Beer, Israel, 1912-1966

Israel Beer (also spelled Yisrael Bar, also known as Captain José Gregorio; 9 October 1912 – 1 May 1966) was an Austrian-born Israeli citizen convicted of espionage. On March 31, 1961, Beer, a senior employee in the Israeli Ministry of Defense, was arrested under suspicion of espionage for the Soviet Union. A former lieutenant colonel in the IDF, Beer was a well-known military commentator and an acknowledged expert on military history, and he was employed in a civilian position within the Israeli Ministry of Defense to write a book on the history of the 1947–1949 Palestine war. His true identity, his personal history before emigrating to Palestine, and the circumstances of his recruitment to the KGB (which he never admitted), have all remained unknown to this day.