‘Sealed Lips,’ a film on the life and service of agency director Yitzhak Hofi, airs on Channel 1.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFentebbe returning 88.298(photo credit: Uzi Keren)
Sealed Lips – a documentary focusing on Yitzhak Hofi, the fifth director of the Mossad (1974-82), who had an illustrious career in the Hagana, Palmah and the IDF before joining the Israeli secret service, will be aired at 9 p.m. on Monday on Channel 1.Directed by Yarin Kimor, produced by Dorit Strik, edited by Vika Shor and Tzipi Raz and filmed by Adi Sasson, Sealed lips, is unusual because not one but six former heads of the Mossad appear in the production. They are Zvi Zamir, Nahum Admoni, Shabtai Shavit, Efraim Halevy and Meir Dagan, in addition to Hofi.Born in Tel Aviv in 1927, Hofi served as an IDF commander in the 1948 and the 1973 wars.Before joining the Mossad, he was briefly acting chief of the General Staff.The Entebbe rescue mission in 1976 took place primarily on Hofi’s initiative and he directed operatives in using Kenyan intelligence contacts regarding the refueling of Israeli planes for the return flight.He frequently went out into the field himself. He was also humane. He took time to ask the three-year-old son of an agent to allow him to send his father abroad on very important state business.While directing the film, Kimor understood that people work for the Mossad out of a genuine sense of mission – they receive no public accolades.Viewers will be introduced to some of the Mossad’s methods and operations, most of which are generally absent from the public eye – such as the discovery, by agents in Europe, of 2 tons of explosives intended to blow up Haifa Port.In addition to espionage, targeted killings, cooperation with foreign intelligence services, research and technology, the Mossad engages in unofficial diplomacy and in bringing remnants of the Jewish people back to Israel.
