THE Samuel Katz he is the author of the book “The Architect of Espionage”, a biography of him Meir Daganof the most influential leader who passed through it and made it a terror for every would-be enemy of his.
The message that anyone who cares about Israel’s interests is never safe, and nowhere was it just for a time, became the unofficial motto of the state, and today it is more relevant than ever.
Katz’s book remained on the “New York Times” best-seller list for a long time, because its author, through the portrait of Duggan, presented the beginning of the myth, which established its reputation through a series of high-risk missions and with its cooperation with members of the global intelligence community, mainly with the CIA.
Mossad’s effort to prevent it from becoming a nuclear power, but also to ensure security conditions for Israel, changed its geopolitical dynamics and is still changing them.
Katz has written more than twenty books on the Arab-Israeli conflict, special military and police operations, espionage, and counterterrorism. He has written hundreds of articles for magazines and journals around the world, as well as documentaries for television.
He is also the former editor-in-chief of the Special Operations Report, a professional publication for the global commando and counter-terrorism community. In the current juncture, with the joint US/Israeli operation underway, Katz offers an inside look at how the Israeli leadership thinks and acts in relation to Iran.
“The Jewish State”he explains in his interview with “B”, “he can never again allow enemies who have declared their desire to destroy it to be able to achieve it”.
Mr. Katz, do you think Israeli and American interests in the region are aligned, or does Israel have a broader agenda, such as a protracted campaign to eliminate the regime and even the missile facilities, regardless of whether the US reaches some kind of agreement with a transitional regime in Iran?
“Hatred of the United States and Israel was a factor uniting Iran’s clerics and the Axis of Resistance it had built throughout the Middle East and beyond, including places like Venezuela and South Africa. The understanding, then, that a nuclear-capable Iran is an existential threat to the region and beyond has united the United States and Israel. If October 7 had never happened, Iran would likely have achieved its ultimate goal of crossing the nuclear threshold. But Hamas’s invasion of Israel set in motion a chain of events that led to the weakening of Iranian proxies in the region, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and other forces in Syria and Yemen. This allowed the United States and Israel to act before it was too late.”
Based on that and to the best of your knowledge, did the Mossad cooperate with the US Intelligence Service in target mapping to carry out the precision strikes that we saw in the early hours of the war?
“The US and Israeli intelligence services have shown that they cooperate closely with each other, not only in the sharing of information such as Human Intelligence, Signals Intelligence, Satellite Intelligence combined with the help of technological and other means. They were also able to incorporate these capabilities into targeting mechanisms built into their military battle arrays, achieving not only a deep penetration into Iran, but also capturing a list of high-value targets to achieve the common goals of both nations.”
Assuming the high-value – human – targets are eliminated, what’s your assessment of what’s next for Iran’s leadership? Will a new leader be able to take over, or is there a chance that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps will retain control of the country?
“Look, regime change can’t happen just by the strikes of the Israeli Air Force or through the might of the US military. The combined power and precision strikes can destroy most of what remains of the pillars of power belonging to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Also, nuclear capabilities, ballistic missiles and the leadership of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Basij, the supreme leader’s paramilitary militia. But the future of Iran lies in the hands of the Iranian people. The emergence of a responsible and courageous opposition can lead the nation out of 47 years of darkness, terror and oppression.”
Do you think the war will end in the few weeks timeframe announced by Trump and Netanyahu? Is Israel prepared for a protracted war, and perhaps a multi-front war in terms of its supplies and operational readiness?
“What can be said is that this is Israel’s biggest war, which comes after almost two years of continuous conflict. The Israeli military has spent decades preparing for this fateful moment. The events of the last two and a half years were not of Israel’s making, but the decision has been made: “Never Again”. Israel cannot allow enemies who have declared their desire to destroy it to be in a position to possess the ability and means to achieve that goal. This war is a war of survival for Israel. But it is also a war of opportunity for the rest of the world, to wipe a death-worshipping culture off the face of the earth and give the peoples of the region a chance to live together, instead of targeting each other’s destruction.”
