Israeli Intelligence

Israeli Intelligence Community 2009 Source: From Wikipedia. The Israeli Intelligence Community (Hebrew: ‫ )תילארשיה ןיעידומה תליהק‬is the designation given to the complex of organizations responsible for intelligence collection, dissemination, and research for the State of Israel.

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Current Members of the Israeli Intelligence Community











Aman: the supreme military intelligence branch of the Israeli Defense Forces. Air Intelligence Directorate: the intelligence unit of the Israeli Air Force. Naval Intelligence Department: the intelligence unit of the Israeli Sea Corps. Intelligence Corps: the main intelligence collection and analysis of the IDF. Field Intelligence Corps: the intelligence unit of GOC Army Headquarters. The intelligence units of the four Regional Commands (Central, Northern, Southern, Home Front). Mossad: the agency responsible primarily for overseas intelligence work. Shin Bet ("Shabak"): the organization responsible for internal security, including in the Israeli-occupied territories. The intelligence branch of the Israeli Police. The Centre for Political Research: the intelligence branch of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Former Members




Nativ. The organization responsible for bringing Jews from Soviet Bloc countries, a later manifestation of the Mossad. Le'aliyah Bet. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it was moved out of the intelligence community and became a department within the Prime Minister's office. Lekem. The agency responsible for obtaining and securing secret technology. It was dissolved, and its director, Rafi Eitan, resigned over the exposure of Jonathan Pollard, who was convicted of spying on its behalf.

Parliamentary Supervision over the Intelligence Community is undertaken by the Subcommittee for Intelligence and Secret Services, a subcommittee of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, which supervises the entire Israeli Security Forces. Structure and Organization: The issue regarding the suitable structure of the IIC, and questions as to dividing responsibilities and jurisdictions between Aman, Shabak, and Mossad, as well as the format of work for the three in relation to Prime Ministers and Ministers, all of these became

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agenda issues many times in the past. Various commissions and individual inspectors were appointed throughout the years, whether due to traumatic experiences or as a matter of routine, in order to examine the issues and propose recommendations. These were: The Yadin-Sherf Commission. (1963) The Agranat Commission. (1973-74) The Zamir Commission. (1974) The Commissions of Aluf Aharon Yariv. (1984, 1986) The Reports of Aluf Refael Vardi. (1990s) The Commission to investigate the intelligence network following the War in Iraq. (2004) The government was tasked with the matter on a number of occasions and arrived at various decisions. The State Comptroller made the issue his agenda and submitted to the Knesset his findings and conclusions. In 1994, the Subcommittee for Intelligence also examined the questions and brought its recommendations before the Prime Minister. The division of labour among the intelligence arms, Aman, Shabak, and Mossad, in the current structure of the IIC, is usually established upon a geographical basis. There are interfacing and overlapping segments, often rather wide, among the organizations. The level of coordination and inter-regional cooperation has suffered in the past from fundamental shortcomings, which has hindered the effectiveness of intelligence work on several fronts. The organizations repressed the necessity for the mutual sharing of intelligence information and in synchronizing some activities. There are still open-ended issues remaining to be discussed, including disputed ones, as to the division of jurisdictions and inter-regional sectoral boundaries. In a document known as the "Magna Carta," the heads of the three services continue their attempt to arrive at agreements regarding these. The Intelligence Subcommittee follows this discourse and examines the steps required to practically settle key areas of dispute. If needed, the Subcommittee could become actively involved in the matter so as to ensure appropriate and reasonable standards for overall intelligence work in Israel.







The Role of Aman - The historical development of the IIC destined Aman with a range of activities and tasks that are conventionally outside the realm of military intelligence in the West, such as the responsibility for intelligence research in political matters and other markedly nonmilitary affairs. This largely followed from the reliance by the State of Israel during its first years on the IDF as an anchor and mechanism to fulfill national tasks, it being a system with organizational capacities, resources, and available human resources. As such, Aman has assumed functions which ordinarily would be handled by other intelligence agencies. Accordingly, some critics say, there is a need to reexamine the position and placement assumed by intelligence bodies within the current structure, and transferring certain strategic and political areas and non-military ones, from Aman to a civilian intelligence authority. Reforms - The Commission to investigate the intelligence network following the War in Iraq maintained that, notwithstanding the historical consolidation behind the current IIC structure, and despite the advantages gained by Aman's Research Department and Unit 8200 during many years of service, it is finally time to restructure the IIC in accordance with a proper work

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distribution, professional designation, as well as a correct constitutional and legal frame of reference. The Commission recommended on reforming the current IIC structure, ending up with three or four independent intelligence services, alongside the National Security Council, with the distinction between them being based upon the respective spheres of responsibility of each service:





Aman (IDF): Its jurisdiction is to consist primarily of "military intelligence" - alerting the political leadership and the security arms to the possibility of war and estimating the means of the enemy, and identifying prospective targets during a war or a limited military conflict. Mossad: Charged with, in addition to foiling attacks, a strategic-political emphasis, which includes evaluating the stability of regimes, and engaging in industrial-scientifictechnological and nuclear -related intelligence as well as against global terrorism.




Shabak: Is tasked with the security of the State, its citizens, and organs, against Palestinian and other forms of terrorism, and against internal subversion.




National Security Council: Its function is to evaluate global conditions according to overall intelligence, and preparing national and security responses.




SIGINT: This proposed service would supply all the other services with SIGINT intelligence.

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The Spymasters Efraim Halevy (Hebrew: ‫)יולה םירפא‬. See Mossad Directors below Reference – Page 23.

