Shimon Pazner

Background
Shimon Pazner was the station chief of the Office in Rome.

Shimon did not know Gabriel Allon was in Italy and assumed he was there for an assassination. Gabriel finally convinced Pazner that he was the target of assassination attempts because he was searching for Benjamin Stern's killer. Pazner arranged for Gabriel Allon's evacuation from Italy in the company of Chiara Zolli and was frustrated when Chiara disappeared and he lost control of the situation. Shimon used one of his safe houses for the meeting with Pope Paul VII.

Pazner met with Gabriel in Rome. After telling Gabriel that he had been declared off limits by Lev Ahroni, Pazner agreed to have a search made for Otto Krebs. The search revealed that Krebs had worked for Syrian intelligence in 1963 then moved to Argentina.

Pazner was away from the Israeli embassy when the building was virtually destroyed by a bomb in a delivery truck. A few days later, Pazner was called to the Intelligence and Democratic Security Service and was given a disk that the service had been unable to read. Pazner agreed to submit it to the Office and to tell the Italians anything that was learned. After the Israelis read the disk and found damaging information about Gabriel Allon, Ari Shamron sent Pazner back to Italy to report that they had been unable to read the disk. When Gabriel Allon is ordered to Rome, Pazner meets him and escorts him to the ruin of the bombed Israeli embassy. He tells Gabriel that Varash met and to stand by for instructions.