An Antisemitic History Lies Buried at CIA

How the deathbed confession of a Middle East analyst ripped the cover off ugly chapters in the agency's history with Jews and Israel

MARTHA NEFF KESSLER WAS DYING OF LUNG CANCER, and she had a secret to tell.

Kessler’s life was full of secrets. She spent nearly 40 years at the CIA and was an expert on the Middle East. With her daughter at her bedside, she needed to say something.

“I told Dad I didn’t want to raise you Jewish,” Kessler said to her daughter a few weeks before her deat…