned by the Mossad to Yuval Aviv's Kidon (Assassination) group is referred to as "Ephraim".

Likewise, the left-leaning Mossad officer who is claimed by Ostrovsky to have kept in contact with Ostrovsky and put him up to do work that involved hostile and friendly intelligence services of other countries, and was intended to damage the aims of the right-leaning elements claimed to be running the Mossad, is also referred to by Ostrovsky as "Ephraim". Ostrovsky also claims in his second non-fiction book entitled "The Other Side Of Deception", that an employee of his first publisher was also involved in the publication of the book "Vengeance". Ostrovsky claims that this lady asked his opinion of Yuval Aviv's book "Vengeance", and Ostrovsky indicates that he found the story in the book "Vengeance" so unlikely that he was unable to read past the first few chapters.

It should be noted that Ostrovsky's own work is subject to similar factual challenges. It should also be noted that Ostrovsky was just a case worker for the Mossad and only for 14 months, according to the Israeli government.

[edit] Security work

After the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, Aviv prepared a report for Pan Am, exonerating it of negligence and claiming that the suitcase with the bomb had been protected by the CIA as part of a drug-smuggling operation. The court hearing the relatives' civil case against Pan Am rejected this theory for lack of evidence. However, the Scottish police working on the case have never interviewed Aviv or asked him for his sources.

Aviv holds an M.A. in Business from Tel Aviv University [1] and is president and CEO of Interfor, his own corporate investigations firm.

[edit] Yuval Aviv: Author

On 6 June 2006, Aviv's first novel "MAX" was published in the United Kingdom. The novel, which is partially based on the death of Robert Maxwell, is written in the vein of a fictional action story.

Aviv has also published factual and instructional books about the threat of terrorism and how to survive terrorist attacks.

[edit] Works

(2003) The Complete Terrorism Survival Guide: How to Travel, Work and Live in Safety. Juris Publications, ISBN 1-57823-130-2.

(2004) Staying Safe: The Complete Guide to Protecting Yourself, Your Family, and Your Business. Collins, ISBN 0-06-073520-1

[edit] See also

[edit] References

"Spielberg could be on the wrong track", by Yossi Melman, Haaretz, July 6, 2005 (archived here)
"Juval Aviv: The good assasin", by Andrew Mueller, "The Independent", July 16, 2006

(archived [2])