Israel’s Mossad Trained Mandela

A top-secret document from the Israel State Archives reveals that the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, trained Nelson Mandela in weaponry and sabotage in 1962, a month before he was captured. Mandela had expressed interest in the methods of the Haganah, the pre-Israel Jewish paramilitary force that became the IDF, and the Mossad feared Mandela was leaning toward communism. The Mossad took Mandela under its wing partly to try and inspire Zionist sympathies. The classified letter refers to Mandela as the “Black Pimpernel,” his nom de guerre used by the South African media.