October 31, 2002	Thursday	Sha’aban 24,1423

BUDAPEST: A good spy is like a good artist, rising above the mundane to touch excellence, says the former Israeli secret service agent who captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann.

In his 73 years Peter Malkin, one-time operations chief at the Israeli intelligence service Mossad, has accomplished enough to fill three lifetimes.

“If you do things well, they become artistic,” he said during a visit to Budapest to promote the Hungarian translation of his book, “Eichmann in my Hands”.

“In every field, there are some who do it in an artistic way and others who do it as a job,” said the man born Zvi Malchin in British Palestine in 1929.

“If you do it perfectly, in can be artistic, whether it’s spying or painting.”

Painting brought Malkin international recognition, but he can now reveal some of his Mossad past, for which he was twice awarded the Prime Minister’s Medal, Israel’s highest honour.

But forget James Bond, fast cars, glamorous women and midnight gunfights in back alleys of Mediterranean ports. Malkin says his work was above all a mental challenge.

“I never carried a gun in my life. My brain is my weapon,” he said. “You don’t even have to be the best. You only need to be a little bit better than your opponent. All the time.”

FAVOURITE FOES: Malkin said KGB agents were his favourite opponents because of their style and professionalism.

“The Russians were best. I appreciated their style. The Arabs...they have no style,” he said.

“When your opponent is strong, your brain works much better...I loved to fight the Russians.”

The Eichmann capture in 1960, was he claims, a minor episode in his career, and by no means the most dangerous.

The former Nazi henchman was captured by Malkin in Buenos Aires and taken to Israel where he was put on trial for crimes against humanity and executed.

“I was chosen for this (Eichmann capture) because I speak German, was a master of disguise and am a (martial arts) double black belt,” Malkin said.

He remains at a loss to understand the Nazi widely believed to be one of the main architects of the Holocaust.

“I’m proud I did it because the survivors didn’t have a chance to tell their story,” Malkin said. “We could easily have shot him...but we brought him back to stand trial.”

“The man who did all this was really a family man,” he said. “He had a small boy...he loved the boy and said: What will happen to my small boy now?”

IMAGES OF PAST: Malkin grew up in Poland before his family moved to Palestine in 1936 to escape anti-Semitism in Europe. His sister, Fruma, and her three children who remained behind with 150 other relatives, died in the Holocaust.

Since retiring in 1976, Malkin has embraced art and seeks the limelight he had to shun during his 27 years with Mossad.

He began painting after catching Eichmann using the few tools he had to hand — oil-based make-up pencils and a guidebook to Argentina.

His first model was his prisoner and the backdrop was a map in a guidebook of Argentina.

The book was soon filled with sketches of Eichmann in different poses, portraits of Hitler and Mussolini and Malkin’s sister.

The author of five books, Malkin leads as busy a life now as he did when, aged 12, he was recruited into the Palestine Jewish underground. He paints, writes, lectures on the Holocaust and is a consultant on anti-terrorism.

He said Palestinian suicide attacks in Israel could be stopped only if Israel changes its policing and intelligence methods.—Reuters