Isser Harel (Hebrew: ‫לארה רסיא‬, born Isser Halperin on 1912, died 18 February 2003) was spymaster of the intelligence and the security services of Israel and the Director of the Mossad (1952 - 1963). Childhood and Youth Isser Harel was born in Vitebsk, Russia (now Belarus) to a large, wealthy family. The exact date of his birth was not passed on to him because the book of Gemara in which the date was recorded was lost in the migrations of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and World War I. The family had a vinegar factory in Vitebsk. It was a gift of his maternal grandfather, who had a concession to make vinegar in large parts of Tsarist Russia. Young Isser was five years old when the revolution broke out and Vitebsk passed several times between the Whites and the Reds. On one occasion he saw Leon Trotsky give a speech in the town. Isser and his family fell on hard times when the Soviet regime confiscated their property. In 1922 the family emigrated from the Soviet Union to Dvinsk in independent Latvia. On the way, Soviet soldiers stole their suitcases, which contained the rest of their possessions. In Dvinsk, Isser began his formal studies, completed primary school, and began secondary school. As he grew,

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a Jewish national consciousness grew within him and he joined a Zionist youth organization. When he was 16, Isser began preparations to immigrate to Israel. During this preparatory year he worked in agriculture with the aspiration to join a kibbutz. With the outbreak of the 1929 Hebron massacre, his friends decided to move up their immigration date in order to reinforce the Jewish settlement in Palestine. Documents were prepared for the 17-year-old Isser stating that he was 18 and eligible for a British visa. At the beginning of 1930 he immigrated to Israel. He crossed Europe from north to south to board a ship in Genoa, carrying a pistol that he concealed in a loaf of bread. He had one child, a daughter, from his first marriage. She currently works for the Shabak (General Security Service) in Israel. She did not serve in the Israeli Defense Forces but instead in the National Work Program which is an alternative for women who do not or cannot serve the mandatory 18 months in the I.D.F. On September 22, 1952, Harel became head of the Mossad. Harel became the first man to be given the Hebrew title of HaMemuneh (the responsible one), a reference to his unique position as the head of both Israeli civilian intelligence services, Mossad and Shabak. Harel was the head investigator in the 15 year manhunt for Adolf Eichmann. The hunt ended in May 1960, when the Mossad covertly kidnapped Eichmann from Argentina to Israel. Eichmann was the man responsible for technical coordination of the Final Solution in WWII, which resulted in the systematic murder of 6,000,000 Jewish people. Harel documented his 15 year investigation in "The House on Garibaldi Street". He was replaced as head of Mossad after it became known that many of his agents had misappropriated funds. Since then, Mossad agents working on foreign soil have to "earn" their money through business activities, which also enhances their cover. After leaving Mossad, Harel turned to politics. He joined David Ben Gurion's newly created National List prior to the 1969 elections, and was elected to the Knesset as the party won four seats. However, after Ben Gurion resigned from the party it began to disintegrate, with two of the MKs defecting to Likud and the other to the Alignment. As a result, Harel lost his seat in the 1973 elections.

Izi Dorot (1916–1980), born

Isidore Roth, was an Israeli military person, and director of the Shabak between 1952 and 1953. Born in Poland in 1916, Dorot immigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine in 1936, and served in the Jewish Settlement Police. In World War II he volunteered and served in the British Army. After his discharge he was recruited to the Haganah Intelligence Service. Subsequent to the Israeli War of Independence he was transferred to the Israel Security Agency (ISA, Shin Bet). After one year as

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Head of Shin Bet, in October 1953, Dorot followed Isser Harel to the Mossad as Deputy Director; he was replaced as Director of Shin Bet by Amos Manor. He served as deputy director of the Mossad until 1963.

Amos Manor (October 8, 1918 – August 5, 2007), born Arthur Mendelowitz, was a former Director of the Shin Bet, Israel's internal intelligence and security service, from 1953 until 1963. Born into a Jewish family in M.ramarossziget, in northern Transylvania Romania. Following the outbreak of World War II, he was drafted to the Hungarian Army, but in 1944 was transferred to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Prior to his immigration to Israel in 1949, he served as the secretary of the Bucharest, Romania branch of the Mossad Le'aliyah Bet for clandestine immigration to Israel, under the alias "Amos", which he later adopted as his first name. One month after he immigrated to Israel in 1949 he joined Shin Bet. Amos Manor is credited with building up the Shin Bet as a national institution capable of handling the many threats posed to internal Israeli security during that time. In 1964 Manor began serving on the directorial board of several companies, banks and the stock market. He also worked as a business consultant for various textile firms. He was also a partner in the Atlas hotel management company. Amos Manor spoke fluent Hebrew, English, French, Romanian and Hungarian.

Yossef Harmelin

(1922–1994) was an Austrian-born Israeli politician, serving as an ambassador in Iran and South Africa and as director of Shabak from 1964 to 1974 and again from 1986 to 1988. Born in Vienna, Harmelin immigrated to Israel in 1939 under the Youth Immigration program. Harmelin fought with the Israel Defense Forces in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. He became deputy director of Shabak in 1960, rising to his first term as director four years later. In 1974, he left Shabak to pursue other interests, including his ambassadorship, before returning to head the security agency again in 1986. He retired in 1988.

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Avraham Ahituv (born Avraham Gottfried in 1930) is a German-born Israeli politician, having served as Director of the Shabak, the Israel Security Agency, from 1974 to 1980. Ahituv's family immigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine in 1935. In 1946 Ahituv, joined the Haganah while a student in the Kfar Ha-Ro'eh seminary, where he completed his high school matriculation test. In 1949 Ahituv joined the Internal Intelligence Service, (SHAI), founded during the Israeli War of Independence and later became the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet). It was during the conflict period that Gottfried changed his name to Ahituv. Through the 1950s Ahituv was in the Arab division of the Shin Bet. Ahituv was instrumental in adopting a policy of “practical moderation” in relation to the Israeli Arab demographic. This policy was to enable full integration of the Israeli Arab population into Israeli main stream society. Ahituv also authorized the use of lies in Israeli courts to cover confessions obtained by torture. In August 1982 a report appeared in the Washington Star that Ahituv's resignation was caused by the intervention of Prime Minister Begin in the investigations in the bombing of Palestinian town Mayors by Jewish extremist groups. The allegation was denied by both Begin and Ahituv. After Ahituv testified that his resignation had been submitted before the spate of bombs, the Knesset defense dismissed the Washington Star report as "groundless" and having "no basis in fact"

Yaakov Peri

(born February 20, 1944) was head of the General Security Service, the Israeli domestic intelligence agency (known in Israel by the acronym Shabak) from 1988 to 1994. Peri introduced structural changes in the Shabak in order to address problems that arose during the First Intifada and deal with the new situation in Israel in the wake of the Oslo Accords. After retiring from the Shabak, he went into business. He was CEO of Cellcom Israel from 1995 to 2003.

