Gabriel Allon

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Gabriel Allon was an artist until Munich. Afterward, he became an assassin for his country and is the current director of the Office.

Youth

Gabriel was born a Virgo in 1951, and grew up in the Jezreel Valley of Israel in the kibbutz of Ramat David. He was of German heritage His mother was a survivor of the Nazi death camps. According to information in The Black Widow, Gabriel's father was "a man from Munich, a writer, an intellectual, who escaped to Palestine before the war. In Germany his name had been Greenberg, but in Israel he took the Hebrew name Allon." Gabriel's parents spoke a variety of European languages, but disliked speaking Hebrew. They treated him less like a child than a small adult. Tziona Levin, a family friend, was the closest thing he had to a sibling. His father died in the six-day war and his mother died from cancer some time later. Gabriel performed his mandatory service in the Israeli Defense Forces and later enrolled in the Betsal'el School of Art in Jerusalem. He was in school at the time of the Munich Massacre.

Wrath of God

Following the Munich massacre, Ari Shamron recruited Gabriel as an assassin in September 1972 to punish the members of the Black September movement. Of twelve members of Black September who were killed, Gabriel killed six with a .22-caliber Beretta pistol. Whenever he could, he shot his victims eleven times, one for each Jew murdered at Munich.

Art Restorer

Gabriel, using the alias Mario Delvecchio, worked in Europe as an art restorer. It was itself an art in which he was well-skilled and well-regarded. In Venice, Gabriel worker for Francesco Tiepolo. In England, he worked for Julian Isherwood. Even after returning to work for the Office, Gabriel supported himself between assignments as a restorer. He sometimes excused himself from a restoration project when duty called.

Relationships

Leah Allon

Leah was Gabriel's first wife. They met at the Betsal'el School of Art in Jerusalem. Together they had a son, Dani, who died when their car was blown up in Vienna. Leah survived but suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome and psychotic depression leaving her mind practically destroyed. When she began gaining periods during which she was more lucid and aware of her surroundings, she gave Gabriel permission to divorce her and marry Chiara.

Key Events

The Kill Artist

Although Gabriel had left the Office, Ari Shamron knew that he was the one to track down and kill Tariq al-Hourani, who had murdered the Israeli ambassador to France and whose brother had been killed by Gabriel for being a terrorist. Gabriel recruited photographer's model Jacqueline Delacroix, who had worked with him during Wrath of God to sleep with al-Hourani's accomplice, Yusef al-Tawfiki. Jacqueline was discovered and taken to Paris, Montreal and New York as a cover for al-Hourani. Gabriel followed as al-Hourani, who had a brain tumor, prepared to murder Yasir Arafat. Gabriel trapped al-Hourani in a stairwell, but al-Hourani shot him. Jacqueline, who had managed to escape from her captivity, shot and killed al-Hourani. Jacqueline's relationship with the Office was revealed and she moved to Israel. Gabriel returned to Israel and saw Yusef al-Tawfiki on a street. Al-Tawfiki admitted having been a double agent working for Shamron.

The English Assassin

Allon seeks the murderer of a Zurich banker and Nazi art collector, with banker's violinist daughter in Lisbon, Vienna, London, avoiding the Assassin.

The Confessor

Gabriel was restoring a Bellini altarpiece in Venice when he was interrupted by the murder of Benjamin Stern. Ari Shamron sent Gabriel to Munich to learn what he can about Stern's murder and remove any evidence there might be of Stern's former affiliation with the Office. Gabriel went to Munich and met with Detective Axel Weiss of the Munich police and with Helmut Berger, Stern's department head at a university. Gabriel visited the Convent of the Sacred Heart on Lake Garda and spoke with Mother Vincenza, who told him lies about how Jews were treated during World War II. Based on information he acquired near the convent, Gabriel exchanged information about Benjamin Stern and the operations of the Office with Peter Malone shortly before Malone was murdered and his computer stolen by Eric Lange.

A Death in Vienna

Allon pursues the Nazi who implemented the furnaces across the globe into Argentina, vindicating the death of a agency friend in Vienna. With Chiara.

Prince of Fire

Jeremy Crabbe recognized Gabriel as "Mario Delvecchio" and asked Julian about Gabriel's presence at an auction. Julian explained that Gabriel cleaned paintings for him. Julian purchased Daniel in the Lions' Den based on Gabriel's assurance that is was actually the work of Rubens; Gabriel agreed to clean the painting for £200,000. He then went to visit Leah to tell her about Chiara Zolli, but Leah was unresponsive. Gabriel flew to Venice where he found Ari Shamron waiting for him.Allon follows a terrorist archaeologist through Marseilles then Paris into a trap at the Paris train station, with Leah as bait. He then breaks up with Chiara.

