Yosef Amit (Hebrew: יוסף עמית, 1945-[1]) is a former IDF military intelligence major who was convicted of espionage in 1987.[2][3] Amit is thought to have spied for the United States, though this has never been confirmed by the Israeli government.[3]
Amit was born in Kiryat Bialik in 1945. After studying at the Naval Officers' School in Acre, he was drafted in 1963, serving in the paratroopers and then the navy. In 1967 he left the IDF to work as a policeman, rejoining the army in 1970. Amit was injured in Lebanon in 1972. He worked as an army intelligence officer from the Yom Kippur War until 1979, when he transferred to Shin Bet. He studied at the University of Haifa from 1982 to 1984, when he dropped out to work as a private investigator.[1]
Amit was recruited in the 1980s after he met an American naval officer in Haifa, and told him about his experience in intelligence. The officer told his superiors, and then told Amit that he wished to settle in Germany and to start a business. Amit suggested that they do business together, which he agreed. Amit travelled to Germany sometime later, where he met the naval officer, who introduced him to his "friends", which were in fact CIA officers from the U.S. Embassy in Bonn, where he was successfully recruited. His handler was Tom Waltz, a Jewish CIA officer based in Tel Aviv. Amit provided the CIA with classified information about Israel's troop movements and future plans in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.[4] As well as classified military documents, Amit also stole top-secret materials from Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service. In 1986, a friend of Amit's reported to Shin Bet and the Israel Police that Amit had told him about ties with American intelligence. Amit was subsequently arrested, and during his interrogation, made a full confession and provided the names of individuals he had met with, as well as meeting locations and dates, and the payment he had received. When his house was searched, classified military and Shin Bet documents were found. Amit was sentenced to 12 years in prison after a lengthy closed trial (at the time 15 years was the maximum sentence).[2] Israel's Supreme Court rejected an appeal by him in 1989.[2] He was released in October 1993 after having served two-thirds of his sentence.[5] The case was kept secret on security grounds until June 1993, when the Israeli government allowed the publication of Amit's name, conviction, and sentence in response to a petition from the publishers of Haaretz.[3][6]
At one point, Israeli officials considered offering to exchange Amit for Jonathan Pollard, but rejected the idea.[4]
In 1990 Amit sued Yedioth Ahronoth and Maariv for libel over articles those papers had published in 1986 stating that an IDF intelligence major had been convicted of spying for Syria. Although the articles didn't mention Amit by name, Amit contended in his suit that prison guards and fellow prisoners had formed the connection, and the false accusation that he had spied for Israel's worst enemy had severely hurt his reputation and led other prisoners to harass him. Like Amit's trial, this case was kept secret until June 1993. Amit dropped the suit in June 1993 after the papers agreed to publish corrections.[6][7]