Joseph (Yossi) Gino 12.30.1947-12.21.2016
Yossi Gino was an Israeli hero and decorated soldier (5 known medals of Honor), a top security officer, and a member of the intelligence community. He was the first undercover “Mistaarev" outstanding fighter at Sayeret Matkal who carried out many operations in Arab countries acting alone, fighting beyond enemy lines. He served in the Shin Bet and the Mossad and was a security officer for the Israeli embassies in Western Europe.
Yossi contributed greatly to national security on cross-border operations deep in enemy countries. Operations that remain top secret. Some say they were beyond imagination. As a soldier and officer he led missions and reached far beyond enemy lines, some alone. Tasks that remains enumerated to this day. A bold and fearless warrior, the new rank of an officer he received from IDF's former chief of staff Rafael (Raful) Eitan, who described Yossi Gino and his work in 1992:
"I know Yossi Gino from the period of his military service," he wrote. "In my role as Chief of Staff I sent him on operational activities which I cannot detail, but can say that these activities surpassed all imagination, and that it was Yossi’s unique personality and operational abilities, that allowed him to fulfill these amazing and unbelievable assignments due to his readiness for self-sacrifice and his professional and military knowledge. They are unparalleled in the IDF and security services. Although these actions cannot be detailed, the entire country should salute Yossi... It is difficult to comprehend Yossi Gino’s real contribution to the security of the country and many Israelis owe their lives to Yossi."
Yossi was born in Migdal, in 1947, as a third generation of warriors. Pinchas his father was, a warrior and an undercover Arabic Battalion of the Palmach, in the days prior to the state of Israel. His grandfather Joseph, served on the 38th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers of the British army, and fought alongside British soldiers in WWI.
In 1965 Yossi joined the IDF, to one of 3 special units - Sayeret Matkal. In 1969 he left the army, and was sent by "Mossad" for training Kurdish commando "Peshmerga" units in Iraq against the Iraqi army. A year later he returned to serve in Sayeret Matkal. Gino received his officer's captain rank from the former chief of staff Rafael Eitan without undertaking the officers' course. Among other things, He participated in the operating of "special measures" in the period preceding the Yom Kippur War. In 1992 he left the army.
Occasionally Gino was "borrowed" by the army to the Shin Bet. In the years 1972-1975 he served as a diplomat in the Israeli embassy in London. In 1973 he was sent to Oslo to clear the mess after "the LilliHamer" affair. He joined the first delegation of the peace talks in Egypt in 1977. Later he studied for a BA degree at the University of Haifa in the Faculty of Social Sciences, majoring in History of Islam and Political Science.
After his army service, he established a restaurant on the shore of the Sea of Galilee in Capernaum. Later on, it was demolished by the state under a court order. Since the beginning of the new millennium, he supervised the conservation and restoration of the IEC Farm 'Hephzibah', with the veterans of what was once the SLA (South Lebanon Army) for a period of 14 years.
financial crisis and his untimely death
For 28 years, Yossi Gino dealt and struggled for his livelihood in the courts, with all the mental scars he carried since the days of military service, in addition to mental pressures and economic hardship and bankruptcy and debts payments that spiraled for years, that eventually led to deterioration of his health and subsequently to his untimely death at the age of 69.
Yossi Gino was noble, humble and kind. A true friend, a family man and an exemplary father. Yossi left behind a wife, Esther Gino and 3 daughters (Adi, Neta and Noa), who were all his world and the little he wanted in his modest life was to sustain the plot of land and the home where he was born, his parents' house in Migdal for 75 years and where there are 7 olive trees planted by his father, Pinchas Gino.
His widow and daughters where under real threat of losing their home in Migdal, and did a fund raising for the family to keep their home safe and to preserve their father legacy. Mission accomplished, about 5,000 donors have suported the project.
People's kind and generous donations helped Yossi Gino's widow and daughters, to win this last battle which Yossi did not survive, and allowed them to begin the battle for survival and home, while they mourn the loss of their dear father who survived the perils of war but succumbed to the perils of life |
