[2][3] However, both books were criticized by journalists, scholars, and historians who are supportive of Israel stating it lacked historical accuracy and contained sensationalist claims.
Ostrovsky's mother, a gymnastics teacher by profession, was born in Mandatory Palestine to Haim and Esther Margolin, who had fled Russia in 1912 and settled in Palestine where Haim served as Auditor General of the Jewish National Fund (JNF), and Esther volunteered to the British Army (ATS), as truck driver during World War II, and later joined the Haganah to fight for Israel's independence from the British mandate rule.
Ostrovsky's father was a Canadian-born Jew who served with the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II as a tail gunner on a Lancaster bomber, taking part in more than 20 missions over Germany.
[4] The first half of the book provides a detailed first-hand account of Ostrovsky's training as a case officer, including how to detect surveillance and how to meet and recruit agents.
At the orders of Mossad agents & Israeli government officials, Ostrovsky was falsely accused of having an "erratic personality and a vivid imagination.
[12] However, the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, highlights Ostrovsky's detailed allegations against Mossad, supporting his claims with corroborating articles and investigations, painting a critical picture of Israel's intelligence operations.
"[7] Many of Ostrovsky's claims in the book as a Mossad agent have neither been verified from other sources nor been refuted, and Israeli government officials & organizations working on the Israeli government's behalf continue to state the book lacks credibility, while former US Republican Congressman Pete McCloskey states Ostrovsky's warnings to the Secret Service saved the life of former President George H.W.
[3] David Wise from The New York Times wrote that the book reads like a "supermarket tabloid" and given Ostrovsky's brief length of service and his position, he would not be expected to possess the broad range of knowledge about Mossad operations he claims.
[4] In 1994, Ostrovsky wrote another book, The Other Side of Deception: A Rogue Agent Exposes the Mossad's Secret Agenda, in which he gives more anecdotes and defends his earlier work with a list of newspaper articles.
[11] Among other claims, Ostrovsky writes that the Mossad supported Russian coup plotters seeking to oust Mikhail Gorbachev to obtain visas for Soviet Jews, plotted to kill George H. W. Bush during the Madrid Conference of 1991, and murdered businessman Robert Maxwell.
According to a review by Benny Morris in the Journal of Palestine Studies, Ostrovsky's "list of charges stretches from the preposterous to the ridiculous" and the book "voyages to the far side of credibility and offers giant chunks of deception".
[5] According to a review by Nils Petter Gleditsch in the Journal of Peace Research, the operational detail and information contained in the book "has a scope which it is hard to believe that a relatively junior officer would obtain.
She writes that while "the general outlines of these operations are probably accurately conveyed, there is just enough factual error to cast doubt on the details" and his descriptions of his accomplishments "seem overdrawn".