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Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=37191
Israel's Damascus-Born Intelligence Assets
(Israel Hayom) Yair Altman - Chief Warrant Officer A., 46, serves in the Israel Defense Forces' 8200 intelligence unit with his brother, Warrant Officer M., 42, and his son. They were smuggled into Israel in 1985 and speak native Syrian Arabic. "We lived in what was once the Jewish quarter of Damascus," A. reminisces. "In terms of security and finances, the Jews lived better than the locals. There were police officers at the entrance to the Jewish quarter and the synagogues, but we were also constantly under tabs, lest we collaborate with the enemy or, worst of all, go to Israel." "We always felt that we were living in an Arab country, and the threat was in the air. We didn't feel it was our home. We were raised with the dream of making aliyah to Israel, a place where we would belong. Zionism was in our blood."