Meir Dagan's rare interview on 60 Minutes
"We are going to ignite, at least from my point of view, a regional war. And wars, you know how they start. You never know how you are ending it." That's what Meir Dagan, the former head of the Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, told 60 Minutes in 2012.
In a rare interview, Dagan, who died this week, warned that Israel should not launch preemptive airstrikes against Iran to halt its nuclear program. "An attack on Iran before you are exploring all other approaches is not the right way how to do it," he told Lesley Stahl, publicly opposing his former boss, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
It was difficult to convince Dagan, who lived most of his life in the shadows, to appear on 60 Minutes. Producer Shachar Bar-On spent many hours with him in advance - both in person and on the phone. After more than six months, he finally agreed, and the team flew to Israel for the interview.
Bar-On remembers it well. "A couple of times, when we pushed too hard to get, for example, details on Stuxnet or other covert operations, he could shut you down with a single stare," he says. "But in other times, in his home kitchen, with his wife Bina by his side, we found a relaxed man with a wry sense of humor."
In his small study, Dagan showed the team a photograph of his grandfather on his knees in front of Nazis shortly before he was executed, which Dagan said motivated everything he did. He also proudly pointed out framed private snapshots of himself with Arab world leaders.
Dagan was advocating restraint when he spoke with 60 Minutes, but much of his reputation was built on brute force. "Unfortunately, I was involved in some engagement that people were killed," he told Stahl. "Look, there is no pleasure in killing. There's no joy in killing people."
Dagan was diagnosed with liver cancer soon after his 60 Minutes interview. He died Thursday at the age of 71.