Sun-Tzu wrote that “military affairs are vital political concerns of the country,” and to do that requires good intelligence-gathering agencies, and if you have fewer resources than your enemies, the most vital information goes to your cause. The nation of Israel has that same problem, and with enemies willing to fight for centuries, every blow has to count. Like many nations today, Israel has to deal with fanatical and conventional military threats in its mists and from outside its country. In any conflict, training is important and the Mossad values it and continually improves it to deal with new enemies.
Mossad, which is Hebrew for “institute,” was created to help better coordinate Israel’s intelligence-gathering agencies, and its responsibilities include human intelligence gathering, covert paramilitary actions and counter-terrorism operations. The agency was heavily influenced by the CIA model and quickly produced results for the new nation. The agency’s roots began in the Mossad Le’aliyah Bet, which was dedicated to bringing Jews to Palestine despite British immigration laws that restricted the number of immigrants in the region, but once Israel became a nation , the group’s focus shifted to intelligence work. Reuven Shiloah became the first Director of the Mossad and would win the Arab League in the first Arab-Israeli War. Over the years, the agency has had plenty of critics, but few question the fact that they do their job well.
Today, the Mossad headquarters is in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv and employs an unknown number of agents, but there are believed to be 8 departments and over 1,000 active agents. Among the agency’s departments is the Special Operations Division, which deals with assassinations, sabotage and psychological warfare. Other departments handle aspects of intelligence work, including maintaining diplomatic relations with Israel’s enemies, and the agency has its own research and development departments, but like all the others, little is known about its operations.
Since Israel had conscription, it is safe to assume that most of its agents have been trained in hand-to-hand combat and many have combat experience. The Israeli martial art Krav Maga is taught to officers for self-defense, as well as knife fighting and sentry elimination. Many veterans of the agency worked as commandos in the Israel Defense Forces, so their operations have been influenced by this experience, as well as the street fighting they have had to do over the years.
A Mossad case officer or katsa spends three years training at the Mossad academy near the town of Herzliya. There they learn to recruit intelligence assets and avoid enemy agents. They are believed to operate in the Middle East and Europe, but some believe they operate in the United States as well, and prior to the 9/11 attack, the Mossad warned the United States that some 200 enemy terrorists were in the country, although not they did it. know specifically what they were doing.
The truth is still in the shadows when it comes to many operations, but agents have used bombs, bullets and even kidnapped people to achieve their goals, and only recently has the state officially banned torture. Operations have involved everything from hunting down Nazi war criminals to hunting down and killing terrorists. During the Six-Day War in 1967, Israeli intelligence was responsible for helping to destroy much of Egypt’s air force, but also provoked the attack on the United States Navy technical research ship, the USS Liberty. . Like any intelligence agency, its failures are public and its successes are private, but overall the Israelis are on top of the game. Like martial arts, intelligence is a force multiplier that allows you to do more damage with less, and Israel will always be at a disadvantage, but that doesn’t mean it can’t win.