“Sayeret Matkal: Israel’s Top-Secret Elite Commando Unit” – with Aviram Halevi

Summary

Lt. Col. (ret.) Aviram Halevi (LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss Israel’s top secret commando unit, Sayeret Matkal. Aviram formerly served as Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Sayeret Matkal. 

What You’ll Learn

Intelligence

• The origins of Sayeret Matkal
• Collaboration across Israeli intelligence 
• Operation Spring of Youth & the Entebbe Raid
• Intelligence & hostage retrieval

Reflections

• The value of teamwork
• No room for fear 

And much, much more …

Episode Notes

This week on SpyCast, Andrew was joined by Aviram Halevi, former Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Sayeret Matkal, Israel’s top-secret elite commando unit. Aviram served over two decades in various branches of Israeli intelligence, and recently co-wrote the book Sayeret Matkal: The Greatest Operations of Israel's Elite Commandos. Andrew and Aviram discuss the origins and history of the unit, including the stories of some of Sayeret Matkal’s most notable operations. 

This episode is third in our 5-part series on Israeli Intelligence. We encourage listeners to begin the series with a crash course in Israeli intelligence with Erez David Maisel, the check out our episodes with Uzi Arad, former National Security Advisor to Benjamin Netanyahu, and Uri Bar-Joseph, scholar and expert on the intelligence failure of the Yom Kippur War. 

And… 

Sayeret Matkal’s motto is “Who Dares Wins” – A motto first used by Britain’s Special Air Service during World War II. Since then, 11 other elite special forces units have also adopted the saying, including units from France, Belgium, Australia, New Zealand, Tunisia, Rhodesia, Greece, Cyrus, Latvia, Oman, and India.  

Quotes of the Week

“What makes [Sayeret Matkal] so unique? The fact is that these people, and you mentioned that before, we are not rambos and there is no ramboism in the unit in Sayeret Matkal. On the contrary, the basic building block of the Sayeret is the team. The team is what you're kind of imprinted with once you get drafted. And this will be your designation forever. I'm team Raz. Raz was my commander, and my soldiers are team Aviram for the rest of their lives.” – Aviram Halevi.

Resources 

SURFACE SKIM

*SpyCasts*

• The Intelligence Legacy of the Yom Kippur War with Uri Bar-Joseph (2023)
• Intelligence, Special Operations, and Strategy with Michael Vickers (2023)
• Israeli Military Intelligence with IDF Brig. General (Res.) Yossi Kuperwasser (2022)

Black Ops: The Life of a Legendary CIA Shadow Warrior with Ric Prado (2022)

*Beginner Resources*

• Massacre at the 1972 Olympic Games, National Park Service (2023) [Short article]
• What Is Sayeret Matkal, Israel's Special Forces Unit Set For Hostage Rescue Operation In Gaza?v, YouTube (2023) [7 min. video]
• Entebbe Raid, Encyclopedia Brittanica (n.d.) [Short encyclopedia entry]

DEEPER DIVE

Books

• Sayeret Matkal: The Greatest Operations of Israel's Elite Commandos, A. Shur & A. Halevi (Skyhorse, 2023)
• No Mission Is Impossible: The Death-Defying Missions of the Israeli Special Forces, M. Bar-Zohar & N. Mishal (Ecco, 2016) 
• Operation Thunderbolt: Flight 139 and the Raid on Entebbe Airport, the Most Audacious Hostage Rescue Mission in History, S. David (Little, Brown and Company, 2015)
• Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team, G. Jonas (Simon & Schuster, 2005) 

Articles

• The Israeli crack extraction unit ready to rescue Gaza hostages, J. Rothwell, The Telegraph (2023)
• Israeli Special Operations Forces – An Overview, E. Shamir & E. Ben-Ari, Kingston Consortium on International Security (2022)
• ‘We can only trust ourselves’: Operation Wrath of God in perspective, Y. Galily, Journal of Israel Affairs (2022)
• Entebbe in person: A new oral history challenges official account of 1976 rescue, J. A. Gross, The Times of Israel (2021)
• Decision Making Processes in Counter-Terrorism Operations in Israel, A. Sofrin, Journal of Political Science and International Relations (2021)
• ‘Spring of Youth’ in Beirut: the effects of the Israeli military operation on Lebanon, D. Naor, Journal of Israel Affairs (2014)

Video

• Follow Me: The Yoni Netanyahu Story (2012)
• One Day in September (1999) 

Primary Sources 

• Entebbe Protocols (1976) [Rabin, Allon, Peres, etc.]
• Ambassador Dinitz and Secretary Kissinger (June 30, 1976)
• Ambassador Dinitz and Secretary Kissinger (July 5, 1976)
• Uganda, Kenya Dispute (1976)
• Amin Says Uganda Retains Right to Reply to the Raid (1976)
• Speech by Ugandan Prime Minister on the 40^th Anniversary of Entebbe (2016)

*Wildcard Resource*

• Elite commando units like Sayeret Matkal, while not as focused on intelligence, go back as far as military history. To read about the special forces of antiquity, check out Persia’s The Immortals, Byzantine’s Tagma, and Rome’s Extraordinarii.