Amos Levinberg, a former Israeli intelligence officer who was a prisoner of war in Syria nearly 43 years ago and has been described as "the man who caused the greatest damage to Israel", gave his first interview last week.

In an emotional interview on Channel Two, Mr Levinberg admitted that he had disclosed many secrets under interrogation, but blamed his superiors for having stationed him on the front line.

At the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, he was a young lieutenant in Unit 8200, the IDF's main signals intelligence outfit.

As a Network Intelligence Officer (NIO) dealing with the surveillance of Syria, Mr Levinberg had a very high security clearance. In addition, he was highly curious and, with a phenomenal memory, picked up many secrets that were not relevant to his position.

On the eve of the Yom Kippur War, one of his commanders, who disliked him, sent him to the unit's outpost on Mount Hermon, which, in the first days of the war, was overrun by Syrian commandos and the surviving soldiers taken captive.

He did not want his widowed mother to suffer

Mr Levinberg, known as "the singing NIO" within Israel's intelligence community, admitted that despite not being tortured, he told his captors all he knew, and even wrote down for them entire chapters about Israel's intelligence system.

He said what he did "still haunts" him but that he had been told by his interrogators that Israel had been destroyed in the war, and he believed them. Because of that, he said, he thought the secrets were worthless. He added that, as an only child, he did not want to make his widowed mother suffer more than she had.

Mr Levinberg said he had tried suicide but ultimately "those commanders who sent an only son up to the Hermon should be the ones held responsible".

Veteran intelligence officers interviewed by Channel Two claimed the information Mr Levinberg told his captors had hampered them during the war. After the prisoners were returned to Israel, Mr Levinberg underwent months of interrogation to work out what he had given away. The IDF changed many of its procedures as a result.

Prime Minister Golda Meir visited him to try to understand why he had done what he did and took pity on him. Some officers believed he should have been tried but it was decided that he had indeed believed Israel had been eliminated. He has, however, been ostracised by the intelligence community.