Victor Ostrovsky

{{Short description|Mossad case officer and author (born 1949)}} {{BLP sources|date=August 2022}} {{use dmy dates|date=August 2022}} {{Infobox writer  | name = Victor Ostrovsky | image = | caption = | birth_name = | pseudonym = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1949|11|28}} | birth_place = Edmonton, Alberta, Canada | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = Writer, gallerist, painter, entrepreneur, former Israeli Mossad agent | genre = | influences = | influenced = | signature = | notableworks = ''By Way of Deception'', ''Universal Soldier: Regeneration'' | spouse = | children = 2 | citizenship = Canada<br>Israel | native_name = ויקטור אוסטרובסקי | native_name_lang = he }} '''Victor John Ostrovsky''' ({{Langx|he|ויקטור אוסטרובסקי}}; born 28 November 1949) is an Israeli-Canadian author and intelligence officer who was a case officer in the Israeli Mossad for 14 months before his dismissal. After leaving the Mossad, Ostrovsky authored two books about his service with the Mossad: ''By Way of Deception'',<ref>Victor Ostrovsky and Claire Hoy (1990) ''By Way of Deception. The Making of a Mossad Officer.'' St Martin’s Press, New York. {{ISBN|0-312-05613-3}}</ref> and ''The Other Side of Deception'' several years later. Former US Congressman Paul Findley and Pete McCloskey stated Ostrovsky's courage saved the life of former president George H. W. Bush.<ref name="wrmea.org">{{cite web | url=https://www.wrmea.org/1992-february/special-report-peril-in-being-president.html | title=Special Report: Peril in Being President | date=16 February 1992 }}</ref><ref name="c-span.org">{{Cite web | title=Mossad Influence US Policy {{!}} Video {{!}} C-SPAN.org | url=https://www.c-span.org/video/?66937-1/mossad-influence-us-policy | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150627060047/http://www.c-span.org/video/?66937-1/mossad-influence-us-policy | access-date=2025-05-04 | archive-date=27 June 2015 | url-status=live }}</ref> However, both books were criticized by Israeli journalists, scholars, and historians stating it lacked historical accuracy and contained sensationalist claims.

==Early life== Victor John Ostrovsky was born on November 28, 1949, in Edmonton, Alberta, to Jewish parents. His father was a Canadian-born Jew who served with the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II as a tail gunner on a Lancaster bomber, taking part in more than 20 missions over Germany. His plane was shot down over Germany, but he managed to escape and return to active service. After the war, he joined the Israeli military to fight in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.<ref>{{Cite web |title=viktor ostrovsky biography |url=https://www.siennafineart.com/viktor-ostrovsky-biography |access-date=2025-03-12 |website=Sienna Fine Art |language=en-US}}</ref>

Ostrovsky moved to Israel as a child and grew up in Holon.<ref name="Suit">{{cite news |title=Ex-mossad Agent Files Suit, Claiming On-air Death Plea |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/ex-mossad-agent-files-suit-claiming-on-air-death-plea |access-date=11 January 2024 |work=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |date=1995-02-12}}</ref>

==Career== Ostrovsky joined the Israeli Youth Brigade at 14 and quickly became an expert marksman, finishing second in a 1964 national shooting competition, with a score of 192 out of 200. At the age of 17, he joined the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) after a minor eye condition ended his hopes of becoming a pilot.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

In the IDF, Ostrovsky was assigned to the Military Police and later the Israeli Navy. He rose to the rank of major.<ref name=Morris />

Ostrovsky worked in the Mossad from 1984 to 1986. The Mossad confirmed Ostrovsky's employment, but, after publication of the book, heavily issued statements to discredit his employment and credibility.<ref name="JTASept11">{{cite news |title=Israeli Officials Start Campaign to Discredit Mossad Book Author |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/israeli-officials-start-campaign-to-discredit-mossad-book-author |access-date=11 January 2024 |work=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |date=1990-09-11}}</ref> Ostrovsky worked in the Mossad with over a year of service, 14 months total, as a case officer.<ref name=Wise/><ref name=Morris>{{Cite journal |last=Morris |first=Benny |date=1996-01-01 |title=The Far Side of Credibility |url=https://online.ucpress.edu/jps/article-abstract/25/2/93/51920/The-Far-Side-of-Credibility?redirectedFrom=fulltext |journal=Journal of Palestine Studies |language=en |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=93–95 |doi=10.2307/2538192 |jstor=2538192 |issn=0377-919X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Ostrovsky was fired from Mossad for insubordination.<ref name=Suit />

He operated Ostrovsky Fine Art Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona.<ref>[http://victorostrovsky.com/ Victor Ostrovsky Art Gallery]</ref> While he has painted many subjects, he is best known for his ''Metaphors of Espionage'' collection, inspired by his days as a spy for the Mossad.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

