Son of Hamas founder: Israel cares more about Palestinians than Hamas or Fatah

[Bamba]

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1151941.html

The son of a leading Hamas figure, who famously converted to Christianity, served for over a decade as the Shin Bet security service's most valuable source in the militant organization's leadership, Haaretz has learned.

Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a Hamas founder and one of its leaders in the West Bank. The intelligence he supplied Israel led to the exposure of a number of terrorist cells, and to the prevention of dozens of suicide bombings and assassination attempts on Israeli figures.

[goat89]

Wow... didnt know about this. Talk about being uncomfortable. :S

[AZZenny]

Good read -- I'll be buying his book next week, for sure.

[Switek]

Thanks for sharing that article. You cant't find this kind of info evry day

[Ordie]

Hamas founder's son worked for Shin Bet for years

By Avi Issacharoff


The son of a leading Hamas figure, who famously converted to Christianity, served for over a decade as the Shin Bet security service's most valuable source in the militant organization's leadership, Haaretz has learned.

Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a Hamas founder and one of its leaders in the West Bank. The intelligence he supplied Israel led to the exposure of a number of terrorist cells, and to the prevention of dozens of suicide bombings and assassination attempts on Israeli figures.

The exclusive story will appear in this Friday's Haaretz Magazine, and Yousef's memoir, "Son of Hamas" (written with Ron Brackin) will be released next week in the United States. Yousef, 32, became a devout Christian 10 years ago and now lives in California after fleeing the West Bank in 2007 and going public with his conversion.
Advertisement

Yousef was considered the Shin Bet's most reliable source in the Hamas leadership, earning himself the nickname "the Green Prince" - using the color of the Islamist group's flag, and "prince" because of his pedigree as the son of one of the movement's founders.

During the second intifada, intelligence Yousef supplied led to the arrests of a number of high-ranking Palestinian figures responsible for planning deadly suicide bombings. These included Ibrahim Hamid (a Hamas military commander in the West Bank, Marwan Barghouti (founder of the Fatah-linked Tanzim militia) and Abdullah Barghouti (a Hamas bomb-maker with no close relation to the Fatah figure). Yousef was also responsible for thwarting Israel's plan to assassinate his father.

"I wish I were in Gaza now," Yousef said by phone from California, "I would put on an army uniform and join Israel's special forces in order to liberate Gilad Shalit. If I were there, I could help. We wasted so many years with investigations and arrests to capture the very terrorists that they now want to release in return for Shalit. That must not be done."

The story of Yousef's spiritual transformation appeared in Haaretz Magazine in August 2008. Only now, however, is Yousef exposing the secret he kept since 1996, when he was first held by Shin Bet agents seeking to enlist him in infiltrating the upper echelon of Hamas.

Their efforts proved successful, and Yousef was released from prison in 1997. His former handler, who no longer serves with the security service, says Yousef collaborated with Israel because he wanted to save lives.

"So many people owe him their life and don't even know it," said the handler, named in Yousef's book as Captain Loai. "People who did a lot less were awarded the Israel Security Prize. He certainly deserves it."

Loai makes no secret of his admiration for his former source. "The amazing thing is that none of his actions were done for money," he says. "He did things he believed in. He wanted to save lives. His grasp of intelligence matters was just as good as ours - the ideas, the insights. One insight of his was worth 1,000 hours of thought by top experts."

Loai recalled one time when the Shin Bet received information that a suicide bomber was going to be picked up at Manara Square in Ramallah and be given an explosives belt.

"We didn't know his name or what he looked like - only that he was in his 20s and would be wearing a red shirt," he said. "We sent the Green Prince to the square and with his acute sense, he located the target within minutes. He saw who picked him up, followed the car and made it possible for us to arrest the suicide bomber and the man who was supposed to give him the belt. So another attack was thwarted, though no one knows about it. No one opens Champagne bottles or bursts into song and dance. This was an almost daily thing for the Prince. He displayed courage, had sharp antennae and an ability to cope with danger. We knew he was one of those who in any situation - rain, snow, summer - give their all."

With his memoir, Yousef hopes to send a message of peace to Israelis. Still, he admits he is pessimistic over the prospect of Israel signing a peace agreement with the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, let alone Hamas.

"Hamas cannot make peace with the Israelis. That is against what their God tells them. It is impossible to make peace with infidels, only a cease-fire, and no one knows that better than I. The Hamas leadership is responsible for the killing of Palestinians, not Israelis," he said. "Palestinians! They do not hesitate to massacre people in a mosque or to throw people from the 15th or 17th floor of a building, as they did during the coup in Gaza. The Israelis would never do such things. I tell you with certainty that the Israelis care about the Palestinians far more than the Hamas or Fatah leadership does.