The Messenger

The Office acquired a laptop computer that contained photographs indicating a planned attack on the Vatican; the information was analyzed too late to prevent the attack, which badly damaged St. Peter's Basilica and almost killed Pope Paul VII. Returning to Jerusalem, Gabriel learned from Ari Shamron that Ahmed bin Shafiq, who financed the attack, was linked to the Saudis. Shortly thereafter, Shamron was nearly killed by a bomb. Gabriel discussed Ahmed bin Shafiq with Adrian Carter. Carter identified Abdul Aziz al-Bakari as a banker for the Saudi royal family. At the request of President of the United States, Gabriel prepared an operation to kill Ahmed bin Shafiq over Ari Shamron's objections. Gabriel used his relationship with Julian Isherwood to borrow an uncatalogued painting by Vincent van Gogh. Gabriel and Adrian Carter worked together to recruit Sarah Bancroft, an art curator, to penetrate Abdul Aziz al-Bakari's organization to locate Ahmed bin Shafiq. Sarah helped sell the painting to Abdul Aziz al-Bakari, who then, as Gabriel hoped hired Sarah after taking her to a yacht. Sarah's position with the Office was discovered and al-Bakari moved Sarah to Switzerland for interrogation. Office agents caught up, killed the men holding her and freed her. Gabriel returned to the Vatican during a meeting between Pope Paul VII and the President of the United States. A Swiss Guardsman who had converted to Islam attempted to kill the Pope, but failed. Gabriel and unidentified agents broke into al-Bakari's Paris Mansion and recovered the Van Gogh painting which Gabriel then returned to the owner. Gabriel and Eli killed Bin Shafiq with a bomb in Cairo. Gabriel and other agents killed Abdul Aziz al-Bakari; his daughter screamed for revenge.

The Secret Servant

Allon pursues the killer of an Office agent, uncovering an arab terrorist ring who kidnaps the US ambassador's daughter. Chiara and Gabriel wed.

Moscow Rules

Gabriel and his new wife Chiara were spending their honeymoon at a peaceful farm somewhere in Umbria. Gabriel had returned to his artistic pursuits, and under the disguise of an Italian name he was working like a restorer again. He was working on a Poussin painting for the Pope when he heard that Uzi Navot was in the town wanting to tell him something important. He met Uzi at a restaurant and Navot told him about the death of a Russian journalist and that the journalist's editor wanted to meet Gabriel. Before they could speak, the editor was also killed and Gabriel had to travel to Moscow to find out the truth behind this situation. The main villain is Ivan Kharkov, an oligarch. At the end Gabriel found out the transaction Ivan and his men wanted to manage.

The Defector

Allon and Chiara are captured by Ivan Kharkov, who used the Defector Grigori from last book, trying to get his kids back. Moscow, Paris, London, So France.

The Rembrandt Affair

A stolen Rembrandt leads to a trail of Nazi stolen money, and to a billionaire Swiss merchant supplying nuclear plants to Iran.

Portrait of a Spy

Allon breaks a jihadi network by setting a sting around an art sale, with the daughter of a prior target of GA. Set in Dubai, Saudi desert, London.

Kills

Characters Killed

Aliases

• Jonathan Albright in:
  • The Heist
  • The English Girl
• Gideon Argov in:
  • A Death in Vienna
  • The Rembrandt Affair
  • The Black Widow
• Mario Delvecchio in:
  • The Kill Artist
  • The English Assassin
  • The Confessor
  • Prince of Fire
• Michel Dumont in The English Assassin
• Natan Golani in:
  • Moscow Rules
  • The Defector
• Heinrich Kiever in
  • The English Assassin
  • The Messenger
  • The Secret Servant
  • The Defector
  • The Order
• Johannes Klemp in:
  • Prince of Fire
  • The Secret Servant
  • The English Girl
• Michael Neumann in Prince of Fire
• Kramer in The English Assassin
• Ehud Landau in The Confessor.
• Meyer in The English Assassin
• Schmidt in The English Assassin
• Anton Drexler in The Fallen Angel
• Heinrich Siedler in The Confessor.
• Stevens in The English Assassin
• Alessio Vianelli in:
  • Moscow Rules
  • The Defector

Trivia

• Allon, a name selected by Gabriel's mother after she arrived in Israel, means "oak tree."
• Gabriel lived at 16 Narkiss Street, Jerusalem; the home was a former safe house that an "unidentified friend of the Office" purchased and deeded to Gabriel.
• Shamron called Gabriel his "Prince of Fire."
• Gabriel's father taught him that men who could not keep secrets were weak and inferior.
• Gabriel was twenty-one when Ari Shamron recruited him for operation Wrath of God. This places his birth in 1951 or possibly late 1950
• His favorite music is "La Bohème" by Puccini
• Gabriel has a passionate hatred of farming.
• His first language was German and since he inherited his mother's Berlin accent, he sounds like a native speaker, who had been raised in the center of Berlin.
• Gabriel hates dogs, and they are known to be more aggressive then usual around him.
• He is fluent in Italian.
• He has an aversion of tobacco that is known in intelligence all around the world.
• According to him, Uzi Navot and Eli Lavon are like brothers to him
• He's not very talkative
• He carries a picklock around and knows how to use it