On January 19, 2010, agents posing as tourists targeted Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mahout. Two of the agents disguised as tennis players followed him to his floor in five-star hotel in Dubai, in what police say was an attempt to note down his room number. Hours later, surveillance footage captured a woman and man standing guard in the hallway as the execution team ambushed al-Mahout in his room. The agents swiftly left Dubai and evaded capture, leading to widespread allegations that the operation was orchestrated by Israel and executed by Mossad.
Origins and Founding of Mossad1:20 Israel’s Intelligence Triad
Mossad was founded in 1949, the year after David Ben Groin proclaimed
the establishment of the state of Israel. After the horrors of the Holocaust, a
UN resolution in 1947 proposed the partition of Palestine, allocating56% of the
land to the Jewish state, which made up about one-third of the total
population. Six Arab states declared war on Israel, vowing to crush the Jewish
state. Israel won the war. In the aftermath, Jordan occupied the West Bank and
East Jerusalem, Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip And Israel ended up with 78% of
the land. Prime Minister Ben-Gurion understood that the key to the survival of
Israel lay in robust intelligence capabilities. Israel has three intelligence
agencies. Aman is responsible for military intelligence, gathering information
about enemy armies and other military threats. Shin Bet handles internal
security, focusing on preventing terrorism and espionage within Israel. Mossad
conducts foreign intelligence operations, specializing in espionage, covert
missions,and counter-terrorism outside Israel.
Recruitment and
Operations of Mossad
Recruiters look for candidates with specific qualities: reliability,
exceptional intelligence, and the abilityto become somebody else entirely. It
is believed that only 1 in1,000 candidates make the cut. Mossad reportedly
employs about 7,000people globally, making it one of the world’s largest
espionage agencies. David Ben-Gurion never uttered the names of Israel’s
intelligence agencies. Never acknowledged that they even existed. They were
shrouded in secrecy. That is, until the case of Adolf Eichman.
High-Profile
Operations: Adolf Eichman
One of the architects of the Holocaust,Eichman was captured
by Mossad agents in Buenos Aires in 1961, where he had been living under the
alias Ricardo Klement. Mossad captured him and brought him to Israel to stand
trial, where he was sentenced to death. The operation put Mossad on the map and
made headlines around the world, sending a clear message that Israeli agents
could strike anywhere. But targeting Nazi officials was not Mossad’s main
mission. Its main focus was on safeguarding the state of Israel against its
enemies.
Sabotaging Egypt’s
Missile Program
In the summer of 1962, Egypt’s president Gamal Abdel Nassar proudly
declared that his rockets were capable of reaching Israel. The agent Mossad
planted in Cairo, WolfgangLotz, who posed as a German horse breeder, had failed
to report the major progress in Egypt’s missile progran. Nasser's missile
program relied heavily on expertise from former Nazi scientists, like Heinz
Krug who managed logistics. In an effort to derail the program,Mossad targeted
key figures with parcel bombs that killed several Egyptian workers, but none of
the major players. When Krug returned to Munich, Mossad agents kidnapped him
and took him to Israel to be interrogated. He was never seen alive again. But
Egypt’s missile program was still very much alive. So, in May 1964, Mossad took
an unconventional approach to sabotage the program by making a deal with former
SS officer Otto Skorzeny. He was a prominent Nazi who had direct access to
leading figures in Egypt’s rocket program. Mossad promised protection in
exchange for his cooperation. By leveraging his contacts, Skorzeny persuaded
one German scientist after another to leave Egypt. This strategy proved
effective, and Egypt’s missile program came to a halt. However, Egypt soon
found a new source of support, as Soviet weapons began flowing into neighboring
Arab countries during the Cold War, to counter Western influence in the region.
Operation Diamond and
the MiG-21
The delivery of the modern Soviet combat jetthe MiG-21 to
Arab states alarmed Israel. Mossad devised a plan to find an Arab pilot willing
to defect and fly one of the jets to them. MiG-21 jet They persuaded Munir
Redfa, an Assyrian Christian in the Iraqi Air Force who faced discrimination, to
defect by offering him money and protection. Redfa agreed on one condition. He
wanted his entire extended family – 21people – be smuggled out of Iraq. Israel
agreed, and Operation Diamond successfully brought a MiG-21 into Western hands.