Source:http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1151941.html

[Derbedeu]

Repost:

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?174870-Son-of-Hamas-founder-Israel-cares-more-about-Palestinians-than-Hamas-or-Fatah

[hogdriver]

From Times Online
February 24, 2010

Son of Hamas founder spied for Israel for more than a decade

The son of one of Hamas’s founding members was a spy in the service of Israel for more than a decade, helping prevent dozens of Islamist suicide bombers from finding their targets, it emerged today.
Codenamed the Green Prince by Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, supplied key intelligence on an almost daily basis from 1996 onwards and tracked down suicide bombers and their handlers from his father’s organization, the daily Haaretz said.
Information he supplied led to the arrests of some of the most wanted men by Israeli forces, including Marwan Barghouti, a Fatah leader often tipped as a potential president who was convicted of masterminding terrorist attacks, and one of Hamas’ top bomb-makers Abdullah Barghouti, who is no relation of the jailed Fatah chief.

Mr Yousef, a 32-year-old convert to Christianity who now lives in California, has revealed the intrigues of his years as a spy in a new book called Son of Hamas, much to the concern of Shin Bet, whose operations will be revealed in detail. While the revelations may give a boost to Israel’s intelligence service, whose external counterpart Mossad is still grappling with the diplomatic fall-out of last month’s Hamas assassination in Dubai, there will be concern that the account may give too many insights into the murky world of espionage.

However, Mr Yousef’s work will be far more damaging to Hamas, whose brutality he denounced. Dubai police have suggested that Mahmoud al-Mabhuh, the top Hamas militant found dead in a hotel room in the emirate on January 20, may have been betrayed by an insider from the Islamist movement itself.

And Mr Yousef had harsh words for the movement that his father helped form, and which now rules the Gaza Strip after a bloody takeover in summer 2007. “Hamas cannot make peace with the Israelis,” he told the daily. “That is against what their God tells them. It is impossible to make peace with infidels, only a cease-fire, and no one knows that better than I. The Hamas leadership is responsible for the killing of Palestinians, not Israelis."
Mr Yousef’s former Israeli handler, identified only as Captain Loai, praised the resolve of his agent, whose codename derived from the colour of Islam – and Hamas’ – banner and from his exalted position within an organization that regularly kills those suspected of collaborating with the Jewish state.
"So many people owe him their life and don't even know it," he said. "The amazing thing is that none of his actions were done for money. He did things he believed in. He wanted to save lives. His grasp of intelligence matters was just as good as ours — the ideas, the insights. One insight of his was worth 1,000 hours of thought by top experts."
Mr Yousef, whose father is still in an Israeli jail cell, from where he was elected as an MP in 2006, went as far as tracking down would-be kamikazes himself in the streets of the West bank during the Second Intifada which erupted a decade ago and left thousands of Palestinians and Israelis dead. On one occasion he followed a bomber from Manara Square in the centre of Ramallah, just north of Jerusalem.
“We didn't know his name or what he looked like — only that he was in his 20s and would be wearing a red shirt," said the former handler. "We sent the Green Prince to the square and with his acute sense, he located the target within minutes. He saw who picked him up, followed the car and made it possible for us to arrest the suicide bomber and the man who was supposed to give him the belt. So another attack was thwarted, though no one knows about it. No one opens Champagne bottles or bursts into song and dance. This was an almost daily thing for the Prince. He displayed courage, had sharp antennae and an ability to cope with danger."
Mr Yousef, who converted from Islam to Christianity a decade ago – in itself, a dangerous act – was arrested by the Israelis in 1996 and within a year had been recruited by Shin Bet, then released to begin working as an informant.
Speaking by telephone from California, Mr Yousef told Haaretz he worried that the Israeli Government might release some of the prisoners he helped put behind bars in exchange for Gilad Schalit, a young Israeli soldier abducted by Hamas from the Gaza border more than three years ago.
“I wish I were in Gaza now," he said. "I would put on an army uniform and join Israel's special forces in order to liberate Gilad Schalit. If I were there, I could help. We wasted so many years with investigations and arrests to capture the very terrorists that they now want to release in return for Schalit. That must not be done."


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7039011.ece

[Hollis]

A interesting story.

[kamaz]

amazing story. Def will pick up the book. Cheers for this guy for saving so many lives. A courageous man.

[bbsh]

If im not mistaken, dont Mashaal's 2 daughters live in Israel as well? I think i read an article on jpost a few years back how they applied for Israeli citizenship

[AZZenny]

and Haniyeh's sisters, I believe, also.

