Yael Man was born in Canada in 1936 but grew up in New Jersey.
Her family were not very Jewish-minded and paid little attention to Jewish and Zionist activities.
In 1968 she decided to migrate to Israel for a year to break away from life in America, was not serious about permanent aliyah, and didn’t bother to learn to speak Hebrew.
Yael worked as a computer system analyst, but in 1971 volunteered to join Mossad after meeting an acquaintance who worked as a bodyguard for the Agency.
She was accepted to join Mossad in 1973 after intensive interviews with high-ranking officials and operational training for undercover work.
Yael’s first mission was to collect intelligence in Beirut to assassinate three veteran leaders of the PLOs a retaliation, as retaliation or operations carried out by the Black September organisation.
Black September, the group behind the fatal kidnapping of eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, had attempted to assassinate a Mossad agent in Cyprus and blow up an El Al plane.
Yael arrived in Beirut in 1973 posing as an American novelist writing a screenplay, later to be filmed in Lebanon.
She found living in the Lebanese capital very easy.
There was a nice atmosphere in the city and people were friendly.
After careful analysis concerning her mission, she managed to rent premises on the fourth floor of an apartment block, that looked directly towards the two buildings in which the targeted PLO leaders were living.
But Yael was not alone in Beirut. Mossad agents were also there and her immediate contact was the agent code-named Eviatar.
On 9 April while Yael was having dinner with Eviatar at a restaurant she casually mentioned to him that the three PLO veteran leaders were in their apartments that night.
Little did she know that was the green light for Mossad to launch the assassination operation.
Eviatar advised her to quickly return to her apartment and stay out-of-sight.
In next to no time Israeli commandos who were waiting off the shore of Beirut landed and headed for the apartments where the PLO leaders were living.
Yael heard shots and screams and didn’t know what was happening, so she peeked outside to see what was going on.
“When I heard Hebrew spoken in the heart of Beirut. I knew that was it. The operation was underway.”
A month after the successful Mossad mission in Beirut, Yael was escorted by two agents to meet Golda Meir.
The agents wanted to show the Prime Minister what a female fighter looked like. Golda was clearly amazed and quickly quipped:
“This little girl did all of that?”
They both sat down on the sofa and chatted and when Yael left Golda hugged and kissed her.
Yael Man stayed with Mossad as an active operator for 14 years and would have stayed longer but was physically weaker and had to stop.
In later years when giving meaning to her life she remarked with pride and deep satisfaction.
“I want to be worth something. I want to do something worthwhile. That I have accomplished.”
