Meir Max Bineth

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Meir Max Bineth (Max Bennett) was an Israeli intelligence officer who lived from June 27, 1917 to December 21, 1954. He was born in Szombathely, Hungary, and died in Cairo, Egypt at the age of 37. He is buried at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. Bineth was the grandson of the scholar Jacob Obermeyer.

He grew up in Cologne from 1919 to 1935, then his family moved to Palestine to escape Nazi Germany. He served in the Israel Defense Forces from 1952 to 1954 and held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in Israeli Intelligence.

Bineth’s final mission was as an Israeli spy in Egypt from 1952 to 1954. He went undercover as a German businessman representing German firms, mainly von Laufenberg, which made equipment for the disabled. He was the first Israeli intelligence agent sent to an enemy country under a German identity, helped by his German upbringing and language.

In Egypt, he met high-level figures, including General Muhammad Naguib, and connected with German military personnel and ex-Nazi advisers who were helping Egypt with missiles. He also worked as a consultant engineer at the Anglo Egyptian Motors Company, the German branch of Ford in Egypt. He suggested projects to boost Egypt’s economy, believing that economic and social imbalance can fuel wars. In his prison cell he wrote, “I think that the principal cause of wars is the age-old fear existing between man and communities that there may not be enough bread for all.”

His cover was strong: he had German citizenship and spoke German fluently. In the last seven months of his mission, his wife Jane and their daughter joined him. Bineth was captured after the failure of false-flag operations known as the Lavon Affair. He had been ordered to deliver money for the group and had met Marcelle Ninio, who described Bineth and led to his capture.

After five months of interrogation and torture, he killed himself the day before his planned trial to avoid a public hanging. His wife and child were in Europe at the time. Bineth’s body was later moved to Mount Herzl in Jerusalem in 1959.