Zvi Zamir, an Israeli spymaster who served as chief of Mossad in the early 1970s, has died at the age of 98. He came into the public eye in 1972 when the Israeli Olympic team was taken hostage by Palestinian militants at the Munich Games. After the hostage situation ended in a deadly confrontation, he directed a covert campaign by Mossad agents to go after Palestinian terrorist networks. The cause of death has not been confirmed.Zamir was heavily responsible for maintaining discipline and focus within Mossad in the aftermath of the Munich incident, in which 11 Israeli athletes and coaches were killed. He mobilized a counterstrike on Palestinian targets with an operation called “Wrath of God,” which lasted over a decade and resulted in the deaths of several suspected Palestinian militant leaders, including Ali Hassan Salameh, the alleged mastermind of the Munich attack.Following the attack, Mr. Zamir also had to face the fallout of the mistaken killing of a Moroccan waiter by Israeli agents in Norway, leading to strained relations with Europe and internal rifts.He also had a hand in the events leading up to the Yom Kippur War in 1973, when Israeli forces were caught off-guard by surprise attacks from Egypt and Syria. An earlier tip from an Arab informant he received turned out to be partly correct, but Israeli forces were not fully prepared. Zamir was later praised for providing the warning about the looming war.Zamir was born Zvicka Zarzevsky in Poland and emigrated to British Mandate Palestine as a baby. He joined the Palmach and Haganah as a teenager, before rising through the military ranks and eventually joining Mossad. After leaving Mossad in 1974, he had a career as a businessman and also served on several commissions. He was loyal to Golda Meir until her death in 1978.