The Six-Day War and
Its Consequences
Leveraging its superior intelligence, Israel launched a
pre-emptive strike against Egypt, Jordan, and Syria on June 5, 1967, in
response to mobilization by its enemies. Israeli forces defeated the combined
Arab armies in six days. Israel took control of the West Bank from Jordan, the
Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, and the Golan Heights from Syria,
humiliating its Arab neighbors. Note to self: Israel withdrew from the Sinai
Peninsula in1982 as part of the peace treaty with Egypt. By the end of the
Six-Day War, Israel controlled four times as much land as it did in 1948. Thousands
of refugees left their homes in the wake of the six-day war to seek shelter in
the Arab-held lands east of the river. For many of them, Jordan had nothing to
offer but the squalor and the misery of the refugee camps. Young Palestinians
growing up in refugee camps became increasingly radicalized, a development
Mossad failed to anticipate.
The Rise of the PLO
and Fatah
The anger led to the rise of militant groups such as Fatah
“fuh-taw”, which eventually became the dominant faction within the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO). Yasser Arafat, who founded Fatah,vowed to wipe
Israel off the map. Mossad tried time and time again to assassinate Arafat, but
he managed to evade capture byhiding in neighboring Arab countries. Arafat
became the chairman of the PLO in 1969and focused on radicalizing Palestinians
in exile in Europe, establishing networks in universities and working-class
neighborhoods. In the 60s and 70s, the PLO carried out numerous terrorist
attacks in Europe and Israel to draw attention to the Palestinian cause, including
the shocking attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.
Munich Olympic Games
and Black September
On September 5, 1972, eight men with the Black September
organization, an offshoot of Fatah, infiltrated the Olympic Village and took 11
Israeli athletes hostage. The terrorists demanded the release of over 200 prisoners
held in Israeli jails. Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir rejected the demands
and instead offered to help Germany rescue the hostages. However, Germany
declined, insisting on handling the situation themselves. Mossad’s hands were
often tied as European intelligence services preferred to remain neutral in the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The German authorities pretended to agree to the terrorists'
demands to be flown to an Arab-friendly country. The plan was to stage a rescue
operation at the Fürstenfeldbruck airbase. However, it went horribly wrong as German
police were not trained snipers and were using outdated equipment, old rifles
without scopes. All 11 Israeli athletes were killed.
Mossad’s Retaliation
Campaign
In response, Mossad vowed to track down and eliminate those
responsible. Within a year, Mossad operatives tracked down and killed
Palestinians in Rome, Paris, Beirut, Athens, and Cyprus. But it also made mistakes,
like in Norway whenMossad agents mistakenly killed a Moroccan waiter whom they
misidentified as Ali Hassan Salameh,the alleged mastermind of the Munich
attack. Mossad ended up taking outSalameh in a car bomb years later. Mossad’s
strategy extended beyond retaliation and included fostering regional alliances,
exemplified by the adage, “My enemy’s enemy is my friend.” These connections
proved invaluable when Israelis were in danger far from home.
Operation Entebbe: A
Daring Rescue
On June 27, 1976, a splinter group of the PLO hijacked an
Air France jet with 260 people on board and re-routed into Uganda. 248
passengers and 12 crew members The hijackers released passengers who didn’t
appear to be Jewish but continued to hold 106 others, including crew members, demanding
the release of Palestinian prisoners. Although Uganda’s dictator, Idi Amin, was
no longer Israel’s ally, Uganda had in the past provided Israel with critical
intelligence on the airport’s facilities. An Israeli company had built the airport,
giving Israel access to detailed blueprints. And a Mossad agent posing as an
amateur pilot had recently taken aerial photographs of the airport. Operation
Entebbe, led by Jonathan Netanyahu, the brother of future Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was an outrageously bold operation. The rescue
team flew in alpine camouflaged to look like a commercial aircraft to avoid
detection. The aircraft refueled in Kenya, another crucial ally, whose support
was vital for the mission’s success. During the raid, Jonathan Netanyahu was
killed, along with 45 Ugandan soldiers and three hostages who died in the
crossfire. One rescued hostage, Dora Bloch, who was later hospitalized after choking
on a chicken bone, was shot dead on Idi Amin’s orders. Despite the losses, the
operation was a success, underscoring Mossad’s ability to leverage its
intelligence networks and alliances to execute daring operations.
Intelligence
Failures: The Yom Kippur War
But Mossad’s reputation would soon take a hit. In 1970,
Egypt saw a new president come into power, Anwar Sadat. Sadat publicly
threatened to reclaim the Sinai Peninsula, but Israel didn’t take him
seriously. Mossad’s informant, Ashraf Marwan, who was married to the daughter
of Egypt’s former president Nasser, had not alerted them to the threat. Married
to daughter Mona some believe Marwan became an informant because of the
disrespect he felt from Nasser, who allegedly disapproved of the marriage. In
the fall of 1973, Israel’s military intelligence observed Egyptian and Syrian
troop movements along the borders but dismissed them as routine, believing
Marwan would have warned them if an attack were imminent. When Marwan did send
an urgent message warning that Egypt planned to attack within hours on Yom
Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, Mossad was skeptical. Israel’s
hesitation proved costly. Although Israel won the Yom Kippur War, it suffered
massive losses. Over 2,600 Israeli soldiers were killed. Marwan’s identity as a
Mossadinformant was exposed 30 years later. In 2007, he mysteriously fell to his
death from his balcony in London.
