Israel Bar - Confirmed History

Confirmed History

Bar had obtained first-hand knowledge of both theoretical and historical military areas, which made him an expert in these issues and an acknowledged expert on military affairs, despite his lack of real field experience. He was proficient in the details of the battles, names of places, commanders, military units, a proficiency which Israel Bar used to gain credibility and military experience.

Israel Bar did immigrate to Palestine in October 1938 and was accepted to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as a research student. At the same time he joined the Haganah organization.

Bar's publication of articles on military subjects led to his acceptance in 1940 as a permanent member of the Haganah. There, he took part in training and in planning until the outbreak of the Israeli War of Independence. With the establishment of the IDF he was appointed as one of the two assistants to the head of the Operations Division and the Deputy Chief of the General Staff as well as serving as head of the Planning Division for the Operations Division, at the rank of lieutenant colonel.

He requested discharge from the IDF in 1949, because of his failure to be promoted to a new position in the Operations Division in direct subordination to the Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces. He bitterly claimed that he was not promoted because his credibility was in question because of his connection with an opposition party, Mapam. Israel Bar was formally discharged after a leave of absence in July 1950.

Bar was politically active in Mapam during his service in the IDF. After his resignation from the IDF he began work in Mapam, as head of its security department. In this position he obtained military intelligence information about the IDF in order to keep party officials, who were in the opposition, informed, and was closely connected with the party's information department which was gathering political non-military intelligence.

During his Mapam activity Israel Bar was closely associated with Moshe Sneh, the leader of the Left Faction, a group which identified itself with the USSR, and Communism. The Prague Trials and the Moscow Doctors' Plot during the years 1952–1953 caused internal dissent within the Mapam and a split where the Left Faction resigned from Mapam and later formed Maki. In January 1953, Israel Bar chose unexpectedly not to join Sneh and temporarily retired from political activity. In 1954, to the surprise of many, he joined Mapai, the majority party led by David Ben-Gurion.

In the early fifties Israel Bar lectured on military history in various courses in the IDF. In mid-1955, he signed a civilian contract with the Israeli Ministry of Defense with the intent of writing about the events of the Israeli War of Independence. A project he was involved in right up to his arrest. In 1959 Bar was appointed head of the Department of Military History in the University of Tel Aviv.

Israel Bar was considered among the ministry's senior administrative officials as the civilian contract with the Israeli Ministry of Defense afforded him the rank of colonel. A position which allowed Israel Bar to intermittently receive various updates, which included classified material.

The dramatic change in Israel Bar's avowed political views sparked varying reactions. Some considered him to be an opportunist hoping to return to the IDF; others viewed his efforts to approach Ben-Gurion, the Defense Minister of Israel, with suspicion, considering them an alarming sign of attempted left wing influence.

Bar used his new status in the Ministry of Defense to his advantage in order to create the impression that he had a very close relationship with Ben-Gurion, and that he was amongst his confidantes and advisors. Despite his civilian status he could often be seen wearing the uniform of a lieutenant colonel. Furthermore, he had the habit of spending lunch breaks in the General Staff base, where he would meet senior officers and exchange updates and opinions.

Israel Bar presented himself as a close confidante of the Minister of Defense and so gained the trust of many of his colleagues and associates at the General Staff Base, they even considered him to be a close link to the minister, one who could promote their personal and professional interests. Some even provided him classified documents, including intelligence assessments, for consideration.

From the year 1958 Bar began to develop close connections in Europe, including Germany, France, the United Kingdom as well as other Western countries. Furthermore, he embarked on several trips to those countries, while creating the impression that he was on a government mission and thus obtaining the aid of military attachés and Ministry of Defense delegations. His meetings included the German Minister of Defence, Franz Josef Strauss, and the head of French intelligence, among others.

Despite the explicit prohibition of the head of the Mossad, Isser Harel, this had been conveyed to him by the director general of the Ministry of Defense. Ysrael Bar during a visit to Germany in 1960 met with the Chief of Federal Intelligence Service of West Germany, General Reinhard Gehlen, who was a prime target for Soviet intelligence.

Isser Harel considered it a suspicious sign when he discovered that Israel Bar had gone ahead with the meeting he had specifically prohibited. Isser Harel's suspicions, suspicions that he had long harbored against Bar, he considered as corroborated. Harel had always suspected Bar due to his close connection to Sneh, his activity in the Mapam Security Department, which seemed to have a subversive bent, and the suspicion that he could be a communist who had infiltrated Mapai in order to attain a central position and to become a Soviet-Communist agent within the establishment.

The information on Bar at that point was not enough to legally justify his removal from his position in the Ministry of Defense. Consequently Harel had three long conversations with Bar in 1955, 1956 and 1958. He was also closely monitored, with no results. Harel was not satisfied with the first conversation in 1955, when Bar was questioned about his past. In September 1956, prior to the Kadesh operation Harel had a second conversation with Bar, as a precautionary measure carried out in cases of "individuals with questionable loyalties". This conversation was also intended as a warning to such individuals, were the Soviets to attempt to recruit them, or simply as a deterrence to the formation of such connections.

Following the arrest of Aharon Cohen in 1958, on the grounds of espionage for the USSR and due to certain connections between Bar and Cohen around that time, Harel conducted another conversation with him.

No specific suspicions were raised in these three conversations; however Harel's suspicions were far from allayed.

Even after Bar's meeting with the head of the German intelligence service, he was monitored, but still there was not enough material to support the suspicions.