Via multitudinous foundations and so-called “advocacy” organizations, he was waging a global public relations campaign bent on painting Israel as the source of all the Middle East’s problems.
In the United States, he sent groups into American churches to poison congregations. On college campuses, his organizations recruited addle-brained university students to spread the message about “the real Israel.” Then he funded similar propaganda organizations in Israel, targeting young Israelis and convincing them their nation was evil.
Was it anti-Semitism? the Mossad wondered. Anti-Zionism? A combination of both?
The more the Institute looked into Damien, the more astounding the extent of his efforts became.
The man seemed particularly committed to weakening Israel’s relationship with the United States. Billboards and newspaper ads had been taken out exploiting low points in their relationship and highlighting events such as the spying of Jonathan Pollard.
He had established a legal foundation that paid American lawyers to go after U.S. Defense contractors with class-action lawsuits on behalf of Palestinians wounded and killed by U.S.-made weapons.
Prostitutes were paid to sleep with and then threaten to blackmail pro-Israel Members of Congress while on Congressional delegations to the Jewish state. Ultimately, the hookers would back off, claiming that they had been hired by the Mossad and couldn’t go through with it.
And then there was the UN.
Over his adult life, Damien had been offered plumb international ambassadorships by three different Canadian Prime Ministers. Each of which he had declined. Despite his professed love of Canada, where he made his home, he had been too busy running his businesses to focus on running an embassy.
That changed, though, in his sixties when he stepped back from the businesses and spent more time focused on his philanthropy. When Damien was asked to serve Canada at the United Nations, and was told which position he would get, he accepted.
He already had a good relationship with the Secretary-General and was honored when the General Assembly voted to appoint him to be Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Population Fund.
The Fund touted itself as the lead UN agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy was wanted, every birth was safe, and every young person’s potential was fulfilled. They prided themselves on shrinking the size of families while simultaneously making them healthier. It was the perfect place for Damien.
As an Under-Secretary-General, he not only received diplomatic immunity, but he was also admitted to one of the most exclusive clubs in the world, Secretary-General’s Senior Management Group, or SMG for short.
The fifty-member SMG acted as a quasi board of directors, advising the Secretary-General and helping to ensure the coherence and strategic direction of the entire United Nations organization.
The UN had always been a hotbed of anti-Zionism, but Damien was like a bellows when it came to fanning the flames. Whether it was his charisma, or the esteem that members held him in because of his vast fortune, he possessed tremendous sway. He never missed an opportunity to harm Israel.
He was also very anti-America.
Normally, this would have provided an opportunity for the Israelis and the Americans to work together. A foreign diplomat working behind the scenes to undermine the efforts and image of both countries cried out for a concerted effort. Though his tactics were different when it came to the United States, Damien was working even harder and pumping even more money into weakening it. The sticking point was his dual citizenship.
But because he held American citizenship, the United States was limited in what it could, and would, do to him.
Had Damien been palling around with terrorists in Yemen, they would have droned him. But America took its rights of free speech and free association very seriously. Damien was free to donate to whatever causes he wished. If no laws were being broken, American intelligence made it perfectly clear that it had no desire to begin an investigation. Israel was on its own when it came to Pierre Damien.
It was incredibly shortsighted on the Americans’ part. While the Israelis respected the United States’ views on its freedoms and founding documents, it was the height of negligence to allow those same freedoms and documents to provide cover for subversion. It was like Palestinian terrorists using hospitals and schools from which to launch rocket attacks. At some point you had to make a choice. Do you sit still and absorb the attacks? Or do you go in and eliminate the threat?
As far as Israel was concerned, there was too much at stake to just sit back. The threat needed to be eliminated. And so, they had decided to go after Damien and take him out.
But on the night they did, something happened that changed everything.
CHAPTER 20
The United Nations Secretary-General had planned a retreat for the full SMG to the picturesque Austrian village of Alpbach. That’s where the Mossad had decided to take out Pierre Damien. Nava Itzik and her Metsada team were mobilized and tasked with the assignment. Ben Mordechai would carry out the hit.
Alpbach looked like it had been built by Hollywood set designers. Cradled in a narrow valley, surrounded by lush meadows, the flowerboxes of its wooden chalets exploded in riots of color. Soaring pines gave way to jagged mountain peaks. It was clear why it had been voted Austria’s most beautiful village.
Though not given to such thoughts, Bentzi had found himself thinking that there was probably no more perfect place for a honeymoon. But he hadn’t come to Austria for a honeymoon. He had come to kill Pierre Damien.
The Institute was very nervous about the assignment. Not only because their target was a diplomat who held dual American and Canadian citizenship but also because a previous Metsada team had botched the assassination of Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh, the cofounder of the military wing of Hamas.
Al-Mabhouh had been wanted for numerous offenses, including the killing of two Israeli soldiers, as well as the purchase of arms from Iran to be used in Gaza.
The Institute had tracked Al-Mabhouh from Damascus to the Al Bustan Rotana hotel in Dubai. So had Jordanian Intelligence, which wanted to capture him and bring him back to Jordan to stand trial. Instead of taking a breath and figuring out how to handle the Jordanians, the Metsada rushed their operation. Almost immediately, mistakes started happening. It was amateur hour.
Though they succeeded in killing Al-Mabhouh, they didn’t succeed in making it look like he had died of natural causes. It took ten days, but Dubai officials eventually ruled it a homicide and began piecing together what had happened. In the end, still images from CCTV cameras of twenty-six Mossad agents were released to the press, as well as the names and countries of origin on the passports used to enter the country.
Once the names were out there, it became evident that the Mossad had stolen the identities of Israelis who held dual citizenship in Great Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, and Australia. The Dubai authorities also arrested two Palestinian Fatah operatives who had been assisting the Mossad team.
It wasn’t as bad as the botched CIA operation several years earlier to snatch radical Egyptian cleric Abu Omar off the streets of Milan, but it was an embarrassment nonetheless. The Institute wanted the smallest footprint possible and absolutely no mistakes. The message had been sent from the top — if you screw up, don’t come home.
The Institute had done its homework. They knew Pierre Damien — his quirks and idiosyncrasies, habits and routines. They also knew diplomatic boondoggles, which was exactly what the SMG retreat to Austria was.