Israel second woman PM-in waiting earned her spurs as a spy | Irish Sun

Israel second woman PM-in waiting earned her spurs as a spy

Irish Sun (ANI) Saturday 20th September, 2008

London, Sept.20 : Israel's second woman Prime Minister in waiting, Tzipi Livni, earned her spurs as an agent working for a covert cell in an elite spy unit, reports The Times.

According to the paper, Livni had a dangerous, youthful stint as a spy in Mossad, one of the world's most respected and feared secret services, in Paris in the early 1980s.

Though the Mossad does not divulge details, The Times can reveal that Livni ran substantial risks as an Israeli agent operating in a covert cell in Europe.

"She was in an elite unit," said Ephraim Halevy, the former director of Mossad, who for security reasons declined to specify which outfit Livni had served in between 1980 and 1984.

"She was a very promising agent who showed all the attributes of a very promising career. She was very well thought of."

Livni, a fluent French speaker and daughter of renowned Zionist guerrillas, served her time in Paris when the city was a deadly battleground in Mossad's covert war with Palestinian militant groups and Saddam Hussein's nuclear ambitions.

One Israeli former intelligence source told The Times that the 22-year-old Livni had been recruited into Mossad after her National Service by a childhood friend, Mira Gal, who herself served for two decades in the agency and who now works as her ministry bureau chief.

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