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Carmi Gillon (Hebrew: ‫ ;ןוליג ימרכ‬born January 1950) is an Israeli politician, and a former Israeli ambassador to Denmark and head of Shabak, the Internal General Security Service of Israel. After the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, he attracted criticism for failing to provide adequate security. Carmi Gillon is currently the mayor of the Jerusalem suburb Mevasseret Zion and vice-president of external relations for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Gillon was born in Jerusalem into a well known family of lawyers who resided in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Rehavia. His grandfather, Gad Frumkin, was the only Jewish judge to serve at the Supreme Court of Palestine under the British Mandate and was also a member of the Hebrew University's Board of Governors from the 1930s until his death. His father, Colin Gillon, was a state attorney, and his mother Saada Gillon (nee Frumkin) served as Deputy Attorney General. He began his army service in the armored corps and was later transferred to the artillery corps. He was released from the army in 1971. He graduated from the National Defense College. He has a B.A. in political science from the Hebrew University where he was recruited into the Israeli Security Agency and an M.A. in public policy from Haifa University. He is also a graduate of the advanced management program at the Harvard Business School, and completed management training at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. In addition to his official roles, Gillon has also been a member of a number of boards of directors, including the Tahal Group, Danker Investment and the Arab Israel Bank. Over the years, Gillon has written several books and a range of articles on the subjects of foreign affairs and security. Gillon is married with three children.

Amihai ‘Ami’ Ayalon (Hebrew: ‫;ןולייא יחימע‬ born 27 June 1945) is an Israeli politician and member of the Knesset for the Labor Party. He was formerly head of the Shin Bet, Israel's secret service, and commander-in-chief of the Navy. He came in second to Ehud Barak in a Labor party leadership election in June 2007, and was appointed a Minister without Portfolio in September 2007. Ami Ayalon was born in Tiberias and grew up in kibbutz Ma'agan. His parents moved to British Mandate Palestine in the 1930s. His mother came as a young girl to study in Jerusalem; his father, Yitzhak, was one of the founders of Ma'agan, where he worked until retirement as a carpenter. Ayalon graduated from Bar-Ilan University with a

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Bachelor of Arts in 1980. In 1992 he received a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University. He is married and the father of three. In 2006, Ayalon was elected to the Knesset on the Israeli Labor Party's list, but was not given a position in the cabinet when Labor entered a coalition with Kadima. At the end of May 2007, Ayalon was one of two candidates for the leadership of the Labor Party in ongoing party primaries. In September 2007, Ayalon was appointed to the Israeli cabinet as a Minister without Portfolio; he is now a member of the security cabinet.

Avi Dichter (born December 4, 1952) is an Israeli politician, currently Israel's Minister of Public Security and a member of Knesset from the Kadima party. His parents were Holocaust survivors. As an adolescent, he joined Hashomer Hatzair, the oldest Zionist youth movement still functioning. After graduating high school in Ashkelon (where he met his wife), Dichter was selected to serve in the elite unit of the Israel Defense Forces, Sayeret Matkal, under then Commander Ehud Barak. Upon completing his military service, Dichter joined Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service, in 1974 where he advanced to eventually become its Director in 2000. He began his career in Shin Bet as a sky marshal for El Al. After becoming proficient in Arabic and completing field intelligence courses, he began working in the Shin Bet’s Southern District—specifically in the Gaza Strip. In 1992, he was appointed as Director for the region. The targeted assassination of Hamas operative Yahya Ayyash — known as "the Engineer"— took place under Dichter's leadership. The assassination of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 shed light on Shin Bet's shortcomings. Aiming to improve the Shin Bet's protection capabilities, Dichter was appointed Director of the Security and Protection Division. In 1999, he became Deputy Director of Shin Bet. One year later, Prime Minister Ehud Barak promoted Dichter to Director. During his tenure as Director, the Palestinians launched one of their most deadly campaigns, the Al-Aqsa Intifada. Under Dichter’s leadership, Shin Bet changed its modus operandi and restructured its mission and duties to serve at the forefront of Israel’s security and counterterrorism efforts. The organization spearheaded counter-insurgency and intelligence operations deep inside the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In doing so, the Shin Bet is credited with drastically reducing the number of attacks perpetrated against Israel during this time as well as helping to restore safety and positive morale to the public. Another one of Dichter’s successful initiatives included envisioning and planning with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon the controversial West Bank security barrier.

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In September 2005, Dichter left office and became a research fellow at the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C. Several months later, he returned to Israel and announced his foray into politics with the newly-established Kadima party. On May 4, 2006 Dichter was sworn in as the Minister of Public Security. Dichter holds a BA in Social Sciences from Bar Ilan University ('86) and an Executive MBA from Tel Aviv University (1999). He speaks Hebrew, English and Arabic. He and his wife Ilana reside in Ashkelon, where they both grew up. They have three children.

Yuval Diskin (born 1956) is the 12th and current Director of Shabak. In the Israel Defense Forces, Diskin served as deputy company commander of Sayeret Shaked (the command Sayeret of the Israeli Southern Command). In 1978, he was recruited to the Shabak and served as area coordinator for the Nablus district. During the 1982 Lebanon War, Diskin operated in Beirut and Sidon. In 1984, he became the coordinator of Nablus District, and by 1989, also the Jenin and Tulkarm districts. In 1990, he was appointed Department head in the Shabak's Arab Affairs Branch. In 1994, he became the head of the Arab Affairs Branch. From 1997, Diskin was appointed as the commander of the Jerusalem District. From 2000 to 2003, he was the Shabak's Deputy Director. From 2003, he was on a study sabbatical, during which he became special advisor to Mossad Director, Meir Dagan. On May 15, 2005, he replaced Avi Dichter as Shabak Director.

