171 lines
16 KiB
Markdown
171 lines
16 KiB
Markdown
---
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aliases:
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- Cheryl Bentov
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- Cheryl Hanin
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- Cheryl Hanin Bentov
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- Cheryl Ben-Tov
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- Cindy
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- Cindy Hanin
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- Cindy Hanin Bentov
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category: "Intelligence & Government"
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tags:
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- Person
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- CherylBentov
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- Mossad
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- MordechaiVanunu
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- Dimona
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- SundayTimes
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- PeterHounam
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- Israel
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- Florida
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summary: "Florida-born Mossad agent Cheryl Hanin Bentov, who under the name Cindy lured Mordechai Vanunu from London to Rome in September 1986, identified by the Sunday Times through a London hotel register."
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updated: 2026-10-15
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relations:
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- type: employed_by
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with: "[[Mossad]]"
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role: "alleged operative, per Cohen and Hounam"
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fn: 15
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- type: spouse_of
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with: "[[Ofer Bentov]]"
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start: 1985-03
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fn: 13
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- type: participant_in
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with: "[[Abduction of Mordecai Vanunu]]"
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start: 1986-09-30
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role: "lured Vanunu from London to Rome"
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fn: 2
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- type: investigated
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with: "[[Peter Hounam]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 1987-07
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fn: 5
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- type: investigated
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with: "[[The Sunday Times]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 1986-10
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fn: 5
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- type: investigated
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with: "[[Uzi Mahnaimi]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 1998-01
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fn: 33
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- type: employed_by
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with: "[[CFI Sales and Marketing]]"
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end: 1997
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role: "real estate sales, per the St. Petersburg Times"
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fn: 38
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---
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Cheryl Hanin Bentov, who used the name Cindy, was a [[Mossad]] agent born in 1960 in [[Orlando]], [[Florida]]. She enticed [[Mordecai Vanunu]] to leave [[London]] for [[Rome]] a few days before the [[The Sunday Times|London Sunday Times]] published his story on October 5, 1986.[^1] Once in Rome, Vanunu was drugged and returned to [[Israel]] by ship to stand trial.[^2]
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### Identification
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The passenger list of the flight to Rome on September 30, 1986, showed Vanunu in seat 6F and "a Miss C. Hanin" beside him.[^3] The name led the paper to a Florida woman, Cynthia Hanin of Longwood, known as Cindy, who was a beautician trainee and was the wife of Cheryl's brother. Cynthia had married him on November 2, 1986, a month after the abduction. She was shown to be a different woman. Cohen wrote that "Cindy Hanin" did not exist on September 30, 1986, the day of the abduction, and that Cheryl had given Vanunu only the first name Cindy while using the surname Hanin when she bought her plane ticket to Rome.[^4]
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[[Peter Hounam]] of the Sunday Times then found that "a Cheryl Hanin had stayed at the [[Eccleston Hotel]] in London just before [[Oscar Guerrero]] had checked in." The registration form gave her family's Florida address and listed her nationality as "USA." Hounam wrote that at that point "the hunt was over."[^5] Two reporters who had seen Cindy with Vanunu in London, [[Max Prangnell]] and [[David Connett]], were shown college and family-wedding photographs of Cheryl, and both said it was the same woman.[^6]
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Hounam's 1999 book rebuts the Rome magistrate's view of the identity in the same terms: "The woman who lured Vanunu to Rome used a false identity, that of her sister-in-law."[^7]
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### Family and early life
