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The Biographical book 'Confidential; The Life of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon' has been out since 2011, and has been scrutinized by many media outlets. Mr. Milchan has not contested a single contention made in the book, and has confirmed the central elements in it in a 2013 documentary based on the book.
When asked recently by The Malibu Times if the book was accurate, he said, “They got 70% right and about 70% of what I did is not in there … I’ll do anything for Israel.”
Co author of Confidential, Joseph Gelman, responded to Mr. Milchan's comment:
We would like to congratulate Mr. Arnon Milchan as the 2015 honoree of the Malibu Film Society. An excellent choice and a well-deserved honor indeed.
As for Mr. Milchan's comments about the accuracy of our biography of him:
Mr. Milchan states that about 70% of his activities were not mentioned in our book. That is entirely possible. Mr. Milchan was one of the most important and productive secret agents that Israeli intelligence had ever fielded at the time (the 1960-1980's), a very active period. As biographers, for the sake of our own credibility, we were careful to include only material that we felt we could substantiate, and that material was stunning enough, as evidence by the strong media reaction to its publication. Our material was, and is, more than enough to give the reader an accurate overall picture with plenty of jaw-dropping details.
There were numerous operations that we became aware of but did not include in our book either for lack of sufficient confirmation, or because we felt that people may actually be physically endangered by the publishing of such information. We also have no doubt that there were operations that we are unaware of. Mr. Milchan did not volunteer the details. We never claimed to have published every detail, we published what was the product of years of serious research and off-the-record interviews with key players, including President Shomon Peres, who personally recruited Mr. Milchan in the 1960's.
We believe that what is in the book is accurate, both in spirit and in fact. We did the best we could given the sensitive and deeply confidential nature of the material. In the years since its publication, Mr. Milchan has never challenged the accuracy of a single element. In fact, he has confirmed most of it in a top-rated, hour-long documentary by Israel's leading news program that was largely based on our book. We not only stand by our material, we believe that the assertions we make in our book were actually understated, as hinted, perhaps unintentionally, by Mr. Milchan himself in his comments to the Malibu Times.
Mr. Milchan was a genuine James Bond / Jason Bourne type figure, whose pre-Hollywood life is worthy of a movie or action-suspense series itself. We wish him the best, and congratulate the Malibu Film Society for an excellent and well deserving choice for an honoree. Mr. Milchan is in fact one of the most successful and prolific producers in the history of Hollywood. Again, we stand by our material.