[Connaught Ranger]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20100224/twl-hamas-leader-s-son-was-israeli-secre-3fd0ae9.html


Hamas Leader's Son 'Was Israeli Secret Agent'

30 mins ago
http://l.yimg.com/i/i/any/skylo.jpg?x=140&y=26&q=75&sig=oedxwteT6cU.4X3EUgIhKw-- (http://uk.rd.yahoo.com/skynews_logo/SIG=112tsq0io/**http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sky.com%2Fnews) © Sky News 2010

Buzz Up!
Print Story (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20100224/twl-hamas-leader-s-son-was-israeli-secre-3fd0ae9.html?printer=1)


The son of one of the founders and leaders of Hamas (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/fc/gaza.html) acted as an Israeli (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/fc/israel.html) undercover agent for more than a decade, an Israeli newspaper website has claimed.[/URL]
Related photos / videos


[URL="http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20100224/img/pwl-hamas-leader-s-son-was-79a7275d1245.html"] http://d.yimg.com/i/ng/ne/skynews/20100224/20/1561763527-hamas-leader-s-son-israeli-secret-agent.jpg?x=310&y=231&q=75&wc=321&hc=240&xc=40&yc=1&sig=TT88bRP92nAydqv8ka_Yhg--#310,231 Enlarge photo (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20100224/twl-hamas-leader-s-son-was-israeli-secre-3fd0ae9.html#ynw-article-part2)

(http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20100224/img/pwl-hamas-leader-s-son-was-79a7275d1245.html)



Haaretz.com alleges that Massab Hassan Yussuf, son of Sheik Hassan Yussuf, served for over a decade as one of the most valuable and trusted sources within Israel's security services.


The Israeli reporter who broke the story told Sky News that Massab was originally recruited in an Israeli prison back in 1996.


"While under arrest, he was severely beaten and tortured by the Israelis and essentially asked to become an informant on Hamas in the prison itself," Avi Issascharof said.


"The Israeli security forces felt that his affiliation with one of the organisations leaders would provide good cover."


Sky's Middle East (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/middleeast.html) correspondent Dominic Waghorn said Hamas "has been quick to deny the story" but will be "hugely embarrassed" that the son of one of its founders was an Israeli intelligence agent.


While first acting in prison as an agent for the Israelis, Massab informed on Hamas members who tortured other Palestinians in order to establish whether they themselves were informants.


"He told me he was disgusted to find out that Hamas were torturing Palestinians just like the Israelis and even worse - burning cigarettes on their bodies, beating them to a pulp," Mr Issascharof said.


By the time Massab was released from jail he did not want to join any militant organisation.


But he was soon contacted by an agent of the Israeli security services who turned him into a full-time undercover informant within the Hamas ranks.


Considered the Israeli security services' "most reliable source", Massab was dubbed "The Green Prince" - "Prince" for his affiliation to one of Hamas leaders and "Green" for the colour of the Hamas flag.


Waghorn said if the claims turn out to be true, it will be another major setback for Hamas just a few weeks after one of its senior commanders was killed in a Dubai hotel.


"Hamas has been on the back foot in the PR and prestige stakes since Operation Cast Lead when it failed to inflict the losses it said it would when Israeli forces invaded Gaza (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/fc/gaza.html)," he said.


"Its standing among Palestinians and among other anti-Israeli militant groups has taken a knocking and this compounds that if the claims are true."



Conaught Ranger.

[strategist]

this guy must be insane, how come he change religion , political attitude, loose loayality to his own family and country and people all of a sudden,
This kind of mentally ill people are good candidates for brain wash, and are widely used by intelligence agancies.

[FrankBooth0]

^


The intelligence he supplied Israel led to the exposure of a number of terrorist cells, and to the prevention of dozens of suicide bombings and assassination attempts on Israeli figures


I'll take his type of mental illness any day.

[Elemental666]

this guy must be insane, how come he change religion , political attitude, loose loayality to his own family and country and people all of a sudden,
This kind of mentally ill people are good candidates for brain wash, and are widely used by intelligence agancies.

Thank you for the expert analysis of how intelligence agencies work.

The dude helped stopping more than one nutjob getting to Israel with a suicide belt and blowing up dozens of civilians. Yup, sounds like a mentally ill person to me.

[strategist]

I am not taking sides, I am talking about how come someones just overturns 180 degrees over what he was raised on ???

Regarding the Intelligence Agencies, Yes, they hunt for people whor are felt to have personailty problems and value-set deviations because they are so much easier to be drifted and lead.