The Camp David
Accords
In the years following the war, Egypt and Israel began to
mend their relationship. By negotiating peace with Israel, Egypt aimed to
improve its relations with the U.S., a key ally of Israel, and breakaway from
Soviet influence. During secret negotiations, Israel’s foreign minister Moshe
Dayan, made a covert trip to Morocco, where he was seen wearing dark glasses
instead of his trademark black eyepatch. Later, Anwar Sadat became the first
Arab head of state to visit Israel and speak before the Knesset, Israel’s House
of Representatives. U.S. President Jimmy Carter hosted the tough talks between
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President al-Sadat,
resulting in the Camp David Accords and the signing of historic peace treaty on
March 26, 1979. Israel agreed to withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt
officially recognized the State of Israel, becoming the first Arab country to
do so. The landmark agreement shocked the Arab world. Sadat’s bold move led to Egypt’s
expulsion from the Arab League and, tragically, his assassination three years
later. The treaty marked a pivotal moment in Middle Eastern history, showcasing
Mossad’s ability to not only wage war but broker peace.
Iran: From Ally to
Adversary
However, the regional landscape shifted dramatically with
the adventive the Iranian Revolution. Iran had been one of Israel’s secret
allies since the 1950s under the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Iran sold
oil to Israel, and in return, Mossad provided internal security support and military
intelligence training. Then, in 1978, huge protests erupted, led by Islamic
cleric Ayatollah Khomeini who was in exile first in Iraq and then in Paris. The
Shah, facing mounting pressure, appealed to Mossad to assassinate Khomeini, but
Israel refused out of concern for regional stability. Eventually, the
revolution broke out, and Iran’s secret police lost control. The Shah fled the
country, and Khomeini returned to establish a theocracy, executing military generals
and solidifying his rule. Iran, once Israel’s critical partner in the region,
now became its greatest adversary. Iran openly declared its goal of
annihilating Israel, which delighted the PLO under Yasser Arafat, who found
common cause with the new Iranian regime in their opposition to both the U.S.
and Israel.
Mossad’s Role in
Lebanon
Mossad aimed to dismantle the PLO, which had established a
base in Lebanon after being expelled from Jordan. Palestinian refugee camps in
southern Lebanon were increasingly infiltrating Israeli territory. Israeli
Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Defense Minister Ariel Sharon aimed to purge theology
from Lebanon with a military strike. However, they needed to be able to justify
invading a foreign country. The attempted assassination of Israel’s ambassador
to the UK, Shalom Argo, by a radical Palestinian faction, provided them within
excuse, despite the PLO not being involved. Mossad allied with Lebanon’s
Christian militias, which saw the PLO as a mutual enemy, thoughMossad had doubts
about their reliability. On June 6, 1982, Israeli soldiers invaded Lebanon in
hopes of destroying the PLO and installing a pro-Israeli regime. Two months
after the invasion, theology retreated, and Bashir Gmail, leader of the
Christian militias, became the new president. However, his assassination three months
later plunged Lebanon back into civil war, which confirmed Mossad’s fears about
the Christian militias’ reliability. The catastrophe in Lebanon forced Prime Minister
Begin and Defense Minister Sharon to resign, with Mossad also facing criticism
for misjudging the situation.
Rescue Operations:
Ethiopian Jews
Mossad’s mission extended beyond warfare; it was committed to protecting Jewish
lives wherever they were in peril. In
the early 1980s, tens of thousands of Ethiopian Jews were at risk of violence
and hunger Thousands had fled to refugee
camps in neighboring Sudan. Mossad
was tasked with bringing them to Israel.
But the operation had to be carried out in secret as Sudan’s dictator,
Jaafar an-Nimeiry, needed to
maintain a public stance of opposition to Israel to avoid political backlash. Mossad operatives disguised as European
and American staff set up a diving resort
on the Sudanese coast, where they managed it by day and smuggled Jews out
by night, transporting them by boat
across the Red Sea to Israel. When
smuggling by boat became too risky, the
refugees were secretly airlifted out of the country.