==Books== ===''By Way of Deception''=== In 1990, he published ''By Way of Deception'', a memoir of his years in the Mossad.<ref name=Morris /> On 12 September 1990, the Israeli embassy in Ottawa successfully obtained a court order temporarily blocking the book's publication in Canada. On the same day, the New York Supreme Court barred publication in the United States. According to the Israeli government, Ostrovsky wrote the book in violation of the official secrets contract he signed when he employed by Mossad.<ref name="JTASept11" /><ref name="Wise" /> The New York judgment was reversed by an appeals court on 13 September. Notoriety surrounding the book led to it becoming popular.<ref name="Wise" /> By October 1990, the book was number one on the New York Times bestseller list.<ref name="Hostility">{{cite news |title=Author of Best-selling Mossad Book Encounters Hostility on Tv Talk Show |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/author-of-best-selling-mossad-book-encounters-hostility-on-tv-talk-show |access-date=11 January 2024 |work=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |date=1990-10-22}}</ref> The book quickly gained popularity, and earned nearly $2 million in royalties from the book.<ref name=Suit />

The first half of the book provides a detailed first-hand account of Ostrovsky's training as a case officer, including how to detect surveillance and how to meet and recruit agents. According to Wise of ''The New York Times'', the second half of the book discusses operations in which Ostrovsky did not participate or had occurred before he even joined Israeli intelligence. Wise surmised that due to the detail provided about these operations, Ostrovsky and his-coauthor Roy relied on published sources.<ref name=Wise />

According to Swiss Policy Research, after the book's publication "The entire Jewish lobby in the United States was mobilized."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://swprs.org/mossad-whistleblower-victor-ostrovsky-1994/ | title=Mossad Whistleblower Victor Ostrovsky on Israeli Black Operations | date=19 October 2023 }}</ref> According to William B. Quandt in ''Foreign Affairs'', the book contained "convincing tidbits about Mossad recruitment methods and operations," but "how much was true could not easily be determined."<ref name="Quandt">{{cite journal |last1=Quandt |first1=William |title=Reviewed Work: The Other Side of Deception: A Rogue Agent Exposes the Mossad's Secret Agenda by Victor Ostrovsky |journal=Foreign Affairs |date=May–June 1995 |pages=186–187 |jstor=20047180 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20047180 |access-date=11 January 2024}}</ref> Former Mossad chief Isser Harel and journalist Hirsh Goodman accused Ostrovsky of fabrications in the book.<ref name="Hostility" />

The books popularity led to the Israeli government creating a large scale campaign effort to discredit the author. Mossad employees and Israeli government officials worked with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on an effective smear campaign. At the orders of Mossad agents & Israeli government officials, Ostrovsky was falsely accused of having an "erratic personality and a vivid imagination."<ref name="JTASept11" /><ref name="Cohler-Esses">{{cite news |last1=Cohler-Esses |first1=Lawrence |title=Cloak & Dagger Man Uncloaked |url=https://www.jta.org/1998/04/17/ny/cloak-dagger-man-uncloaked |access-date=11 January 2024 |work=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |date=1998-04-17}}</ref> Former Mossad officer Jerry Sanders, who Ostrovsky heavily criticizes in ''By Way of Deception'', calls Ostrovsky a "failed con man" who aimed to harm Mossad and Israel.<ref name="Cohler-Esses" /> However, the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, highlights Ostrovsky's detailed allegations against Mossad, supporting his claims with corroborating articles and investigations, painting a critical picture of Israel's intelligence operations.<ref name="wrmea.org"/>

Without oversight or orders by the government of Israel, he has said that the Mossad works on behalf of its own interests. According to Ostrovsky, if a US senator on a military committee whose "aide was Jewish, he or she would be approached as a sayan," which Ostrovsky later defines as "a volunteer Jewish helper outside Israel" who would then assist Mossad.<ref>{{cite news|last=Cockburn|first=Alexander|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-09-14-me-42-story.html|title=Column Left: Suppression Only Lends Credence : Israel's attempts to stop publication of a damning book are backfiring|work=Los Angeles Times|date=September 14, 1990|access-date=August 31, 2016}}</ref> Of the Israeli spy network in the United States, David Wise wrote in his ''New York Times'' review that "both countries know that Israel has spied on the United States for years" and that from publicly known instances, the "general assertion can hardly be challenged."<ref name="Wise">{{cite news|last=Wise|first=David|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/07/books/what-did-mossad-know-and-when.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm|title=What Did Mossad Know, and When?|work=The New York Times|date=October 7, 1990|access-date=August 31, 2016}}</ref>

Many of Ostrovsky's claims in the book as a Mossad agent have neither been verified from other sources nor been refuted, and Israeli government officials & organizations working on the Israeli government's behalf continue to state the book lacks credibility, while former US Republican Congressman Pete McCloskey states Ostrovsky's warnings to the Secret Service saved the life of former president George H.W. Bush.<ref name="c-span.org"/> David Wise from ''The New York Times'' wrote that the book reads like a "supermarket tabloid" and given Ostrovsky's brief length of service and his position, he would not be expected to possess the broad range of knowledge about Mossad operations he claims.<ref name="Wise"/> They write that intelligence organizations practice strict compartmentalization of confidential or secretive information.<ref name=Morris /> Ostrovsky argued their point to be moot, as they themselves are outsiders and that the only information about the Mossad they have is from their supposed "sources" in the agency with a very clear agenda. Ostrovsky also points out that the need-to-know rule was not closely followed in the Mossad because of its small size and the need for case officers to fill many roles.