Search for the famous Amina El-Mofty Jordanian spy to see who did the mossad use her bizzare undefined hate against her family and country and religion to trap her into espionage.

and there are a lot of simillar cases, I recall one case in which an american guy kept messaging the russians during the cold war with imprtant secrets using his position in the pentagon archives, because the KGB knew he had a personality problem because being ignored at work, and they kept telling him you are the world peace saviour and things like that to feed his thirst for recognition, ironically he spied for the KGB for many years for free .

[FrankBooth0]

This person they "trapped" helped save peoples lives, that's not taking sides that is being a decent person. His conversion is his business and probably talked about in his book. Of course the Shin Bet will have their own interest first, but doesn't seem like they just cut the guy loose once they used him up. They took an opportunity to attain invaluable Intel and it paid off. He had the big picture by being the son of such a man. He made his choice by whatever means, and averted potential disasters.

[gaijinsamurai]

I am not taking sides, I am talking about how come someones just overturns 180 degrees over what he was raised on ???

.

A good friend of mine was born in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip. His family was from Beer Shiba, where they lived until 1948. His father was one of the earliest members of the PLO and Fatah, and grew up hearing their slogans while a kid in Egypt and Libya. In 1982, he joined Fatah and went to Lebanon, to be part of the Fedayeen. In Lebanon, he grew very disillusioned with the PLO.
Although he is proud to be Palestinian and Arab, he doesn't consider himself a Moslem and he believes the worst thing to ever happen to the Palestinian people were Arafat, the PLO leadership, and the Arabs who exploited them.

He still has a lot of relatives who are members of Fatah, but believes anyone who thinks they can bring a better life to their people via violence is an idiot.

[G-AWZT]

Why would Hamas and Fatah care about the Palestinians getting a better life? If they did get such a thing Hamas and Fatah would be out of a job.

[Switek]

Exactly! Good point!. This is not about victory but continuous fighting...

[NimDod]

and Haniyeh's sisters, I believe, also.

At least one of Haniyeh's sisters lives in Tel-Sheva - a 5 minutes drive from Be'er-Sheva and less than two kilometers away from where some Grad rockets struck, back in 2006.

[strategist]

A good friend of mine was born in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip. His family was from Beer Shiba, where they lived until 1948. His father was one of the earliest members of the PLO and Fatah, and grew up hearing their slogans while a kid in Egypt and Libya. In 1982, he joined Fatah and went to Lebanon, to be part of the Fedayeen. In Lebanon, he grew very disillusioned with the PLO.
Although he is proud to be Palestinian and Arab, he doesn't consider himself a Moslem and he believes the worst thing to ever happen to the Palestinian people were Arafat, the PLO leadership, and the Arabs who exploited them.

He still has a lot of relatives who are members of Fatah, but believes anyone who thinks they can bring a better life to their people via violence is an idiot.

I agree with you, Most of the palestinian people I know think the same too, Now, PLO (specially Fatah) is like a man who was stipped off his clothes and can't find a cover, All their sins became exposed to public, All the money they stole from the EU and US and Arab funds. Thier so called "Security Arrangements" with Israel which was really used on the ground to eliminate their opponents and gain personal benefits.

On the other hand, Hamas didn't offer the people anything but another war, In which the civilians paid a painful price.

[Connaught Ranger]

this guy must be insane, how come he change religion , political attitude, loose loayality to his own family and country and people all of a sudden,
This kind of mentally ill people are good candidates for brain wash, and are widely used by intelligence agancies.

Perhaps, Troll, he just realised that the course of action that he had been brainwashed into following by his family, friends, fundamentalist religious leaders was WRONG, the fact that yu would ask such a question in your post you would seem to condone the actions of the afore mentioned group.

So that says lots for your own mentality.

Connaught Ranger.

[G3SG1]

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1151941.html

The son of a leading Hamas figure, who famously converted to Christianity, served for over a decade as the Shin Bet security service's most valuable source in the militant organization's leadership, Haaretz has learned.

Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a Hamas founder and one of its leaders in the West Bank. The intelligence he supplied Israel led to the exposure of a number of terrorist cells, and to the prevention of dozens of suicide bombings and assassination attempts on Israeli figures.


Since when the words of a man who apparently betrayed for money his ( whatever terrorist) people are having any significance?

[RoyB]

Since when the words of a man who apparently betrayed for money his ( whatever terrorist) people are having any significance?
Where did it say that he betrayed for money?
And history is filled with turn coats that provided pretty solid intel, as this guy.