The First Intifada
and Oslo Accords
New challenges soon emerged for Israel. In the late 1980s,
anger in Gaza, which Israel had occupied for over 20 years, erupted into
violence. This led to a mass uprising called the Intifada, which caught Mossad
off guard. As the violence escalated and Israel intensified its efforts to
suppress the Palestinian uprising, demands for a diplomatic solution grew
louder within Israel. In 1993, Israelis and Palestinians met on neutral ground
in Oslo, Norway, to discuss a possible compromise. Israel agreed to withdraw
its troops from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, transferring these territories
to Palestinian self-government. Remarkably, Yasser Arafat, the head of the PLO
who had earlier vowed to wipe Israel off the map, now recognized Israel's right
to exist. The peace treaty was signed in Washington, and both Israeli Prime
Minister and Arafat received the Nobel Peace Prize the following year. However,
the peace process faced significant challenges.
Targeting Hamas
Leadership
Arafat no longer spoke for all Palestinians, and the PLO
struggled to maintain peace as a new radical force emerged. Founded by Sheikh
AhmadYassin during the Intifada, Hamas remained steadfast inits goal of destroying
Israel. Israel had expected the PLO to rein in Hamas, but the PLO was slow to
act, allowing Hamas to grow stronger and launch a devastating wave of suicide bombings
against Israeli cities. In 1996, Israel’s new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu,
came to power with a mandateto pursue a policy of strength. Netanyahu
instructed Mossad to target key Hamas leaders in order to stop the attacks. In
the summer of 1997, Mossad'sfirst target was Khaled Mashaal, the then chief of Hamas
‘politburo in Amman, Jordan. The plan was to poison him in broad daylight to
make it appear as though he died of natural causes, avoiding disrupting the good
relationship between Israel and Jordan. As Mashal walked with his children and
bodyguard, two Mossad agents posing as Canadian tourists sprayed Fentanyl in
his ear. However, Mashaal's bodyguard intervened, andthe Mossad agents were
exposed and captured. King Hussein of Jordan was appalled by theincident and
warned that if Mashaal died, he would face a Palestinian uprising and haveno
choice but to execute the Israeli operatives. Israel agreed to provide theantidote
to save Mashaal's life. Khaled Mashal survived and became Hamas' new leader. Suicide
attacks in Israel persisted, culminating in the second Intifada, which saw a
significant rise in violence. As Israel faced ongoing attacks, anew and
powerful adversary emerged.
Countering Iran’s
Nuclear Ambitions
Iran was frustrated by its exclusion from Middle East peace
negotiations. It increased its aid to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and
established a network among Israel’s enemies. Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria
and supporting Shitte Hezbollah militia in Lebanon with arms, money, and
fighters In 2002, Meir Dagan, the new head of Mossad,identified Iran as
Israel’s main adversary. He reformed the agency with more aggressive approach. Under
Dagan's leadership, Mossad focused on dismantling anti-Israeli terror networks
and countering Iran’s nuclear program. Iran maintained its nuclear program was
strictly for civilian purposes, but Israel perceived a significant threat. Mossad
analysts believed that Iran could develop nuclear weapons within a few years. Israel
wasn’t going to let that happen; it was the only country in the Middle East with
nuclear weapons and wanted to keep it that way. But Mossad ruled out an
airstrike on Iran’s nuclear facilities as it could have drastic repercussions. Instead,
it tried to cripple Iran’s nuclear program with a computer worm. The covert
operation believed to involve the CIA and Mossad, spread the Stunt worm to computer
sat Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility. Stuxnet targeted the centrifuges that produced
enriched uranium, causing them to burn out.
I did a video on Stuxnet, which I’ve linked in my description The
operation disrupted Iran’s nuclear program, but concerns remained, leading to
thisfamous 2012 UN speech by Netanyahu: Where should a red line be drawn? Ared line
should be drawn right here. In 2015, Iran signed a long-term agreement with the
U.S. under the Obama administration to curb its nuclear activity in exchange
for sanctions relief. However, in 2018, Mossad obtained documents that
allegedly showed Iran was still pursuing its nuclear program, leading President
Trump to cancel the agreement. Since World War II, Israel has reportedly been
responsible for more assassinations than any other Western country, with
estimates suggesting it has carried out at least 2,700 assassinations.
Recent Challenges:
The 2023 Hamas Attack
Yet, there are limits to Israel’s intelligence gathering. On
October 7, 2023, during music festival in southern Israel, Hamas launched a
surprise attack from the Gaza Strip, killing 364 people. Israel and Hamas
engaged in intense fighting, resulting in thousands of casualties. The surprise
attack represented stunning failure of Israeli intelligence, which has been
crucial to Israel’s strength and survival until now. The reasons behind the
lapse will be the subject of intense scrutiny and analysis by Israel and its
allies for years to come. Being chosen to be a Mossad
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