Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu expressed his deep sorrow Tuesday over the passing of former top diplomat and Mossad intelligence official David Kimche. Kimche “filled a long series of vital positions for the State of Israel, the intelligence community and the foreign service with great ability and dedication,” Netanyahu said. "I remember many meetings with him, in which he analyzed the international arena very well. Dave's personality combined elegance, patriotism and sophistication; he loved people and exemplified how to fulfill a public mission.”
Kimche will be buried at Kibbutz Shefayim at 2:00 PM Wednesday.
Throughout the 1980 to 1988 administration of US President Ronald Reagan, Kimche was one of the leading figures in the efforts to cement the "strategic alliance" between Israel and the United States.
The London-born and British-raised Kimche fought in Israel's War of Independence and was wounded in the battles for Jerusalem. He was asked to join the newly organized Mossad in the early 1950s, climbed in the ranks and eventually became Deputy Mossad Chief for external relations under Yitzhak Hofi. His name has been associated with the extensive Israeli involvement and political connections in sub-Saharan Africa and north Africa in the 1960s.
In 1980 he was appointed Director of the Foreign Ministry and served in this capacity for six years.
The Iran-Contra affair
Kimche met Lebanese Christian leader Bashir Jemayel in 1976, as part of the process of cementing Israel's connections with the Lebanese Christians, and was involved with the planning of the First Lebanon War in 1982. He was the head of the Israeli delegation at December 1982 talks with Lebanon held in Khaldeh, outside Beirut.
His name was also tied to the “Iran-Contra” scandal which came to light in 1986, in which the CIA was implicated in selling arms to Iran through Israel, in order to secure the release of hostages and to fund Nicaraguan contras.
After retiring from the Foreign Ministry he served as a special ambassador of the Israeli government, mostly to eastern European countries. He was also a guest lecturer at Tel Aviv and Bar-Ilan universities and President of the Israel Council on Foreign Relations. He served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Maariv newspaper until 2008.
He was a co-architect of the Geneva Initiative for peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which involved the creation of a demilitarized Arab state next to Israel. The initiative was led by Dr. Yossi Beilin, who also masterminded the Oslo Accords.
Kimche authored several books, including The Secret Roads about Jewish 'illegal' immigration to the Land of Israel under British rule; Both Sides of the Hill (with his brother Jon); The Afro-Asian Movement, about the ideology and foreign policy of the Third World, and The Last Option.