Mossad: Difference between revisions

{{short description|National intelligence agency of Israel}}

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==History==

 

 

In the 1990s, [[Aliza Magen-Halevi]] became the highest-ranking woman in Mossad's history when she served as the agency's deputy director under [[Shabtai Shavit]] and [[Danny Yatom]].<ref name="Ynet">{{cite news |last1=Shoan |first1=Amir |title='If she wants to, a woman can head the Mossad' |url=https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5064777,00.html |access-date=29 August 2023 |work=[[Ynet]] |date=2018-02-01}}</ref>

 

==Organization==

 

===Personnel===

A '''katsa''' is a field [[intelligence (information gathering)|intelligence]] officer of the Mossad.<ref>{{cite news |title=Mossad's licence to kill |date=17 February 2010 |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/7254807/Mossads-licence-to-kill.html }}</ref> The word ''katsa'' is a Hebrew acronym for {{lang-he|קצין איסוף|ktsin issuf}}, "intelligence officer", literally "gathering officer". A katsa is a [[case officer]] who runs agents to clandestinely collect intelligence.

 

 

==Directors==

 

==Alleged operations==

 

=== Operation Harpoon ===

 

=== Africa ===

====Egypt====

* Provision of intelligence for the cutting of communications between Port Said and Cairo in 1956.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}

* After a tense May 25, 1967, confrontation with [[CIA]] Tel Aviv station chief John Hadden, who warned that the United States would help defend Egypt if Israel launched a surprise attack, Mossad director [[Meir Amit]] flew to Washington, D.C. to meet with U.S. Defense Secretary [[Robert McNamara]] and reported back to the Israeli cabinet that the United States had given Israel "a flickering green light" to attack.<ref name="israel_attack_iran_nyt">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/magazine/will-israel-attack-iran.html?pagewanted=all|title=Will Israel Attack Iran?|last=Bergman|first=Ronen|newspaper=The New York Times|date=25 January 2012|access-date=2 March 2012}}</ref>

* Provision of intelligence on the [[Egyptian Air Force]] for [[Operation Focus]], the opening air strike of the [[Six-Day War]].

 

Mossad informed the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] and CIA in August 2001 that, based on its intelligence, 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 the FBI that it had picked up indications of a "large-scale target" in the United States and that Americans would be "very vulnerable".<ref name="latimes2001">[http://articles.latimes.com/2001/sep/20/news/mn-47840 Officials Told of ‘Major Assault’ Plans].</ref> However, "It is not known whether U.S. authorities thought the warning to be credible, or whether it contained enough details to allow counter-terrorism teams to come up with a response." A month later, terrorists struck at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon [[September 11 attacks|in the largest terrorist attack in history]].<ref name="latimes2001"/>

 

====Uruguay====

The sending of [[letter bombs]] to PFLP member [[Bassam Abu Sharif]] in 1972. Sharif was severely wounded, but survived.<ref>Guerin, Orla. "[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/2072849.stm Arafat: On borrowed time]", ''BBC News'', June 29, 2002. Retrieved October 27, 2006.</ref>

 

 

The provision of intelligence and operational assistance in the 1973 [[1973 Israeli raid on Lebanon|Operation Spring of Youth]] special forces raid on [[Beirut]].

[[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.<ref name=bs>[http://intellit.muskingum.edu/israel_folder/israelplumbat.html ISRAEL The Plumbat Operation (1968)] retrieved 10/12/2008</ref>

 

 

The alleged targeted killing of [[Wadie Haddad]], using poisoned chocolate. Haddad died on 28 March 1978, in the [[German Democratic Republic]] supposedly from leukemia. According to the book ''Striking Back'', published by Aharon Klein in 2006, Haddad was eliminated by Mossad, which had sent the [[chocolate]]-loving Haddad [[Belgian chocolate]]s coated with a slow-acting and undetectable poison which caused him to die several months later. "It took him a few long months to die", Klein said in the book.<ref name=smh8may>{{cite news|title=Israel used chocs to poison Palestinian|url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Israel-used-chocs-to-poison-Palestinian/2006/05/08/1146940441701.html|access-date=27 February 2013|newspaper=SMH|date=8 May 2008}}</ref>

{{Further|Israel-New Zealand relations|Foreign espionage in New Zealand}}

In July 2004, New Zealand imposed [[International sanctions|diplomatic sanctions]] on Israel over an [[2004 Israel–New Zealand passport scandal|incident]] in which two Australia-based Israelis, Uriel Kelman and Eli Cara, who were allegedly working for Mossad, attempted to fraudulently obtain [[New Zealand passport]]s 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.<ref name="NZ_Herald_10332767">{{cite news|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10332767 |title=Israeli government apologises to New Zealand|date=June 26, 2005|agency=[[NZPA]]|work=[[The New Zealand Herald]]|access-date=October 26, 2011}}</ref> Both Kelman and Cara served half of their six-month sentences and, upon release, were [[deportation|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 apprehended.<ref name="NZ_Herald_3596863">{{cite news|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/israeli-spy-case/news/article.cfm?c_id=606&objectid=3596863|title=At home with the Mossad men|author=Hallel, Amir|date=October 2, 2004|work=[[The New Zealand Herald]]|access-date=October 26, 2011}}</ref>

 

==In popular culture==

(Alphabetical by show)

* [[Tehran (TV series)|Tehran]] (2020–present) is a spy thriller television series about a Mossad agent working undercover in Iran.

* In the TV series ''[[Covert Affairs]]'' (2010–2015), Mossad agent Eyal Lavin is a recurring character.

* ''[[The Spy (TV series)|The Spy]]'' (2019) is a web television miniseries on the life of top Mossad spy [[Eli Cohen]].

 

* ''[[The Spy Machine]]'' (1998), a British documentary special about the work of the Mossad

* [[Unit 8200]], [[Israeli Intelligence Corps]] SIGINT and cyber unit

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[[Category:Mossad| ]]

[[Category:Government agencies established in 1949]]

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[[Category:Israeli intelligence agencies]]

[[Category:1949 establishments in Israel]]