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Hounam reported that Cheryl's father, Stanley Hanin, owned Allied District Tire Stores, a chain of Florida outlets, and that he later sold the business for $32 million.[^8] [[Yoel Cohen]] gives the family business as a chain of perfumeries.[^9] When the Sunday Times telephoned Stanley Hanin in Florida, he replied: "I haven't seen her for years. Where is she, what's she doing?" Told that the paper knew he had seen Cheryl the previous year at a family wedding, he said: "Look, I don't want to get involved in this. I know nothing about it." Asked about Ofer Bentov, he said: "All I know is, he's a nice boy."[^10] Cohen wrote that Hanin found the story totally unbelievable and thought there was not a speck of truth in it.[^11] Cheryl graduated from [[Edgewater High School]] in Orlando. Reporting by the [[St. Petersburg Times]] in 2004 has her growing up in Pennsylvania and Orlando.[^12] She spent a semester in Israel on a Jewish studies program while still in high school, returned to Israel in 1978, and enlisted in the Israeli army. Hounam wrote that she then joined a kibbutz at [[Hephzibah]] in the [[Galilee]].[^13] Cohen wrote that she joined a [[Nahal]] unit, and that Hounam was first led to [[Kibbutz Bet Alpha]] before he found the couple living in [[Netanya]].[^14]
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In March 1985 she married [[Ofer Bentov]]. Hounam described him as "a former major in Israeli military intelligence" who had been active in West Africa.[^13] Cohen wrote that he came from a military family and that his father was a retired army general.[^15]
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Ofer Bentov denied to Hounam that he had served in military intelligence. Asked about it, he said: "It is not true. I was a chauffeur in the army." Told that he had not denied his wife's involvement, he said: "Yes, I deny it. We have nothing to say."[^16] Cohen recorded that in a later telephone call Ofer Bentov described himself as a fiberglass salesman who had done his national service as a driver.[^17]
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Jack Schiffman, a family friend who told Hounam he had known the Hanins for many years, gave him a long interview in 1996. Schiffman said that when the Vanunu story broke there was a front-page story in the Orlando newspaper, with a picture of Cheryl, about the high school graduate involved in the affair. Schiffman said: "Presumably, she was recruited into Mossad from the army." He said Mossad was her main employer, and he reported that Cheryl once told her mother: "There were other things that I did for the Israeli government which were even more pertinent and more involved than this." Schiffman also said that Cheryl was a full-timer who left for work in Tel Aviv in a secretive way, that her mother called her "my daughter the spy," that Ofer Bentov's annual army call-ups had been quashed at her instigation since the Vanunu affair, and that she "continued to work for them, but in what capacity I don't know." He said that Cheryl would never go back to England, because she felt very vulnerable legally there.[^18]
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### The Rome operation
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Vanunu's written statement at his trial described the approach: "On 9/30/86 she persuaded me to come with her to Rome to visit her sister."[^19] His hand, held up to photographers at the court, bore the words "Vanunu M was hi-jacked in Rome. ITL. 30.9.86. 21.00 Came to Rome by fly BA504."[^20]
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[[Seymour Hersh]] wrote that Vanunu was enticed to leave for Rome by a Mossad agent named Cindy Hanin Bentov (a pseudonym) a few days before publication, and that Vanunu has told family members he was taken by taxi to an apartment in Rome, drugged, and returned to Israel by ship.[^21] Hersh later relayed Ben-Menashe's statement that Vanunu was entrapped by "the Mossad's Cindy Hanin Bentov" and was on his way to Rome within days of Mossad locating his hotel in London.[^22]
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[[Ari Ben-Menashe]] wrote that Vanunu met "Cindy Hanin Bentov" in [[Leicester Square]] and that she told him of an apartment she had in Rome. He wrote that he "heard all the fine details from 'Cindy,' with whom, it happened, I had worked at an earlier period."[^23]
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The Rome magistrate [[Domenico Sica]] closed his inquiry in June 1988 with the finding that Vanunu had worked with the Mossad and that the affair was "a disinformation exercise." Sica reasoned, among other things, that Cindy had used her real name, "Hanin," which Hounam quotes him calling "highly suspicious."[^7] Hounam replied that Sica "never once advanced the view that The Sunday Times was the victim of a hoax."[^7]
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### Exposure in 1987
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In July 1987 Hounam and Connett went to a house in Netanya. Cohen recorded that when Hounam told her the paper had established that she had lured Vanunu from London, she did not deny it. Her only reaction was "Are you going to publish this?" She then rose and, "almost screaming," said "I deny this, I deny everything," and ran into a bedroom.[^24] Hounam's own account gives her words as "I deny it. I deny everything," and says she ran into a bedroom and locked the door.[^24] Hounam later telephoned Ofer Bentov, who refused to meet and told him: "We have nothing to say."[^16]
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Cohen described the identification as the work of the Sunday Times Insight team, which had tracked the Florida lead and the hotel register. He wrote that the naming of Cheryl Bentov came after Vanunu had been returned to Israel, and he lists a Sunday Times report headlined "Revealed: The Woman from Mossad" among the paper's coverage of Vanunu.[^25] [[Hirsh Goodman]], then military correspondent of the [[Jerusalem Post]], wrote that by assuming the identity of a close living relative, Cindy (or rather her masters) had left herself open to exposure and ridicule.[^26]
