Like the many Palestinians inside Ofer, Muhjid was caught by surprise when the tensions between Fatah, the traditional political party of Yasser Arafat and generally secular in nature, and Hamas, the more Islamist party of the Palestinian people, erupted into open violence late in 2006. The tension inside the prison increased as battles between Palestinians grew on the outside. Men discussed politics and the role of Islam even more than they had before. The Israeli jailers grew increasingly concerned about the possibility of major violence within the prison. But Muhjid stayed out of the politics of the prison. He was too busy taking advantage of the classes available that were run by highly educated men. For the young Martyrs Brigades veteran, this included courses in English, mathematics and, of course, the Koran.
Abu Muhjid was happy to let the outside world determine its own course. His world was now confined by tall concrete walls topped with barbed wire and defined by a tempo set by Jewish masters. He did what he could to define his own world within this prison, certain that he would be locked inside Ofer until the day the Jewish state was toppled.
But news came one day that obliterated the world he was trying to create. His 47-year-old father, a Fatah policeman, had been killed by Hamas gunmen in Nablus in January 2007. Abu’s parents had been very young when they married and he was born when his mother was only 16 years old. Now his mother was a widow at the age of 42 and this was not a good situation. Abu could not support her from prison, despite sending her most of the modest “salary” he received from Fatah as a jailed fighter. His younger sister had married a drunkard who could not keep a job. As a widow, his mother would also receive a small pension from Fatah, but the financial footing of the Palestinian Authority was precarious at best.
Abu Muhjid had one other major concern for his mother — one that was serious before but could potentially kill her now. She suffered from a rare condition known as Chronic Granulomatous Disease, or GCD, an immune system disorder. To survive, she needed a constant supply of low-dose antibiotics and anti-fungal drugs. His father’s income, combined with his Martyrs Brigades salary and the charity of Western aid agencies, had been barely sufficient to pay the bills. But now Abu knew she would start to face the choice between her drug therapy and eating enough to stay healthy. Cutting back on either would weaken her immune system and leave her open to a fatal infection. Suddenly Abu Muhjid was eager to get out of prison, a complete change in his prior resigned indifference to his fate.
Muhjid now began to write to charities like Médicins sans Frontiéres to plead for help for his mother. Of course, his letters were read by his Israeli jailers, a fact which he had no choice but to accept. The letters had continued for several months when Muhjid was informed that he was being relocated to a different prison, this one inside Israel. The tensions between Hamas and Fatah, he was told, made him a marked man. His life was in danger at Ofer at the hands of Hamas inmates. In early May 2007, Abu gathered what little he possessed and was processed out of Ofer prison, being remanded into the authority of the transport division of the Israeli Prison Service.
Muhjid was shackled and placed in a windowless van for transport. A panel divided his cage from the drivers, making it impossible for him to see where he was going. After an hour and a half, the van came to a stop and the back door was opened. He was helped out and his shackles were replaced with a simple pair of handcuffs. He was in an enclosed courtyard but this was unlike any place he had been as a prisoner. His gut told him that he was not in a prison. He was escorted into a room that was neither a cell nor an interrogation chamber. It felt to Abu like the waiting lobby for a doctor’s office. He sat down. A man entered and sat down across from him. The man was wearing a hat, sunglasses and what was obviously a false beard and mustache.
The next two hours of discussion were the most surreal in the short life of Abu Muhjid. The man across from him spoke perfect Arabic with an educated Saudi accent. The discussion started with current events and the state of disharmony between the two main factions of the Palestinian people. The topic migrated to Muhjid’s family and the precarious position that his mother and sister found themselves in. Finally the man revealed his real intentions. He had a proposition for the convicted Palestinian terrorist. If Abu Muhjid would work for Mossad, then Israel would arrange for his mother and sister to relocate to France where they would receive a lifetime pension that included all of the free medical care his mother would need to live a long life.
The initial reaction of Abu Muhjid was negative, but he had yet to hear the best part of the deal. Mossad would make sure he was released from prison and they wanted him to continue in his struggle on behalf of the Islamic people. They wanted him to volunteer for al Qaeda and they wanted him to wage jihad. All they asked was that he communicate with them regularly. When Abu Muhjid asked the man across from him how he could possibly communicate successfully with Mossad over a long period of time, the men from Mossad who were filming this encounter in the room next door knew that they had hooked their man.
At that moment, the career of Mossad’s most valuable asset began. His codename inside Mossad became “Archer”, or “ramy alsham” in Arabic. The existence and activities of Archer were known only to a very small group within Mossad. That group reported directly to Director Levy. The only person outside of Mossad who was aware of Archer was the prime minister.
Abu Muhjid received several weeks of training and was transferred to Ktzi’ot Prison where he continued his correspondence with aid agencies on behalf of his mother. As instructed by his new Mossad handlers, he immersed himself in Islamic studies, introducing himself to the most fervent Islamic jihadists being held at Ktzi’ot. In September, he received a reply from Médicins sans Frontiéres informing him that they had agreed to take up the cause of his mother. They believed that they would be able to arrange for her to immigrate to France where she would be able to receive the medical care she required. His sister and her husband would be allowed to immigrate as well. The process would take time, they told him, but in the meantime they would ensure that his mother received adequate medical supplies.
In March 2008, Muhjid received a letter from his mother. She was on her way to France and expected to leave from Amman, Jordan, by the end of April. Her visa had arrived and they were only awaiting a visa for his sister and her husband. In late April he received a postcard with the Eiffel Tower on the front. His mother, sister and her husband were living in a flat on the outskirts of Paris paid by the generosity of a French charity. His mother had already seen a leading French medical specialist on GCD.
On August 25, 2008, Israel released 198 Palestinian prisoners as a gesture of goodwill and support for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Among the prisoners released was Abu Muhjid. Within six months, Muhjid was at a training camp in the Waziristan region of Pakistan. When Israel asked the CIA to refrain from any Predator strikes against that specific training camp for a two month period, the CIA was happy to comply as long as they were told why. Mossad was happy to inform them that a unit of Sayeret Matkal was conducting an intelligence gathering operation around the camp and that anything of value would be shared with the Americans. The CIA analysts were highly impressed that they could find no trace of the Sayeret Matkal operatives in Pakistan — the legend of Israeli special operations growing on the basis of sleight of hand.
Five months later, Abu Muhjid was operating inside the Anbar Province of Iraq and making a name for himself as a planner of effective operations against the American occupation forces. When the pressure became too great, he would slip into Syria, where he found a safe haven and developed contacts. The value of Archer to Mossad was growing by the month.