Meanwhile, Isser Harel had no reason to doubt the validity of Dr Otto Yoklik's revelations, especially as he was violently anti-German and was deeply convinced that all the German scientists were anti-Semitic.
Nevertheless, the case was still discussed at the highest levels of the Israeli government and very soon, two distinct camps began to emerge. For some, including Harel and Foreign Minister Golda Meir, fast and powerful action was needed to physically eliminate Nasser's scientists. Others, including Defence Minister Shimon Peres and the head of military intelligence, Meir Amit, caution was advised. They argued that there was no immediate danger as the missiles had no guidance systems. Plus, a policy of systematically assassinating or neutralising the German scientists could anger the German public and thus jeopardise the new secret deal signed by Ben-Gourion and Adenauer. As another Israeli-Arab war was no doubt inevitable, Israel was in desperate need of the military equipment provided by Germany.
Ben-Gourion himself was undecided and so decided to follow the example of Solomon: he allowed Mossad to take action, but only moderately - they were to scare the scientists, nothing more. At the same time he asked Chancellor Adenauer to speak with the German scientists and appeal to their consciences. The decision was finally taken to launch a vast campaign informing the international public of the danger currently hanging over Israel, due to the scientific cooperation between the Germans and the Egyptians. This was made all the easier, as at the time of the Suez Crisis, newspapers and western politicians had already dubbed Nasser as the new Hitler.
Isser Harel was only partly satisfied with this outcome. As far as he was concerned, however, it was not enough, and he decided to implement his original proposal: the physical elimination of the scientists. So in September 1962, the Mossad chief knowingly disobeyed the Israeli prime minister.
As well as Brander, there was another man, Heinz Krug, who acted as a recruiting sergeant among the German scientists. Krug was the administrative director of the Stuttgart Institute and was thus well placed to poach manpower from within scientific circles. In addition, Krug had set up a company that bought the equipment needed by Egypt to build its missiles. He was therefore an essential cog in the machine and so became one of Mossad's primary targets.
One evening, Krug was dining with a man called Kleinwachter, a specialist in propulsion rockets, and an Egyptian, probably Mordekhai Louk.42 Krug disappeared after the meal and was never seen again. His empty car was found not far from his home in Munich, but what had happened to him? There are two possibilities: he was either killed by Israeli agents who afterwards disposed of his body somewhere else, or he was kidnapped by these same men and sent to the other side of the Mediterranean. In all probability, Krug was purely and simply liquidated.
Mossad did not stop there. Shortly afterwards, the rocket specialist, Kleinwachter, was also a victim of the Israeli agents. After the death of his friend, Kleinwachter made sure he was permanently on his guard. However, one day at the beginning of 1963, as soon as he left his laboratory, a big Mercedes blocked the road. He dived down onto the floor of his car as a man emptied an entire round of bullets through his windscreen. Miraculously, Kleinwachter managed to escape. Shortly afterwards, the police identified his attacker's car, which of course, had been stolen, but inside were business cards in the name of Ali Samir, the head of the famous Moukhabarat Egyptian intelligence agency. Clearly, the Israeli spies had a sense of humour!
The important thing learned from this whole escapade, which was led from start to finish by Mossad, was that the German scientists working for Nasser now knew that they were being targeted. Isser Harel had successfully bypassed Ben-Gourion's initial wishes, as he was increasingly convinced by the authenticity of the information provided by the Austrian scientist, Otto Yoklik.
Uri Dan
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Joklik had supporting evidence: he was responsible for providing radioactive waste, including cobalt 60, for the manufacture of nuclear warheads intended for the missiles that had already been built and had began delivering the materials in the summer of 1962. The Egyptians had also tasked him with procuring plans to produce two nuclear bombs.
While Harel regarded Joklik’s statements as further evidence of the seriousness of the situation, Amit wanted to see it as a story from one of the ‘Arabian Nights’; a mishmash of fantasy and reality.
The tension that already existed between these two escalated further after the evaluation of Joklik’s testimony. Harel believed that Egypt could move forward in the nuclear field, while Amit believed that despite the potential threat, ‘the situation was not yet life-threatening’. The decision thus rested with the deputy defence minister, Shimon Peres, Harel’s intimate enemy. There had never been any sympathy between these two men, who were constantly vying for the ear of their admired leader, Ben-Gourion, no doubt to strengthen their own positions.
According to Peres and the experts at the defence ministry, there was no need to take Joklik seriously. ‘It’s no bad thing if Nasser continues to waste resources on projects that have no chance of success' Isser Harel was furious with Amit and more so with Peres.
Harel was determined to continue with hunting down the German scientists. A letter arrived for Wolfgang Pilz, who remember had formally worked for the French authorities.
His secretary opened the envelope, which turned out to be a bomb. The woman was seriously injured in the explosion and lost her sight as a result.The next day, a large parcel arrived at the 333 Factory in Egypt It was supposed to contain scientific papers and so the German scientists opened it, unsuspectingly.The explosion was immediate: five people were killed and several injured. This was a new bloody warning and the international press did not