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Cohen reported that [[Zeev Boim]], a [[Knesset]] member, asked the government's law adviser, [[Elyakim Rubinstein]], to bring charges against Sunday Times reporter [[Uzi Mahnaimi]] for disclosing national secrets. Rubinstein declined, and Cohen noted that the decision left open whether a journalist working abroad must submit material to the Israeli military censor.[^27]
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### Spotlight and the American question
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The American magazine [[Spotlight]], which Cohen describes as a right-wing and anti-Israeli publication, was the first to report Cheryl's Florida origins.[^28] Hounam quoted its item as saying that a source with access to Middle East intelligence data had described a covert operation "staged jointly by agents from Mossad and the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]." The item said Cindy "is believed to be an American divorcee who moved from Miami, Florida, to Israel in her early twenties," and that she "went to work for the CIA as a covert action operative who also did occasional assignments for Mossad." It further claimed that [[Shimon Peres]] had telephoned the White House to ask for United States help.[^29]
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Cohen wrote that the CIA and the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] asked to examine the school records of Cheryl's high school, and that the CIA's London office asked British counterparts whether Israel had approached the [[Margaret Thatcher|Thatcher]] government about the operation. Cohen concluded that United States authorities did not appear to have been involved in the abduction.[^28]
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Hounam wrote that people in Israel close to the case believed one reason for the heavy security around it was the fear that an American involvement in the abduction might be exposed.[^29]
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### The Vanunu petition
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In a petition to the Israeli High Court, Vanunu asked for an investigation into "the possibility that Cindy was an American citizen working for the CIA," and into the possibility that she had been "murdered by the same people who carried out the kidnapping." Hounam later described the second claim as probably false.[^30]
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### Later life
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Hounam reported that in 1997 Cheryl was seen driving a red sports convertible in the Orlando area, where she and Ofer had lived for a time. He wrote that the couple were said to be selling timeshare properties, although neighbors in Israel described this as a cover story.[^31]
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The St. Petersburg Times reported that a Sunday Times reporter had found her in 1997 at home in Orlando. She said little, except to voice concern that any story about her should not harm her position in America. The paper quoted the Sunday Times as saying she "continues to work for Mossad, according to her Israeli neighbors."[^32] Cohen dates the search to January 1998, when Mahnaimi located her and had her photographed as she left her house. Cohen wrote that she told him she had nothing to say, and that she did not deny being Cindy.[^33]
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Cohen records that Vanunu, after seeing that photograph in the Sunday Times, told the Knesset member [[Dedi Zucker]]: "it was not the woman I was with." He said he would be able to identify the real Cindy.[^34] Some sailors on the naval craft that had brought Vanunu from Italy to Israel thought the woman on the boat was far prettier than the woman in the Sunday Times photograph. Cohen suggested that the woman aboard may have been another Mossad agent.[^35] Cohen describes Mahnaimi as the son of a general in army intelligence and as a former major in Unit 504, which Cohen says is reportedly responsible for planting agents abroad.[^36]
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A close friend of Cheryl's in Florida, quoted by [[Yedioth Ahronoth]] according to Hounam's own website, said: "She left Israel to flee the media and the people who burrowed into her life."[^37]
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In a 2004 feature, the St. Petersburg Times reported that state records had listed Cheryl as holding an active real estate sales license and as employed by [[CFI Sales and Marketing]], an Orlando company that is part of [[Westgate Resorts]]. The company's president, [[David A. Siegel]], said she had been terminated in 1997, likely for not meeting sales goals. After the paper began to inquire, the state records were changed to show the license as inactive, without a reference to the company. Officials could not say who had requested the change, and the company said it had not.[^38]
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The same article reported that Ofer Bentov was a trainee appraiser for an Orlando appraisal firm and declined an interview. When the paper reached Cheryl by telephone at home, a voice said: "I have no interest in talking."[^39] [[Yossi Melman]] of [[Ha'aretz]] said she was unlikely to still work for the Mossad: "No way," he said. "She was burned." Hounam said: "I think she probably is still doing some stuff for the Mossad."[^40] Vanunu's brother, [[Meir Vanunu|Meir]], said that Vanunu now realized Cindy had been a Mossad plant. Hounam said Vanunu still insisted that Hounam did not have the right woman.[^40]
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Cohen wrote in 2003 that Cindy was probably still on the Mossad payroll as a "sleeper" and living in Florida.[^25]
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### Legal exposure
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Hounam wrote that Cheryl was afraid to return to England for fear of arrest, and that there was surely enough evidence to pursue a criminal prosecution for conspiracy to kidnap.[^41] She has not returned to [[United Kingdom|Britain]].
