wish 1 were in Gaza now," to save lives, and manages to persuade
says Mosab Hassan Yousef the Shin Bet to arrest wanted individuals
by phone from California. "1
wou1d put on an army uniform
and join Israel's special forces
order to 1iberate Gilad Shalit. lf 1 were
, 1 cou1d help. We wasted so many
yea:rs with investigations and arrests to
capture the very terrorists that they now
want to release in return for Shalit. That
ust not be done."
Yousef's book, "Son of Hamas," writ-
ten with Ron Brackin, will be published
ext Thesday (Salt River Press). ln it,
e 32-year-old tells his entire life story
or the first time and reveals the great
secret he harbored for 14 years.
1 first met Mosab Yousef, a Muslim,
in Ju1y 2008, in California. He told me
then about the dramatic uplieaval in his
life. ln 1999, he began to draw closer to
Christianity and a few years later con-
verted. Haaretz Magazine published his
story at the time, and Hamas immedi-
ately denied it vehemently. A year and
a half later, Yousef, son of the Hamas
leader in the West Bank, has decided to
reveal the whole picture: For more than
a decade he was an agent of Israel's Shin
Bet security service. He was motivated
not by economic gain or self-interest, but
by sheer ideology.
During that period he prevented doz-
ens of suicide-bombing attempts and un-
covered terrorist cells - including those
planning to assassinate senior Israeli fig-
ures, such as Shimon Peres, then foreign
minister, and Shas spiritualleader Rabbi
Ovadia Yosef. The Shin Bet considered
Yousef the most reliable and most senior
agent it had succeeded in running at the
top levels of Ham,!s. Within the organiza-
tion he was known as the "Green Prince":
"prince," because he was the son of
Sheikh Hassan Yousef, one.of the people
who founded Hamas and one of its lead-
ers in the West Bank, and "green" for the
color of the Is1amist organization's flag.
During the grimmest period of the
second intifada, Yousef brought about
the arrest of the most wanted terrorists
on Israel's list, those who are mentioned
repeatedly in the headlines - among
them Ibrahim Hamed and Marwan
Barghouti. He even agreed to the arrest
f his father, who is still in jail today, to
revent his assassination by Israel. This
the story of an intelligent young man
ho acts courageously against the move-
ent in which he was raised in an effort
cell in the detention facility ofthe Russian
Compound in Jerusalem and suggested
instead of killing them .
"Captain Loai" - as Yousef's handler
in the Shin Bet was kn ‫ט‬wn at the time -
makes no secret of his admiration for
his "source": "So many people owe him
their life and don't even know it," he says .
"People who did a lot less were awarded
the Israel Security Prize. He certainly de -
serves it. 1 knew h ~ for six year ~, as a
coordinator and as a district director. And
1tell you, that if we had X number of intel -
ligence coordinators in the region, thanks
to him we had X+1. He was the extra co -
ordinator. You know what? He was better
than most of us - no offense to anyone ."
Captain Loai is no longer with the Shin
Bet; he works as a security officer in the
center of the country and is studying at
university. But it's clear that he is nostal -
gic for the days and nights of pursuing
wanted individuals and suicide bombers .
"The amazing thing is that none of his
actions were done for money," he says of
Yousef. "He did things he believed in. He
wanted to save lives. His grasp of intel -
ligence matters was just as good as ours
- the ideas, the insights. One insight of
his was worth 1,000 hours of thought by
top experts .
"Let me tell youa story,"Loai continues .
" One day we received information that a
suicide bomber was going to be picked
up at Manara Square in Ramallah and be
given an explosives belt. We didn't know
his name or what he looked like - only that
he was in his twenties and would be wear -
ing a red shirt. We sent the Green Prince
to the square and with his acute sense ,
he located the target within minutes. He
saw who picked him up, followed the car
and made it possible for us to arrest the
suicide bomber and the man who was sup -
posed to give him the belt. So another at -
tack was thwarted, though no one ~ ows
about it. No one opens Champagne bot ~ es
or bursts into song and dance. This wa ~~
almost daily thing for the Prince. He dis -
played courage, had sharp antennae and
an ability to cope with danger. We knew
he was one of those who in any situation -
rain, snow, summer - give their all ."
Informer or
double agent?
Mosab Yousef remembers vividly the
day on which a Shin Bet agent entered his
he work for Israel- i.e., become a collabo -
rator. Until his arrest, he was a member
of the Hamas students' organization at
Birzeit University in the West Bank and
had been involved in stone-throwing; he
was sent to prison after buying a gun in
1996.Soldiers at the Ramallah checkpoint
stopped the Subaru he was driving and
told him to tUrn off the engine, he recalls :
"They pulled me out of the car and even
before 1 could defend myself they threw
me to the ground and pummeled me." ln
our conversation, Yousef said he had not
planned to become an informer and did
not make the decision all of a sudden : " 1
was taken to the detention facility, [what
we call] the 'Muskobiya,' where 1 under -
went harsh torture and was beaten re -
peatedly in the interrogation. My hands
' were tightly' bound. Then this Shin Bet
man arrived and suggested that 1 work
with him. 1 did not ask for money, as my
financial situation was good. 1 thought of
telling him that 1 wou1d accept the offer ,
and then becom ~ a double agent and take
revenge on the Shin Bet and on Israel for
arresting me and for the things that were
done to my father .
"My plan," he continues, "was to col -
lect information about the Shin Bet from
within and use it against Israel. 1 knew
that it was a dark, evil organization run
by evil people who were doing terrible
things, like forcing people to become col -
laborators. After 1 agreed, 1 was kept in
jail for 16 months, because if 1 were re -
leased too quick1y it might stir suspicion
that 1 had become a Shin Bet agent." ln
prison he saw appalling things .
" 1 was in jail with Hamas people, with
senior figures in the organization who
ran an apparatus called Majad, a kind of
internal security body of Hamas aimed
at uncovering Israeli agents. They tor -
tured prisoners, most of them from
Hamas, whom they suspected of collabo -
ration. My job was to write down the con -
fessions and testimonies. As the sheikh's
son, 1 was trusted. lt was there that 1 lost
my faith in Hamas. They killed people for
no reason. While everyone was warriing
me about the Sh i Bet, for the first time
in my life 1 saw Hamas people torturing
their comrades, members of their nation ,
with exceptional cruelty. The truth was
of no interest to t ~em. lf they so much as
suspected someone, that was the end of
him. They tortured people brutally , •