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David Kimche was a senior Mossad officer who became director-general of Israel's Foreign Ministry and served as the primary Israeli architect of the arms-for-hostages initiative that became the Iran-Contra affair, pressing the Reagan administration in mid-1985 to approve weapons transfers to Iran. | 2026-05-14 | 2026-05-14 | 1928-02-14 | 2010-03-08 | London, United Kingdom |
David Kimche was born on February 14, 1928, in London. He joined Mossad in 1953 and served in intelligence postings across Africa, Asia, and Europe before eventually rising to the position of deputy director. He left Mossad in 1980 to become director-general of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a position he held until 1987. He died on March 8, 2010, in Ramat HaSharon, Israel, from brain cancer, aged 82.1
Iran-Contra Role
Kimche is consistently identified as the principal Israeli official who initiated and structured the arms-for-hostages channel between the United States and Iran that became the foundation of the Iran-Contra Affair.2
Kimche met Robert McFarlane in Washington on July 3, 1985; McFarlane's later account of that meeting was that there was no request for arms and no linkage to the hostages, though Kimche mentioned that arms might be raised later, and that President Ronald Reagan approved a political dialogue. On July 7 and 8, 1985 Kimche, Yaacov Nimrodi, Al Schwimmer, Manucher Ghorbanifar and Adnan Khashoggi met in Geneva and Hamburg to discuss TOW missiles and hostages. On August 2, 1985 Kimche asked McFarlane whether it would be different if Israel delivered the TOWs, and McFarlane testified that Reagan then approved Israel's delivery with replacement sales to follow.3
Nimrodi was a former military attache and Schwimmer the founder of Israel Aircraft Industries. Working through Nimrodi, Schwimmer and Ghorbanifar, Israel shipped 96 U.S.-made TOW missiles to Iran on August 20, 1985 and 408 more on September 14, 1985, after which one American hostage, Benjamin Weir, was released.3 Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger objected on December 7, 1985 that the United States embargo on arms sales to Iran would make such a sale illegal even if it were done through Israel.3
Kimche met McFarlane on November 8, 1985, spoke with him about a HAWK missile shipment on November 18, 1985, and attended the London meetings of December 7 and 8, 1985 with McFarlane, Oliver North, Richard Secord, Ghorbanifar, Schwimmer and Nimrodi. By May 1986 Amiram Nir had replaced Kimche as the Israeli official in the arms deals.3
Later Career
After leaving the Foreign Ministry in 1987, Kimche served as Israel's ambassador-at-large. He founded the Israel Council on Foreign Relations in 1989 and sat on the governing boards of the Hebrew University and the Peres Center for Peace.1
Footnotes
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Ignatius, David. "David Kimche dies; Israeli spy involved in Iran-contra scandal," Washington Post, March 9, 2010. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/09/AR2010030903843.html ↩︎
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"David Kimche: Israel's Leading Spy and Would-Be Mossad Chief," Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, October 1991. https://www.wrmea.org/1991-october/david-kimche-israel-s-leading-spy-and-would-be-mossad-chief.html ↩︎
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Lawrence E. Walsh, Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters, vol. I (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Division for the Purpose of Appointing Independent Counsels, 1993), chapter 1, "United States v. Robert C. McFarlane," account of the Iran arms sales, July 1985 to May 1986 (citing McFarlane, SSCI testimony, December 7, 1986; Israeli Historical Chronology, Part One, July 29, 1987; Weinberger and Hill notes). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_01.htm ↩︎