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Mossad The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations Formed December 13, 1949 as the Central Institute for Coordination Employees 1,200 (est.) Agency Executive Meir Dagan, Director Parent agency Office of the Prime Minister Website www.mossad.gov.il The Mossad (HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuhadim or Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations) is the national intelligence agency of Israel. "Mossad" is the Hebrew word for institute or institution. Membership in the Mossad is very prestigious in Israeli society. The Mossad is responsible for intelligence collection, counterterrorism, covert operations such as paramilitary activities and political assassinations and the facilitation of aliyah where it is banned. It is one of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community (along with Aman (military intelligence), OADNA and Shin Bet (internal security), but its director reports directly to the Prime Minister. Its role and function is similar to that of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). Prior to Israel's formation the "Mossad Le'aliyah Bet" was a small, unorthodox Zionist organization whose mission in 1938 was to bring Jews to Israel. This was done to subvert the British quotas on Jewish immigration. The Mossad's modes of operation, its ideology, and politics resulted in the creation of the intelligence agency for the Israeli government once it was established in 1948. The agency consisted of several of the existing members who had worked to establish Israel as a Jewish nation and to bring the Jewish people to it. Organization From its headquarters in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, the Mossad oversees a staff estimated at 1,200 personnel, although it may have numbered up to 2,000 in the late 1980s. The Mossad does not

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use military ranks, although most of its staff have served in the Israel Defense Forces as part of Israel's compulsory draft system, and many of them are officers. It is assumed to consist of eight different departments. The largest is Collections, tasked with many aspects of conducting espionage overseas. Employees in the Collections Department operate under a variety of covers, including diplomatic and unofficial. Their field intelligence officers, called katsas, are similar to case officers of the CIA. Thirty to forty operate at a time, mainly in Europe and the Middle East. The Political Action and Liaison Department is responsible for working both with allied foreign intelligence services, and with nations that have no normal diplomatic relations with Israel. Among the departments of the Mossad is the Special Operations Division or '"Metsada" (see Kidon), which is involved in assassination, paramilitary operations, sabotage, and psychological warfare. Psychological warfare is also a concern of the Lochamah Psichologit Department, which conducts propaganda and deception activities as well. Additionally, the Mossad has a Research Department, tasked with intelligence production, and a Technology Department concerned with the development of tools for Mossad activities. Organizational History The Mossad was formed on December 13, 1949 as the "Central Institute for Coordination", at the recommendation of Reuven Shiloah to Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. Shiloah wanted a central body to coordinate and improve cooperation between the existing security services – the army's intelligence department (AMAN), the General Security Service (GSS or "Shin Bet") and the foreign office's "political department". In March 1951, it was reorganized and made a part of the prime minister's office, reporting directly to the prime minister. Its current staff is estimated at 1,200. Mossad's former motto: be-tachbūlōt ta`aseh lekhā milchāmāh is a quote from the Bible (Proverbs 24:6): "For by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory" (NRSV). The motto was changed recently as part of the Mossad's public 'coming out' to another Proverbs passage: be-'.yn tachbūlōt yippol `ām; ū-teshū`āh be-rov yō'.ts (Proverbs 11:14). This is translated by NRSV as: "Where there is no guidance, a nation falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety."

Activities United States of America The Mossad informed the FBI and CIA in August 2001 that as many as 200 terrorists were slipping into the United States and planning "a major assault on the United States." The Israeli intelligence agency cautioned that it had picked up indications of a "large-scale target" in the United States and that Americans would be "very vulnerable." A month later, the terrorists struck at the World Trade Center. Just prior to the 9/11 attacks a large Israeli spy ring was discovered in the United States and was fully unraveled after 9/11. At least 200 suspected Israeli spies were arrested in regards to suspected involvement in the 9/11 attacks and were subsequently deported back to Israel.

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Argentina In 1960, the Mossad discovered that Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was in Argentina and through surveillance, they confirmed that he had been living there under the name of Ricardo Klement. He was captured by a team of Mossad agents on May 11, 1960, and subsequently smuggled to Israel where he was tried and executed. Argentina protested what it considered as the violation of its sovereignty, and the United Nations Security Council noted that "repetition of acts such as [this] would involve a breach of the principles upon which international order is founded, creating an atmosphere of insecurity and distrust incompatible with the preservation of peace" while also acknowledging that "Eichmann should be brought to appropriate justice for the crimes of which he is accused" and that "this resolution should in no way be interpreted as condoning the odious crimes of which Eichmann is accused." Mossad aborted a second operation to capture Josef Mengele. Germany
Operation Plumbat (1968) was an operation by Lekem-Mossad to further Israel's nuclear program. The German freighter "Scheersberg A", disappeared on its way from Antwerp to Genoa along with its cargo of 200 tons of yellowcake, after supposedly being transferred to an Israeli ship.
The sending of letter bombs during the Operation Wrath of God campaign. Some of these attacks were not fatal, although their purpose might not have been to kill the receiver. Some of the more famous examples of the Mossad letter bombs were those sent to Nazi war-criminal Alois Brunner. Italy The abduction of nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu in 1986 after American-Israeli agent Cheryl Bentov lured him from the United Kingdom. Malta The assassination of Fathi Shiqaqi, a leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, in 1995 in front of the Diplomat Hotel in Sliema, Malta. Norway Lillehammer affair. On July 21, 1973, Mossad agents in Lillehammer murdered Moroccan busboy, Ahmed Bouchikhi, whom they mistakenly believed to have been involved in the Munich Olympics massacre. Bosnia and Herzegovina Assisted in air and overland evacuations of the Jews from war-torn Sarajevo to Israel in 1992. Egypt
Directed missions for Israeli spy Wolfgang Lotz in Egypt 1957-1965.
Directed missions for Israeli spy Eli Cohen (was born and worked in his youth in Egypt but spied on Syria) in 1964, who provided vast amounts of valuable intelligence. Eli Cohen was, however, caught in 1965 in Syria while he was monitoring radio frequencies.