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Susan Taylor Martin, "The spy and the man she busted," _St. Petersburg Times_, March 21, 2004, which gives the publication date of October 5, 1986. https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2004/03/21/the-spy-and-the-man-she-busted/
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[^2]: Peter Hounam, _The Woman from Mossad: The Story of Mordechai Vanunu and the Israeli Nuclear Program_. Vision Paperbacks, 1999, pp. 1, 76, 80. Lending copy: https://archive.org/details/womanfrommossads0000houn
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[^3]: Hounam, _The Woman from Mossad_, p. 88.
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[^4]: Yoel Cohen, _The Whistleblower of Dimona: Israel, Vanunu, and the Bomb_. Holmes & Meier, 2003, p. 135. Lending copy: https://archive.org/details/whistleblowerofd0000cohe . Hounam, pp. 88, 90-91 (Cynthia's trade, and the mother's denial that she had been a beautician).
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[^5]: Hounam, pp. 93-94.
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[^6]: Hounam, p. 90.
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[^7]: Hounam, p. 127.
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[^8]: Hounam, pp. 89, 94.
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[^9]: Cohen, p. 135.
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[^10]: Hounam, p. 92.
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[^11]: Cohen, p. 135 (Hanin's reaction on first hearing of the allegation).
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[^12]: Martin, "The spy and the man she busted," March 21, 2004.
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[^13]: Hounam, p. 90.
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[^14]: Cohen, pp. 135-136.
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[^15]: Cohen, p. 94.
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[^16]: Hounam, p. 92.
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[^17]: Cohen, pp. 135-136.
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[^18]: Hounam, pp. 94-98 (Schiffman interview, 1996).
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[^19]: Hounam, p. 80.
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[^20]: Hounam, p. 87.
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[^21]: Seymour Hersh, _The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy_. Random House, 1991, ch. 15 ("The Tunnel"), p. 198.
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[^22]: Hersh, _The Samson Option_, ch. 22 ("An Israeli Asset"), p. 315.
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[^23]: Ari Ben-Menashe, _Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network_. Sheridan Square Press, 1992, pp. 203-204.
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[^24]: Cohen, p. 134; Hounam, pp. 90-92.
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[^25]: Cohen, ch. 14 (the 2003 "sleeper" passage and the list of Sunday Times coverage, including the headline "Revealed: The Woman from Mossad").
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[^26]: Cohen, pp. 136-137.
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[^27]: Cohen, p. 138.
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[^28]: Cohen, pp. 94-95 (Spotlight, the school-record requests, the CIA London office, and Cohen's conclusion on US involvement).
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[^29]: Hounam, p. 94 (the Spotlight item as quoted by Hounam, and the account of Israeli opinion).
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[^30]: Hounam, pp. 97-98.
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[^31]: Hounam, p. 97.
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[^32]: Martin, "The spy and the man she busted," March 21, 2004.
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[^33]: Cohen, p. 137.
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[^34]: Cohen, p. 137.
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[^35]: Cohen, p. 137.
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[^36]: Cohen, pp. 137-138.
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[^37]: Peter Hounam, "How I Escaped Mossad's Clutches," peterhounam.com (undated author's account).
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[^38]: Martin, "The spy and the man she busted," March 21, 2004 (state records, CFI Sales and Marketing).
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[^39]: Martin, "The spy and the man she busted," March 21, 2004 (Ofer Bentov's appraisal work, his interview refusal, and the telephone reply).
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[^40]: Martin, "The spy and the man she busted," March 21, 2004 (Melman, Hounam, and Meir Vanunu).
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[^41]: Hounam, p. 129.
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