But since the Washington Post and then the Israeli newspapers chose to disregard secrecy laws a year ago by printing his name and photo, Gillon said one of his few complaints has been the loss of convenience: He can no longer grocery shop without attention.
In fact, Gillon now says that such enforced secrecy and censorship is bad for Israel.
“You pay too much from the democracy point of view to protect the head of Shin Bet.”
Gillon resigned as Shin Bet’s director after Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s 1995 assassination, taking blame for the lack of security that night in Tel Aviv. The topic of the assassination was off-limits during a Monday interview in San Francisco.
Still, Gillon hasn’t shrunk away from the public spotlight since his identity was disclosed. He is acting director of Tahal, an international water-resources consulting group, and commentator on an Israeli television weekly news show.
At the end of this month, he will become an official adviser to Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy for the final-status talks with the Palestinians.
Gillon is currently on an American speaking tour for Project Nishma, a Washington, D.C.-based group that considers the peace process a key to Israel’s long-term security. He appeared in the Bay Area at private gatherings only.
Though Gillon spent decades actively trying to infiltrate, interrogate and outwit Palestinians, he supports the Oslo Accords as a practicality.
“I don’t see any alternative,” said Gillon, whose businessman’s hair cut, navy suit and flower-patterned tie hardly match his former role as a spymaster.
Israel tried to control the territories from 1967 to 1993 “without great success,” he said. Some people, he said, forget that the Palestinian uprising drove Israel to the peace table.
“We get tired of this intifada,” he said.
The only other alternative — transferring all the Palestinians to other Arab countries — he deems “not acceptable at all.”
Gillon won’t disclose whether he favors a Palestinian state, saying Israel needs to wait until 1998 to see how the three West Bank redeployments set for this year proceed.
But he will call a Palestinian state “do-able,” if Israel can retain the Jordan River as its eastern “security border, though not a political border.”
Israel should demand such a border — to protect itself from Iraq and Iran, he said. Gillon dismisses the idea that Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat is only waiting for more land and power before trying to destroy Israel.
“It’s ridiculous,” he said. “He will never have enough power to throw the Israelis to the sea.”
Gillon doesn’t believe peace will lead Israelis and Palestinians to dance together in the streets. But if there can be even a “cold peace” like Israel has with Egypt, he will be “very pleased.”
In fact, Gillon said, Arafat has realized that the Palestinian Authority and Israel share a common enemy — militant Islamic fundamentalists.
“The cooperation…goes quite well, against Hamas and Islamic Jihad.”
Gillon’s role as peace negotiation adviser won’t be unfamiliar. Offering his security expertise, Gillon was on the front lines of previous talks under Rabin and former Prime Minister Shimon Peres.
Though an enemy of the Palestinians for decades, Gillon said that Israeli security experts such as himself were among the first to internalize the need for a political solution to the conflict.
“We know better the reality,” he said.
Gillon would not comment on recent tensions between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Shin Bet leaders. The latter accused Netanyahu of placing politics before security and ignoring their advice when he opened a second entrance to a tunnel alongside the Western Wall that sparked Palestinian rioting.
However, he did dismiss as “ridiculous” Netanyahu’s charges that security chiefs are pro-Labor.
“Netanyahu shouldn’t say such words,” said Gillon, who claims he belongs to no political party. “It’s not right and there’s no question of their loyalty to the elected prime minister.”
Still, he doesn’t doubt Netanyahu’s support for the Oslo Accords.
“Netanyahu is already committed to the peace process,” he said. Psychologically, Gillon noted, it will take Netanyahu time to adjust — just like it did for Rabin.
Already, he noted, Netanyahu seems to be loosening up. Photos of Netanyahu’s first meeting with Arafat in September showed a stiff and uneasy man. Photos from their latest meeting on Sunday contrasted sharply.
“Two smiling faces…They look like best friends — both of them from the Likud or from the PLO.”
Does it mean Gillon now trusts his former nemesis, Arafat? “Trust is something you have to build slowly,” he said.
Instead, Gillon looks to the political practicalities that led Arafat to the negotiating table.
“Politically, I think Arafat made a real decision that rode him to Oslo,” he said. “He has no reason now to change his policies.”