Playing on the kibbutz grass in 1947 with Srulik (Israel Guttman). Courtesy of Ami Ayalon.

Yitzhak Ayalon and Jonah Rosen, around the time they served as successive heads of a secret mission to smuggle Jews from Hungary to Palestine after World War Two. Courtesy of Ami Ayalon.

Palestinian refugees leaving a village in the Galilee five months after the creation of the state of Israel. © Reuters.

The author with a comrade-in-arms. Courtesy of Ami Ayalon.

The author with fellow Flotilla 13 commandos. Courtesy of Ami Ayalon.

Green Island battle diagram, July 1969. Courtesy of Ami Ayalon.

Receiving the Medal of Valor, Israel’s highest military honor, from Prime Minister Golda Meir on Independence Day 1972. Courtesy of Ami Ayalon.

The author with Zev Almog during a landing operation in Lebanon. Courtesy of Ami Ayalon.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 at naval headquarters after approval of the submarine project the author advocated. Courtesy of Ami Ayalon.

With Shimon Peres and Carmi Gillon in 1996 at the author’s installation as Shin Bet director. Courtesy of Ami Ayalon.

The author with Bibi Netanyahu in 1997 at Shin Bet headquarters. Courtesy of Ami Ayalon.

Prime Minister Ehud Barak and the author at the end of term as Shin Bet director, May 2000. Courtesy of Ami Ayalon.

Sari Nusseibeh and the author in 2003 during the campaign to raise signatures to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Courtesy of Ami Ayalon.

The author, Saeb Erekat, and Khalil Shikaki in Ramallah. Courtesy of Ami Ayalon.

Flotilla 13 commando training. Photo by Ziv Koren.

Aziz Salha, an unemployed nineteen-year-old, celebrates after throwing the beaten and stabbed body of IDF reserve Sgt. Vadim Nurzhitz into a seething mob in a squalid Ramallah neighborhood. Photo by Chris Gerald/AFP via Getty Images