Concerns were expressed by the Israeli government that by exposing certain prior operations, the book endangered the lives of agency personnel.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/14/books/ban-on-mossad-book-is-overturned.html|title=Ban on Mossad Book Is Overturned|last=Cohen|first=Roger|date=1990-09-14|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=2017-01-18}}</ref> Ostrovsky maintains that he never placed anyone in danger because only first names or code names were used. Furthermore, Ostrovsky claims the Mossad was privately allowed to see the book before publication to ensure that lives were not placed in danger.

In 1993, he wrote ''The Lion of Judah'', a Middle East spy novel.<ref name="Suit" />

===''The Other Side of Deception''=== In 1994, Ostrovsky wrote another book, ''The Other Side of Deception: A Rogue Agent Exposes the Mossad's Secret Agenda'', in which he gives more anecdotes and defends his earlier work with a list of newspaper articles. Ostrovsky writes that the book was written in cooperation with a "moderate Mossad faction" that he had remained in touch with since his departure from the agency in 1986.<ref name="Quandt" /> Among other claims, Ostrovsky writes that the Mossad supported Russian coup plotters seeking to oust Mikhail Gorbachev to obtain visas for Soviet Jews, plotted to kill George H. W. Bush during the Madrid Conference of 1991, and murdered businessman Robert Maxwell. According to a review by Benny Morris in the ''Journal of Palestine Studies'', Ostrovsky's "list of charges stretches from the preposterous to the ridiculous" and the book "voyages to the far side of credibility and offers giant chunks of deception". He further calls the book "three-hundred-odd pages of nonsense, invented conversations, half-truths, full-blown lies, and terrible prose." According to Morris, Ostrovsky wears his animosity toward the Mossad, and by extension, Israel, on his sleeve on almost every page.<ref name=Morris />

According to a review by Nils Petter Gleditsch in the ''Journal of Peace Research'', the operational detail and information contained in the book "has a scope which it is hard to believe that a relatively junior officer would obtain."<ref name="Gleditsch">{{cite journal |last1=Gleditsch |first1=Nils Petter |title=Reviewed Works: By Way of Deception. The Making and Unmaking of a Mossad Officer by Victor Ostrovsky, Claire Hoy; The Imperfect Spies. The History of Israeli Intelligence by Yossi Melman, Dan Raviv |journal=Journal of Peace Research |date=August 1992 |volume=29 |issue=3 |page=362 |doi=10.1177/0022343392029003031 |jstor=424306 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/424306 |access-date=11 January 2024|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Kathleen Christison praised the first half of the book as a "highly readable primer in the tricks and dirty tricks of the trade" in which Ostrovsky discusses his training and provides details of Mossad tradecraft. She is critical of the second half of the book, second-hand descriptions of alleged Mossad operations that Ostrovsky claimed to have heard about or participated in. She writes that while "the general outlines of these operations are probably accurately conveyed, there is just enough factual error to cast doubt on the details" and his descriptions of his accomplishments "seem overdrawn".<ref name="Christison">{{cite journal |last1=Christison |first1=Kathleen |title=Reviewed Works: The Imperfect Spies: The History of Israeli Intelligence. by Yossi Melman, Dan Raviv; By Way of Deception. by Victor Ostrovsky, Claire Hoy |journal=Journal of Palestine Studies |date=Spring 1991 |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=126–128 |doi=10.2307/2537558 |jstor=2537558 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2537558 |access-date=11 January 2024|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

William Quandt criticized the book as suffering "from some of the same flaws [as ''By Way of Deception'']: extensive quotations of conversations based on memory." While Quandt writes that some of the book may be true, "to sort of fact from deception is extremely difficult."<ref name="Quandt" />

==Works== ===Books=== *''By Way of Deception'' (1990) *''Lion of Judah'' (1993) *''The Other Side of Deception'' (1995) *''Black Ghosts'' (1999)

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * {{IMDb name|3191486}} * [https://www.wrmea.org/former-writers/victor-ostrovsky.html Washington-report.org] * {{YouTube|V0wqHyhmzoI|Death in Lillehammer}} a documentary of the Lillehammer affair by Victor Ostrovsky

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ostrovsky, Victor}} Category:1949 births Category:Living people Category:Historians of espionage Category:Israeli whistleblowers Category:Canadian emigrants to Israel Category:Canadian male non-fiction writers Category:Jewish Canadian non-fiction writers Category:People of the Mossad Category:Writers from Edmonton