The Green Prince Page #4

It was my own moral code

that I developed for myself

within my limited

knowledge at that time.

We called him

"The Green Prince."

Fast, he understood this is

his secret name in the Shin Bet,

and he acted as a prince.

He wouldn't take anything

humiliating from anybody.

I realized my choices

that I'm making,

and I knew at some point,

the Agency could not force me

tocontinue working.

Information is power.

He brought the information.

He had the power in his hands,

and I think that he knew

from the beginning

what kind of tool

he has in his hands,

and he used it.

They needed someone like me.

This is a big achievement.

And I knew,

like through his eyes,

I was the biggest recruitment

that he had so far.

He needed that,

so I played the game.

Yasser Arafat met with my father

to discuss the details

of the I ntifada

and its activities.

He did not want to look like

he's asking people

tocome down tothe streets.

He wanted tostay away from that,

and have someone todo

the dirty job for him.

I wanted my father

to be careful.

There was no way

totalk tohim directly

about anything.

The Green Prince called us

and informed us that

Arafat was talking

to Hassan Yousef.

And told him, "Be prepared.

We are going

toblow up everything."

The Shin Bet in Israel

couldn't handle

this information at that time.

Our hope was in Arafat.

During that time,

I was in charge of

all the operations

that happened in Ramallah.

It was a big,

big responsibility.

I hardly slept.

I didn't know

how my wife coped with this.

I would come very late.

After a few days,

I wasn't at home,

and all night,

I get all kind of phone calls.

They never come and tell you,

"You know,

now we are in February.

Next December, someone

is going tomake an attack."

No, you don't have

this privilege.

It's always like

in twohours, in one hour,

half an hour,

and you start toworry.

Every day we had new bombing.

Sometimes, twice a day.

We would wake up

in the morning thinking,

"What's going

to happen today?"

I realized that cowards

with the name of courage

are leading children and women,

an entire nation to death.

It was like

a flood that you can't stop.

Ten, twenty Israelis

are killed because of you,

because you didn't prevent

the killing.

Sometimes I felt I need

totake my gun

and goshoot people in Ramallah.

It was nonsense.

It wasn't something

I would ever do,

but the level

of frustration was sohigh,

and the anger.

And I tried toremind myself,

you know, this is

what they are doing.

You can't go

and shoot innocent people.

And yet, I felt like

sometimes I need todoit.

I did not have a problem

of stopping a suicide bomber.

Actually, I did not have

a problem of cracking down

the entire Hamas security

and military wing at that time.

This is how much

I was frustrated.

Because when things went

out of control,

there was still

a responsibility towards

every individual

of that society.

People were afraid

to stand

and say no to suicide bombs.

This is very hard to tell

what was on his heart.

You know, at least

in his public appearance,

he did support

the suicide bombing.

But on a personal level,

I'm not sure.

We got an order

from the government,

"You need tofind some terrorists

and assassinate them."

Hassan Yousef was

a great target.

I was afraid

that they were gonna come

toask me something

that I cannot do.

And at that point,

I'm gonna say "no" tothat.

I wrote him a letter,

not handwritten,

and I pretended

that I was someone else,

and I did not leave even

any clue that could lead tome.

"I want totell you

that you are a target,

and you can get killed any time.

Stay away from Hamas activities,

especially its military wing.

And you need togotoa hide,

and don't trust

your bodyguards."

The next day, he immediately

fired his bodyguards,

and he told me, "I want

togointoa safe house."

I told him, "Why?"

And he said,

"There is nospecific reason,

but I feel that this is the time

toreally gotoa hide."

When he gave me his secrets,

his locations, everything,

and I gave all that information

tothe Israeli I ntelligence,

that was by all means,

in his world, was betrayal.

Now, in my world,

it was a different story.

In my world,

it was responsibility.

In my world,

it was saving his life.

In my world, it was saving

many other people's lives.

You can 't

assassinate his father

and keep him as a source.

So the plan was to isolate him.

Make the Green Prince,

Mosab, his son,

the only connection between

him and the outside world,

in order toget

toother wanted people.

Mosab had great connections

with the Hamas leadership

in Damascus, in Gaza,

of course, in the West Bank.

When Hassan Yousef

sends information,

and sends his point of view

through The Green Prince

toothers, and get a response.

Everything is monitored

by Shin Bet.

It was something very unique.

When he needs togive an answer

to Khaled Meshaal,

the head of the Hamas movement,

and we don't like the answer,

we can manipulate his answer.

In a way, we can create

a new reality.

All out war

between Israel and Hamas.

The Israeli military

launched another attack today.

It was the sixth one in twoweeks

targeting Hamas leaders

and their lieutenants.

Helicopters and missiles doing

what Israel says

the Palestinian

Authority will not.

For its part though,

the Palestinian Authority says

the continuing missile attacks

make that job,

reining in militants,

even harder to do.

At some point,

my father called me

and he said, "Finally,

the PA agreed

to release the members

of the movement."

Ibrahim Hamid,

Muhammad Jamal Nachher,

Saleh Talahme,

Said Sheikh Kasem.

Those guys were the spine

of the Hamas military wing,

and all of them were masterminds

behind many suicide

bombing attacks.

And it happened that I took

those people with my car

from the Palestinian

Authority prison

to the safe house.

This piece of information

you get once in a lifetime.

Now, using

this information means

you're going to kill Mosab,

because they will check it,

they will understand fast that

Mosab gave that information,

and the game is over.

We needed to make a choice.

We had a chopper in the air.

And I remember an argument,

a very emotional

argument at that time.

I remember the manager

of Special Operations

of Shin Bet screaming,

saying, you know, "Shoot!"

I felt that I'm tempted todoit

because the mission

is soimportant.

You know, you are

sofocused in what you do.

You put everything aside.

And we didn't doit.

The explosion

in the Israeli coastal town

of Hadera, between Tel Aviv

and Haifa in northern Israel,

according to hospital

sources in the town,

two people have been killed,

as many as 25 people

have been injured.

Israel holds the Palestinian

Authority responsible

because the authority freed

Hamas and Islamic

Jihad activists.

I remember

when Mosab heard the news,

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