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Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124821418236169943.html
Meir Amit - An Israeli Spy Master
[Wall Street Journal] Stephen Miller - On June 5, 1967, Israel's air force destroyed Egypt's air force on the ground in a series of morning bombing raids that represented as much an intelligence victory as a military one. It was the culmination of years of careful work penetrating the Egyptian armed forces. "Don't call it the Six-Day War, call it the three-hour war," said Amit, the Mossad's chief from 1963-1968, who died last Friday at 88. In one spectacular operation in 1966, Amit engineered the defection of an Iraqi fighter pilot who landed his MIG-21 at an Israeli air base. The plane - among the most modern of the USSR's fighters - was immediately shared with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. The Iraqi pilot was inspired to defect by someone he took to be his American girlfriend but who was actually a Mossad agent. On Tuesday, Israel's president, Shimon Peres, said, "Generations of Israelis, entire generations of children owe Meir Amit a debt of gratitude for his immense contribution - a large part of which remains secret."