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Provision of key intelligence on the Egyptian Air Force for Operation Focus, the opening airstrike of the Six-Day War. Operation Bulmus 6 - Intelligence assistance in the Commando Assault on Green Island, Egypt during the War of Attrition.

Iran 1960s Prior to the Iranian Revolution of 1978–79 in Iran, SAVAK (Organization of National Security and Information), the Iranian secret police and intelligence service was created under the guidance of United States and Israeli intelligence officers in 1957 to protect the regime of the shah by arresting, torturing, and executing the dissidents (especially Leftists). After security relations between the United States and Iran grew more distant in the early 1960s which led the CIA training team to leave Persia, Mossad became increasingly active in Iran, training SAVAK personnel and carrying out a broad variety of joint operations with SAVAK. In 2007 It was alleged by private intelligence agency Stratfor, based on "sources close to Israeli intelligence", that Dr. Ardeshir Hosseinpour, a scientist involved in the Iranian nuclear program, was killed by the Mossad on January 15, 2007. A US intelligence official told The Washington Post that Israel orchestrated the defection of Iranian general Ali Reza Askari on February 7, 2007. This has been denied by Israeli spokesman Mark Regev. The Sunday Times reported that Askari had been a Mossad asset since 2003, and left only when his cover was about to be blown. Iraq Assistance in the defection and rescuing of the family of Munir Redfa, an Iraqi pilot who defected and flew his MiG 21 to Israel in 1966. Operation Sphinx - Between 1978 and 1981, obtained highly sensitive information about Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor by recruiting an Iraqi nuclear scientist in France. On April 5, 1979, the Mossad destroyed 60 percent of the Iraqi reactor components being built in France; "[An] environmental organization named Groupe des ecologistes francais, unheard of before this incident, claimed credit for the blast." The reactor was subsequently destroyed by an Israeli air strike in 1981. The alleged assassination of Canadian scientist Gerald Bull, developer of the Iraqi supergun, in 1990. The most common theory is that the Mossad was responsible, and its representatives have all but claimed responsibility for his assassination. Others, including Bull's son, believe that the Mossad is taking credit for an act they did not commit to scare off others who may try to help enemy regimes. The alternative theory is that Bull was killed by the CIA. Iraq and Iran are also candidates for suspicion. Palestinian Territories
The assassination of members of Black September, who were responsible for the Munich massacre at the 1972 Olympic Games, called "Operation Wrath of God".
In July 1973, Ahmed Bouchiki, a Moroccan waiter in Lillehammer, Norway, was killed while walking with his pregnant wife. He had been mistaken for Ali Hassan Salameh, one of the leaders of Black September, the Palestinian group responsible for the Munich massacre, who had been given shelter in Norway. The Mossad agents had used fake Canadian passports, which angered the Canadian government. Six Mossad agents were arrested, and the incident became known as the Lillehammer affair.

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The assassination of PFLP and PFLP-EO leader Wadie Haddad in 1978.
The assassination of As-Sa'iqa leader Zuhayr Muhsin in 1979.
Tunis Raid - The assassination of Abu Jihad from the Fatah in 1988.
The assassination of Fathi Shqaqi, the head of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, in 1995.
In 1997, two Mossad agents were caught in Jordan, which had signed a peace treaty with Israel, on a mission to assassinate Sheikh Khaled Mashal, a leader of Hamas, by spraying him with poison at a pro-Hamas rally in Amman. Again, they were using fake Canadian passports. This led to a diplomatic row with Canada and Jordan. Israel was forced to provide the antidote to the poison and to release around 70 Palestinian prisoners, in particular the Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, in exchange for the Mossad agents, who would otherwise have faced the death penalty for attempted murder.
The assassination of Hamas leader Izz El-Deen Sheikh Khalil in Damascus in 2004.
The sending of letter bombs to PFLP member Bassam Abu Sharif. Lebanon The provision of intelligence and operational assistance in 1973's Operation Spring of Youth. Ethiopia Assistance in Operation Moses, the immigration of Ethiopian Jews to Israel in 1984, and has a relationship with the Ethiopian government. Morocco According to Time, the Mossad was involved in what is known as the Ben Barka Affair (see Mehdi Ben Barka). Uganda The provision of intelligence regarding Entebbe International Airport and grant of refueling rights in Kenya for Operation Entebbe in 1976. New Zealand In July 2004, New Zealand imposed diplomatic sanctions on Israel over an incident in which two Australian based Israelis, Uriel Kelman and Eli Cara, who were allegedly working for Mossad, attempted to fraudulently obtain New Zealand passports by claiming the identity of a severely disabled man. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom later apologized to New Zealand for their actions. New Zealand cancelled several other passports believed to have been obtained by Israeli agents. Both Kelman and Cara served half of their six month sentences and, upon release, were deported to Israel. Two others, an Israeli, Ze'ev Barkan, and a New Zealander, David Reznick, are believed to have been the third and fourth men involved in the passport affair but they both managed to leave New Zealand before being traced. Soviet Union In February 1956, a friendly member of the Politburo provided the Mossad with a copy of Nikita Khrushchev's speech denouncing Joseph Stalin. The Mossad passed it on to the United States,

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which published the speech, embarrassing the USSR. This was a major intelligence coup that raised the prestige of the organization. Mossad has often come under criticism for perceived excessive actions against Israel's many enemies. It has been criticized for carrying out assassinations, abductions and torture.

