From Israel, with subliminal thoughts

Press, 29 April 1978, Page 17

From Israel, with subliminal thoughts

The Israeli Secret Service. Richard Deacon. Hamish Hamilton. 318 pp. Photographs, notes, index. $15.45. (Reviewed by Derrick Mansbridge) Was Lee Harvey Oswald acting tindet the psychic influence of Russia’s K.G.B when he assassinated President John Kennedy in 1963? Did he believe he was sighting a rabbit when he fired bullets into the President? if he did it alone, or did it at all, the debate lingers on. Richard Deacon, who has written histories of the British, Russian, and Chinese secret sendees, and who. under his own name of Donald McCormick, also wrote “Who’s Who In Spy Fiction,” raises the tantalising possibility of psychic influences in his new book. “The Israeli Secret Service.” Admittedly, Deacon does add (hastily?): “I am not saying that this was the case then, but Oswald had been to Russia.” And he does not rule out the possibility altogether. In fact, the last chapter in his book, headed “The Strange World of Psychic Espionage,” opens up such bizarre areas of espionage that one might believe anything. The greater part of the book is a fairly straight-forward history of the Israeli Secret Service, starting from the time when “Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan” (Numbers

xiii, 17-18), to the much-documented, much-filmed Entebbe raid. Deacon has tremendous respect for the abilities of Israelis in the dark, mysterious, ruthless, and cunning world of spies and double agents. Deacon says that because Israel is small and surrounded by enemies, and has had to stage a long,fierce, and desperate battle for survival, it has been forced to organise a highly efficient secret service. He tells many stories of individual courage and achievement, of the murderous underground battles waged against the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (those won as well as those lost), and of the superbly-organised team operations, such as the Eichmann kidnap and the Entebbe raid (which, of course, the Egyptians made look even more superbly organised in contrast to their disastrous attempt to reproduce Entebbe in Cyprus.) At times, Deacon’s absorption with detail and his devotion to Israeli capacities make for tedious reading, but be has the ability to lift the pace just when it is needed with an account or an action that sets the adrenalin flowing again. And this ability is no more evident than when he spills the reader headlong into the mysteries of psychic espionage. Its aims, he says, are “to make a devastating short cut through the normal processes of espionage and counter-espionage.”

Apparently, and perhaps not surprisingly, the Russians appear to have the edge in this sphere (hence Deacon’s half-hearted linking of Oswald and Kennedy to rabbits.) But the Israelis are well into the spirit world and the Americans are catching up. To the reader whose mind boggles over the intricacies of the subject Deacon has not been of great help.

The closest he comes to an explanation is what an Israeli contact (nameless) told him: “This isn’t just a question of telepathy or ESP alone. The U.S.S.R. is spending vast sums of money in developing research and experimentation in some very sinister directions. Their telepathic research for instance, is being devoted to what they call the transference of behaviour impulses — the subliminal conditioning of a person’s character. We know they are concerned with developing this technique to try to control agents and even to create traitors . . .”

Readers may well wonder how and where the James Bonds of this world will fit into this new style of espionage. The ability to shoot straight, drive fast, drink hard, and make love might not be the highest qualifications for tomorrow’s spies — even fictional ones. Denis Wheatley and his devotees of black magic might be nearer the mark.