Haim Hecht: 'I was a close friend of Hassan Nasrallah's top advisor'
Haim Hecht recounts a friendly relationship with a UN official in Lebanon that led to a direct warning from the Shin Bet, ending with the discovery that his source had become the right-hand man of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.
In the latest episode of the program "What Really Happened There," broadcast on Keshet 12 and hosted by Erez Tal, a story was revealed about the secret connection that television personality Haim Hecht maintained with someone who turned out to be a senior figure in Hezbollah. During a panel that included Channel 12 news journalist Menachem Horowitz, Hecht shared an account from his professional past.
Erez Tal asked Horowitz if he knew that Haim had cultivated a friendship with a source who had deceived him and become an advisor to Hassan Nasrallah. When Horowitz replied in the negative, Hecht revealed the identity of that source: Timur Goksel, the well-known UNIFIL spokesperson in Lebanon.
"I made contact with him and slowly a friendship was formed, also because our children were the same age," Hecht said. He added that Goksel provided him with stories of such high quality that even the Northern Command chief would call to ask where the information came from. However, this exclusive journalistic connection was cut off when the Shin Bet entered the picture.
According to Hecht, Shin Bet officials noticed the depth of the connection between him and the UN official and warned him: "Haim, watch out, you could get into trouble." Shortly after that warning, Goksel disappeared. In retrospect, it turned out that he had become the closest assistant to Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.
"He died in Beirut," Hecht concluded the story, "he caught the coronavirus and died."
