Tzadok Ophir, who participated in secret Mossad activity for decades in defense of the State of Israel, passed away at the age of 80 last week. He was buried in Kibbutz Einat, near Petach Tikvah, on Friday, in the presence of hundreds of relatives, friends and colleagues.
Ophir gathered intelligence on Palestinian terrorist activities in Europe during the 1960’s and 70’s. He was seriously wounded in 1972 when an Arab agent with whom he met in Brussels shot him. After he recovered, he insisted on returning to the Mossad, and assumed a job at Mossad headquarters in Israel.
At least three other intelligence agents were similarly killed in the following years: Baruch Cohen in Madrid in 1973, Moshe Golan in Netanya in 1980, and Ze’ev Geva in Lebanon in 1984.
Ophir’s contributions to the rebirth of the State of Israel included activity in Etzel, participation in the pre-State conquest of Jaffa, service as Special Tasks Officer in the IDF’s Intelligence Wing, and intelligence paratrooper in the Sinai Campaign of 1956. He joined the Mossad after the Six Day War in 1967.
Among those who eulogized Ophir were Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin and the deceased’s three sons. His Mossad commander Shmuel Goren said at the funeral that some of Ophir’s activities for the State of Israel were so secret that “they will never be told.”
The Mossad, whose official name is The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations, is the State of Israel's organ for the collection of information and analysis of intelligence, and performs special covert operations beyond its borders. Its motto is: "Where there is no counsel, the nation falls; in the multitude of counselors there is safety" (Proverbs 11:14)."