Mossad Le'aliyah Bet The Mossad Le'aliyah Bet (literally Institution for Immigration B) was a branch of the Jewish Defense Association (Haganah) in the British Mandate of Palestine that operated to facilitate Jewish immigration to Palestine in violation of unilateral British restrictions to Jewish immigration. It operated from 1938 until the founding of the State of Israel. The name's origin is a play on words: The Yishuv (Jewish Community in Palestine) referred to legal immigration as "Immigration A," and therefore called illegal immigration "Immigration B" (Aliyah Bet). Even though the Mossad Le'aliyah Bet was officially founded on April 29, 1939, it had began operating during 1938. The reason for its establishment was the increasing limitation on legal Jewish immigration by the British Mandate authorities. The Mossad was founded on the basis of the Ha'apala movement. Its activity was initially centred in Athens and later on its centre moved to Paris. In the first years after it was created, the Mossad achieved a certain measure of success. Operating primarily through the sea, in fifty cruises it was able to bring as many as 20,000 Jewish immigrants to Palestine. When World War II broke, the Mossad became virtually paralyzed and its activities were only renewed by August 1945. Since that time and until the founding of Israel, the Mossad was able to bring an additional 64 ships with over 70,000 Jewish immigrants (many of whom were Holocaust survivors). In addition to the sea, although in a much smaller scale, the Mossad also brought immigrants via land, from the Arab world. Overall, the Mossad was able to bring about 100,000 Jews into what was to become the State of Israel. The most famous ship used by the Mossad was Exodus, which brought 4,554 Holocaust survivors. Throughout most of its years, the Mossad was led by Shaul Avigur (Meirov). With the founding of Israel, the Mossad served as a basis for the agency Lishkat Hakesher (Liaison Bureau), codenamed Nativ ("Path"), created in 1953 and also headed by Meirov, which brought Jews from Soviet bloc, the Arab world, and other countries.

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Mossad Directors











Reuven Shiloah. 1949-1952 Isser Harel. 1952-1963 Meir Amit. 1963-1968 Zvi Zamir. 1968-1974 Yitzhak Hofi. 1974-1982 Nahum Admoni. 1982-1989 Shabtai Shavit. 1989-1996 Danny Yatom. 1996-1998 Efraim Halevy. 1998-2002 Meir Dagan. 2002-present

Reuven Shiloah (December 1909-1959) was the first Director of the Mossad from 1949 to 1952. Born in Ottoman ruled Jerusalem as Reuven Zaslanski, he would later shorten his last name to Zaslani and use the codeword Shiloah. From an Orthodox Jewish family and with a rabbi for a father, Shiloah abandoned the religious life of his family at an early age. In the mid-1930s he met Betty Borden of New York and the two were married in 1936. Shiloah was involved in Israeli political and defense matters since before its creation, and was a close friend of David Ben-Gurion. Before the 1948 Arab-Israeli War Shiloah obtained the invasion plans of the Arab League, and he began building relationships with other intelligence agencies, particularly in the West. At the urging of Shiloah, Prime Minister Ben-Gurion created the "Central Institute for Coordination" (Mossad) in December of 1949 and appointed Shiloah as its first Director. However, it was not until April 1, 1951 that the Mossad became operational under Shiloah because bureaucratic fighting had delayed Ben-Gurion's initial order. After his tenure at the Mossad Shiloah worked in the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC and continued serving as an advisor.

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Isser Harel (Born Isser Halperin on 1912, died 18 February 2003) was spymaster of the intelligence and the security services of Israel and the Director of the Mossad (1952 - 1963). Isser Harel was born in Vitebsk, Russia (now Belarus) to a large, wealthy family. The exact date of his birth was not passed on to him because the book of Gemara in which the date was recorded was lost in the migrations of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and World War I. The family had a vinegar factory in Vitebsk. It was a gift of his maternal grandfather, who had a concession to make vinegar in large parts of Tsarist Russia. Young Isser was five years old when the revolution broke out and Vitebsk passed several times between the Whites and the Reds. On one occasion he saw Leon Trotsky give a speech in the town. Isser and his family fell on hard times when the Soviet regime confiscated their property. In 1922 the family emigrated from the Soviet Union to Dvinsk in independent Latvia. On the way, Soviet soldiers stole their suitcases, which contained the rest of their possessions. In Dvinsk, Isser began his formal studies, completed primary school, and began secondary school. As he grew, a Jewish national consciousness grew within him and he joined a Zionist youth organization. When he was 16, Isser began preparations to immigrate to Israel. During this preparatory year he worked in agriculture with the aspiration to join a kibbutz. With the outbreak of the 1929 Hebron massacre, his friends decided to move up their immigration date in order to reinforce the Jewish settlement in Palestine. Documents were prepared for the 17-year-old Isser stating that he was 18 and eligible for a British visa. At the beginning of 1930 he immigrated to Israel. He crossed Europe from north to south to board a ship in Genoa, carrying a pistol that he concealed in a loaf of bread. He had one child, a daughter, from his first marriage. She currently works for the Shabak (General Security Service) in Israel. She did not serve in the Israeli Defense Forces but instead in the National Work Program which is an alternative for women who do not or cannot serve the mandatory 18 months in the I.D.F. On September 22, 1952, Harel became head of the Mossad. Harel became the first man to be given the Hebrew title of HaMemuneh (the responsible one), a reference to his unique position as the head of both Israeli civilian intelligence services, Mossad and Shabak. Harel was the head investigator in the 15 year manhunt for Adolf Eichmann. The hunt ended in May 1960, when the Mossad covertly kidnapped Eichmann from Argentina to Israel. Eichmann was the man responsible for technical coordination of the Final Solution in WWII, which resulted in the systematic murder of 6,000,000 Jewish people. Harel documented his 15 year investigation in "The House on Garibaldi Street". He was replaced as head of Mossad after it became known that many

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of his agents had misappropriated funds. Since then, Mossad agents working on foreign soil have to "earn" their money through business activities, which also enhances their cover. After leaving Mossad, Harel turned to politics. He joined David Ben Gurion's newly created National List prior to the 1969 elections, and was elected to the Knesset as the party won four seats. However, after Ben Gurion resigned from the party it began to disintegrate, with two of the MKs defecting to Likud and the other to the Alignment. As a result, Harel lost his seat in the 1973 elections.

