Times Online (26/8/2009)
As chief of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, Meir Amit did more than anyone to build the organisation’s reputation for audacity and cunning. Most famously, in the spring of 1967, he convinced the United States of Israel’s need to strike pre-emptively at Egyptian positions, which coupled with the intelligence he had accumulated, laid the groundwork for Israel’s triumph in the ensuing Six-Day War.
A decorated soldier, Amit combined a talent for military strategy with the negotiating skills of a diplomat. His assertions that “personal contacts can solve most problems” and that “people are more important than rifles” enabled him to find allies in the most unexpected of places...
Meir Amit, intelligence chief and soldier, was born on March 17, 1921. He died on July 17, 2009, aged 88
The calm in the western Negev continues. Hamas refrains from firing rockets into Israel and its senior figures emphasize for Western ears its policy of restraint. Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha told a New York Times correspondent that “the fighters needed a break and the people needed a break.” According to the New York Times report, the decision to suspend rocket fire was “partly the result of popular pressure,” and occurred because people were questioning the value of the rockets, which they regarded as relatively ineffective. 
