Gabriel Allon

[close] Gabriel Allon is the main protagonist in Daniel Silva's thriller and espionage series that focuses on Israeli intelligence. The main characters refer to their employer as 'the Office', although it is not specified that it is Mossad (known internally in the Israeli intelligence community as HaMisrad [עברית: המשרד], literally 'the Office'). Allon's career began in 1972 when he, Eli Lavon and several others were plucked from civilian life by Ari Shamron to participate in Operation Wrath of God, an act of vengeance to hunt down and eliminate those responsible for killing the Israel athletes in Munich. Wrath of God is referenced in the books throughout the course of his life.
Allon is portrayed as a sabra whose first language was German. He was raised Jewish, albeit in a secular home in the Jezreel Valley, and was not familiar with Shabbat candles until he saw them as an adult. That his mother, Irene, was a Holocaust survivor (from Berlin) is a thread throughout the series; it is often alluded to that her unwillingness to discuss what happened to her is part of what makes Allon such a good spy and master of secrets. Allon's father, who died in the Six-Day War, was born and raised in Munich and was “a writer, an intellectual, who had escaped to Palestine before the war. In Germany his name had been Greenberg, but in Israel he had taken the Hebrew name Allon” (book 16), which means “mighty oak” in Hebrew (book 5). According to Shamron, Gabriel's name was chosen for a reason, "Your mother named you Gabriel for a reason. Michael is the highest [angel], but you, Gabriel, are the mightiest. You're the one who defends Israel against its accusers. You're the angel of judgment—the Prince of Fire."
Several books in the series make reference to Allon's linguistic versatility and it is confirmed that he speaks fluent English, French, German, Hebrew, and Italian, as well as also passable Arabic and Spanish. In The Prince of Fire (book 5) Silva lets the readers know that German, which he speaks with the Berlin accent of his mother, was his first language and remains the language of his dreams. Allon is 51 in book 3; in his 60s by book 13.
When Julian Isherwood sees Gabriel again in book 5 he is again “taken aback” by Gabriel’s “unimpressive physical stature—five-eight, perhaps, a hundred and fifty pounds fully clothed”. …
“The face came into focus—long, high at the forehead, narrow at the chin. The nose looked as though it had been carved from wood, the cheekbones were wide and prominent, and there was a hint of the Russian steppes in the green, restless eyes. The black hair was cropped short and very gray at the temples. It was a face of many possible national origins.”
Allon's maternal grandfather was a well-known Berlin-based German Expressionist painter who passed his talents on to his daughter before he was killed at Auschwitz in January 1943. She, it turn, passed these talents to Gabriel. Allon served in the army and chose to leave immediately at the conclusion of his conscription to study at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, forsaking an offered post in an elite special forces unit. It was at Bezalel in Jerusalem in 1972 when Shamron approached him to join the Office and take part in retribution operation being carried out by Israel against the Black September terrorists in retaliation for perpetrating the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics. Gabriel was the one of the primary assassins in the operation conducted across Europe which lasted three years, resulting in the derailment of Gabriel's then-likely future career as a painter. In the aftermath, he left the Office and under the cover of an Italian art restorer, Mario Delvecchio, he lived in Cornwall while working for a London-based art dealer, Julian Isherwood. However, he was reluctantly convinced return to the Office, while simultaneously continuing to work as Delvecchio in England and Italy as his primary unofficial cover, which also continues to play a large role in Allon's life. After long efforts to resist the move, Gabriel becomes head of the Office.
In January 1991, while on assignment in Vienna, Allon's car was bombed, resulting in the death of his son and serious injury to his wife, Leah. His wife survived and lives in a psychiatric hospital on Mount Herzl, not far from where their son is buried on the Mount of Olives. Allon felt he had to make peace with Leah's situation before he could propose to Chiara Zolli, the Italian-born Office field operative who later becomes his second wife. His son's ghost frequently haunts Allon, especially after Chiara's miscarriage following her kidnapping [book 9] and their ensuing inability to conceive. After many years, Chiara becomes pregnant again, and delivers twins, a girl Irene, named in memory of Gabriel’s mother, and a boy, Raphael.