Meir Amit (Born 17 March 1921) was the Director of the Mossad from 1963 to 1968. Born in Palestine during the British mandate, he fought for the Haganah during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. In the late 1950s Amit studied in the United States, earning a business degree from Columbia Business School. After returning to Israel, Amit entered the Israeli intelligence community, first as a Major General at the head of IDF Intelligence in 1961, and then as Mossad Director in 1963. As Director, he orchestrated some of the Mossad's greatest successes, including the spy Eli Cohen who penetrated the highest levels of the Syrian government. It was also during his time that the Mossad engineered the defection of a Maronite Iraqi pilot who flew the then new Mig-21 from Iraq to Israel. Amit is particularly known for his success in expanding Israel's human intelligence (HUMINT), especially in the Arab world. During the lead up to the Six-Day War in 1967, Amit had a network of informants that permeated the entire Egyptian military, providing key details for Israel's pre-emptive strike on Egyptian air bases and subsequent ground offensive. Amit also built close personal ties with the CIA. Since his retirement from the Mossad, he has continued to be an active voice in the intelligence community, and done work for the Israeli government. Following the lead of other former generals, Amit joined the Dash party and served in the Knesset. He is currently the chairman of Israel's Center for Special Studies. In a recent 2006 interview with reporter Aaron Klein, Amit assessed the current problem of Islamic terrorism. He said that he views the conflict as World War III, a widespread attempt to impose Islamic beliefs across the world. He has also called for the assassination of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who has repeatedly threatened to destroy Israel. In a 2008 interview with Klein, Amit advocated military action to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. The comments from Amit were considered significant since, until the interview, he had refused to support an attack against Iran.

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Zvi Zamir (Born Zvicka Zarzevsk, 1925) was a Major General in the Israel Defense Forces and the Director of the Mossad from 1968 to 1974. Born in Poland, Zamir immigrated with his family to the then British Mandate of Palestine when only seven months old. At the age of 18 Zamir began his military career, first as a soldier in the Haganah's Palmach, a unit that included future Israeli leaders among the likes of Moshe Dayan and Yitzhak Rabin. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Zamir fought in the newly created Israel Defense Forces. After the war he continued climbing the chain of command, eventually promoted to the Commander of the Southern Command. His final IDF post before being appointed Mossad Director came in 1966 when he was appointed the military attaché to London. During his tenure at the Mossad, he helped carry out Operation Wrath of God, the Israeli response to the Munich Massacre, and dealt with the lead-up to and aftermath of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. After the German government refused to accept an Israeli team during the Munich hostage crisis, Zamir was sent to observe the activities at the F.rstenfeldbruck airbase the night that the failed rescue attempt left all nine remaining Israeli hostages dead. Zamir was interviewed about the incident in 1999 when he spoke with the producer of One Day in September, a documentary on the massacre. In it he strongly criticized the German rescue effort for its complete lack of coordination. He had previously been interviewed on this subject for an NBC profile during their coverage of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and he has discussed the massacre several times since. Zamir currently resides in Zahala, Israel, just north of Tel Aviv. Zamir was played by Ami Weinberg in Steven Spielberg's 2005 movie Munich.

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Yitzhak Hofi (born 25 January 1927) was the director of Mossad from 1974 to 1982. Hofi was born in Tel Aviv. He joined the Haganah in 1944 and commanded a company in the Arab-Israeli War in 1948. He continued to serve in the Israeli Defense Forces in a variety of command, staff and training posts. He headed the Northern Command of the IDF during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. He was Acting Chief of Staff for a brief period in 1974, before retiring from the military and taking the post of director of Mossad. Before that he was a general in the Israeli Defense Forces in charge of the Northern Command. In July 1976, Hofi lobbied strongly for a rescue mission to be mounted to save the large number of Israeli passengers on a hijacked Air France airliner flown to Entebbe International Airport in Uganda. In order to facilitate the resulting Operation Entebbe, Hofi directed Mossad katsas to survey the airport, and used contacts in Kenyan intelligence to allow the refueling of Israeli planes in Nairobi on the return journey.

Nahum Admoni (born 1929) was the Director of the Mossad from 1982 to 1989. Born in Jerusalem to Polish immigrants, he fought in the 1948 ArabIsraeli War in the SHAI, the Haganah intelligence branch, and later in the newly created Israeli Defense Force Intelligence. After the war he went to the United States and studied at the University of California, Berkeley, returning to Israel in 1954. There he rejoined the Israeli intelligence community, working his way up the chain of command to be Mossad Director Yitzhak Hofi's deputy. During his service as Mossad Director, Admoni watched over the Jonathan Pollard affair, in which it was revealed that Israel was spying on the United States. He also endured the revelation of Israeli involvement in the Iran-Contra Affair and the public abduction of Mordechai Vanunu, who had revealed secrets of the Israeli nuclear weapons program to the British press. Along with a number of other embarrassing incidents involving careless mistakes by Mossad agents, Admoni retired in 1989. On August 28, 2006 he was appointed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to be chairman of an investigation committee, charged with investigating the actions of the government during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.

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Shabtai Shavit was the

Director General of the Mossad from 1989 to 1996. Shavit first joined the Israel Defense Forces, where he served in the Sayeret Matkal and from 1958 to 1959 he was the Military Governor of the Southern Command. He then joined the Mossad in 1964, where he worked his way up to his appointment as Director. After retiring from the Mossad he spent five years as CEO of Maccabi Health Services Group. Thereafter he became the chairman of the Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel in 2001, and also President and CEO of EMG Israel and Chairman of Athena. Shavit has also continued to work in government roles, including as Advisor to the Israeli National Security Council, Advisor to the Sub-Committee on intelligence of the Knesset, Committee on Foreign Affairs and National Security, and as a member of the N.Y.F.D. Task Force for Future Preparedness against Terrorism.

