Meir Max Bineth
Encyclopedia
Biography
Born in HungaryHungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, he grew up in Köln, Germany
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
from 1919 until 1935, when he and his parents left Nazi Germany and emigrated to Palestine.
Meir's last duty and mission was as an Israeli intelligence agent in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, from 1952 to the end of 1954. He was sent there undercover as a German businessman, representing various German firms – primarily "von Laufenberg", a firm manufacturing equipment for the disabled and crippled. He was the first Israeli intelligence agent sent to an enemy country under a German identity, and was likely partly selected due to his early years in Germany.
Meir's mission in Egypt was to gather information for Israeli Intelligence about the strength of the Egyptian army, the power of the military industry, Egyptian strategy and intentions toward Israel, the activities of significant anti-Israeli bodies, propaganda etc.
Many doors of Egypt’s top military echelon opened before him; he became acquainted with General Muhammad Naguib
Muhammad Naguib
Muhammad Naguib was the first President of Egypt, serving from the declaration of the Republic on June 18, 1953 to November 14, 1954. Along with Gamal Abdel Nasser, he was the primary leader of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, which ended the rule of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty in Egypt and Sudan...
, then President of Egypt. He also built relations with German military and intelligence personnel and ranking ex-Nazi "advisors" who had found refuge in Egypt after the Second World War. Some of them were scientists who were helping Egypt develop missiles that could potentially threaten Israel.
Whilst working in Egypt, Meir was nominated as a consultant engineer at the "Anglo Egyptian Motors Company" (the German branch of the Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
in Egypt), and suggested several projects to help improve Egypt's economy, believing that a crucial reason that generates wars between nations and communities is the lack of economical and social equilibrium; amongst other things he wrote in his prison cell for his defense was the line
"I think that the principal cause of wars is the age-old fear existing between man and communities that there may not be enough bread for all."
Meir's cover and conduct were perfect - he had German citizenship, grew up with German culture, literature and music, and German was his mother tongue. During the last seven months of his secret mission in Egypt, his wife Jane (South African in origin) and daughter joined him.
Bineth was caught and arrested after the fall of the "network", an incident which later became known as the Lavon Affair
Lavon Affair
The Lavon Affair refers to a failed Israeli covert operation, code named Operation Susannah, conducted in Egypt in the Summer of 1954. As part of the false flag operation, a group of Egyptian Jews were recruited by Israeli military intelligence for plans to plant bombs inside Egyptian, American and...
. Meir had been ordered by a senior officer in Israel to deliver money for the groups' needs and had met Marcelle Ninio a few times. Ninio was the last to be caught; under torture she gave a description of Meir’s car, which led to his capture.
After five months of interrogation and torture, on the day before his trial, Meir committed suicide in his prison cell (his wife and child were in Europe). He realized that there was no way out for him and did not want to give the Egyptians the pleasure of hanging him in public, which was the fate awaiting him after conviction.
His body was re-interred in the Mount Herzl
Mount Herzl
Mount Herzl , also Har HaZikaron , is the national cemetery of Israel on the west side of Jerusalem. It is named for Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism. Herzl's tomb lies at the top of the hill. Yad Vashem, which commemorates the Holocaust, lies to the west of Mt. Herzl....
military cemetery in Jerusalem, in 1959.
External links
- מי זוכר את מאיר בינט, שהיה מרגל ישראלי במצרים והתאבד בכלאו ב-54'? ליאור אסטליין
- מאיר מקס בינט
- Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive : Meyer Max Bennet (Meir Bineth)Headstone at the top of the hill (Hebrew )מצבה במעלה ההר
- Israel's Secret Wars: A History of Israel's Intelligence Services, Ian Black,Benny Morris. Max Binnet (Max Bineth) pages 112-113 http://books.google.co.il/books?id=FkyMsycbemEC&pg=PA112&lpg=PA112&dq=max+binnet&source=bl&ots=nnakmpXFCi&sig=rv3qrKNAoCRQo22yFWesqNE-4yM&hl=iw&ei=sCBKTK2xGongOPnHqaUP&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CAsQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=max%20binnet&f=false