Danny Yatom (Born 15 March 1945) is a former Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Labour. Before that he was a Director of the Mossad security service. Yatom studied mathematics, physics and computer science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, gaining a BA. From 1963 to 1996 he served in the Israel Defense Forces and worked in the Sayeret Matkal anti-terrorism force, rising to the position of deputy commander, after which he moved to the Armor Corps and then became the head of the Israeli Central Command, ranked Major General. Between 1996 and 1998 he served as head of the Israeli Mossad, and between 1991 and 2001 he served as Prime Minister Ehud Barak's, Chief of Staff and security advisor. He then became a Knesset member and served in the 16th and 17th Knesset, from 2003 until June 2008, when he resigned from the Knesset and from Israeli politics. In 2003 he was elected to the Knesset on Labour's list, and served as head of the committee on foreign workers, as well as chairing the lobbies for enlisted soldiers and the West Bank barrier. He retained his seat in the 2006 elections and served as head of the West Bank barrier lobby. He retained his seat in the 2006 elections, but resigned from the Knesset on 30 June 2008, stating that

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he was "not willing to be part of a political reality in which basic values are trampled upon, such as leading by example, ethics, and integrity". He was replaced by Leon Litinski.

Efraim Halevy

(Born 1934) is a lawyer and an Israeli intelligence expert. He was the ninth director of Mossad and the 4th head of the Israeli National Security Council. Above all, he is remembered for his part in bringing about the peace treaty with Jordan. The special relationship he developed with King Hussein made it possible for Halevy to open Jordan to the awareness that only a peace agreement with Israel would extricate the Hashemite kingdom from the crisis after the Gulf War. Halevy was born in the United Kingdom to an established Orthodox Jewish family. He immigrated to Israel in 1948. He attended Ma'aleh, a religious high school in Jerusalem, and later, graduated (with commendation) in law. Between 1957 and1961 he was the editor of the journal Monthly Survey, published by the Chief Education Officer. In 1961, he began his work in the Mossad. In 1967, he was selected to the Chief Branches Forum. Halevy remained in the Mossad for the next 28 years, heading three different branches throughout. Between 1990 and1995, under the directorship of Shabtai Shavit, he served as deputy director and as head of the headquarters branch. In March 1998, he became the director of Mossad following the resignation of Danny Yatom. In 1996, he became the Israeli ambassador to the European Union in Brussels. Halevy served as the envoy and confidant of five Prime Ministers: Yitzhak Shamir, Yitzhak Rabin, Benjamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon. He took an active part in a special mission by Rabin in forging the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace. After the failure of the Mossad operation to assassinate Hamas leader Khaled Mashal in 1997, he took an active part in Benjamin Netanyahu's mission to return the Mossad men captured in Jordan, and to settle the crisis with the King of Jordan. On October 2002, he was appointed the second head of the National Security Council and an advisor to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. In June 2003, he resigned from this position after Dov Weisglass, the bureau chief of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, isolated and neutralized him and Prime Minister Sharon refrained from accepting his recommendations on a host of issues and went to teach at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of the book ‘The Role of the Intelligence Community in the Age of Strategic Alternatives for Israel’. He is known as a hard-headed pragmatist on issues involving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, willing to ruffle feathers on the right and the left, unlike many others in the intelligence establishment who are known to take more extreme ideological positions on these issues. Halevy believes that Israel should take up Hamas’s offer of a long-term truce and try negotiating, because the Islamic movement is respected by Palestinians and generally keeps its word, he said. He pointed to the cease-fire in attacks on Israel that Hamas declared two years ago and has largely

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honored. “They’re not very pleasant people, but they are very, very credible,” Halevy said. In 2006 he published the book Man in the Shadows, covering Middle Eastern history since the late 1980s.

Meir Dagan is an Israeli military officer and current Director of the Mossad. Born Meir Huberman in the Soviet Union in 1945, Dagan is the son of Holocaust survivors. Dagan's family immigrated to Israel in 1950 and settled in Bat Yam, a coastal city south of Tel Aviv. In 1963, Dagan enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and served in the paratrooper brigade. In the 1967 Six Day War, he commanded a company which fought in Sinai, and after that he participated in the fighting in the Golan Heights. Dagan was decorated with the Medal of Courage in 1971. In the early 1970s, Dagan commanded a temporarily-formed undercover commando unit, known as Sayeret Rimon, whose task it was to combat the increasing insurgent violence in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. It was the forerunner to other IDF Mistaravim units that were formed in the 1980s such as Sayeret Shimshon and Sayeret Duvdevan. The latter unit is the only one of its type that is at present still in operation. During the 1982 Lebanon War, Dagan commanded the Barak Armored Brigade, and after that served as the commander of the Israeli unit with a connection to Lebanon. As the commander of this unit Dagan learned of Unit 504, an Israeli intelligence unit which operates agents, and founded a similar unit in connection to Lebanon. In 1995, Dagan retired from the IDF. A year later, he was requested to return to public service by then Prime Minister of Israel, Shimon Peres. He was added to the Israeli Headquarters for Fighting Terror as Ami Ayalon's Deputy. When Ayalon received the position of head of the Shabak, Dagan became head of the Headquarters. At the end of the 90s, Dagan joined the Israeli General Staff, as head of the operations division and special advisor to the head of the General Staff. Dagan was appointed Director of the Mossad by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in August 2002, replacing outgoing Director Ephraim Halevy. He was reconfirmed until the end of 2008 by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in February 2007, and in June 2008 Olmert again extended his tenure until the end of 2009. In mid 2007 Dagan had a "spat with the Deputy Director N, who is thought to be a candidate for replacing Dagan in late 2008. Dagan restored his former deputy T to the post and Dagan is likely to recommend T as his replacement. During his military service Dagan was injured twice, and also won a decoration for his service. Dagan holds a B.A. in political science from the University of Haifa.


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