The history of Israel's intelligence services dates back to 1929, during the British Mandate in Palestine, many years before the declaration of an independent Jewish state. Conflicts with the Arab population, as well as contradictions with the British authorities, required intelligence assessment to prevent militant attacks on Jewish settlements and to ensure the illegal immigration of Jews into Palestine. It was at this time that the first Jewish intelligence service, the Shai, was established.
After the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948, the intelligence services were reorganized along British lines. As a result, the prototypes of the modern Israeli intelligence services emerged: Shin Bet (Hebrew שירות הביטחון הכללי) and AMAN (Hebrew אגף המודיעין) under the Ministry of Defense and the Political Directorate under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The establishment of the first foreign residences began.
Numerous tensions between the military and political intelligence services led to their reorganization according to American lines in 1951. It was then that the legendary Mossad (Hebrew המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים) was created, reporting directly to the Prime Minister and eventually gaining the power of the KGB and CIA. Isser Harel, who headed the Mossad from 1952 to 1963, also supervised all other intelligence services and became the No. 2 man in the state.
In 1957, the Lekem Bureau was established to protect nuclear facilities, as well as nuclear and then high-tech espionage. The bureau was later disbanded.
The history of Israeli intelligence is marked by both brilliant operations (the Eichmann's kidnapping, the infiltration of high-level illegal aliens, the recruitment of high-ranking officials, the liquidation of terrorists, the prevention of terrorist attacks) and serious problems (the "blindness" on the eve of the Yom Kippur War, the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the failure of agents, unsuccessful sabotage).
To this day, Israeli intelligence has three main services: Mossad, Shin Bet and Military Intelligence Directorate (AMAN) which function, despite some crises, and protect the state interests and security of Israel.
Background The first Jewish intelligence organization in Palestine was established in 1918, 30 years before the establishment of the State of Israel. The "Intelligence Bureau" was established by the "Council of Delegates" (Vaad Hatzirim), which regulated all activities of the Jewish community in Palestine. The Bureau was headed by Levi Yitzhak Schneorson, a former member of the Nili, an underground organization that informed the British Armed Forces about the state of the Ottoman army during World War I. The Bureau operated first from an office in Jaffa, then in Jerusalem. Its agents recruited informants who, for money, provided information on Arab leaders, nationalist groups, and others. Special attention was paid to gathering information about those who intended to harm Jews. The information was passed on to the "Council of Delegates" and sometimes to the British police.
British Mandatory in Palestine
The Shai foundation The history of Israel's intelligence services dates back to 1929, during the British Mandate in Palestine. The increase in Arab violence since 1920, and especially the mass pogroms of 1929, in which 133 Jews were killed and 339 wounded in one week, prompted the establishment of an information and intelligence service within the Jewish self-defense organization "Haganah". The creation of such a service, called "Information Service" (Hebrew שירות ידיעות) or abbreviated Shai (Hebrew ש"י), was initiated in 1929 by the National Committee and the Jewish Agency ("Sokhnut" — the prototype of the future government of Israel). In parallel, the political department of "Sokhnut" began its operational work. Its main directions were the collection of political and military information in the Near East and other countries, and the creation of a network of agents to monitor the Jewish population around the world.Ландер И. И. Палестина // Негласные войны. История специальных служб 1919—1945. Одесса: Друк, 2007. V. 1. p. 246.
Despite its best efforts, the Arab Revolt of 1936 took the Shai by surprise. Unlike previous acts of violence, the attacks were well-planned and centrally controlled. At the same time, the Shai had no intelligence processing center, so local agents acted independently and did not even coordinate information.
In April 1936, one of the commanders of the Jewish self-defense units "Haganah" asked Ezra Danin, who had extensive acquaintances among Arabs, to find out who had killed two unarmed Jews on April 15 on the road between the village of Anabta and the British camp of Nur Shams.Ландер И. И. Палестина // Негласные войны. История специальных служб 1919—1945. Одесса: Друк, 2007. V. 1. p. 247. At the same time, Ezra Danin recruited his first agent, an Arab who agreed to report anything he learned about the militants' plans to attack Jewish settlements.
Danin approached the political department of the Jewish Agency and proposed the creation of a network of agents among the Arabs. Six pounds sterling per month was allocated for this purpose. In the end, Danin paid the agents he recruited out of his own pocket. In late August 1936, at the height of the Arab revolt, Danin wrote a two-page memorandum proposing the creation of a special intelligence service in the Haganah and explaining why it was needed. Along with Danin, Reuven Shiloach (Zaslansky), who worked in the political department of the Jewish Agency, and Shaul Avigur (Meyerow), one of the leaders of the Haganah, participated in the creation of the intelligence service.
In the summer of 1940, an Arab department was established at Haganah headquarters, headed by Danin. His deputy was Shimshon Mashbetz. Almost simultaneously, a counterintelligence department (Rigul Negdi) was established to counter the infiltration of British agents into the Haganah, headed by Shaul Avigur and David Shaltiel.Ландер И. И. Палестина // Негласные войны. История специальных служб 1919—1945. Одесса: Друк, 2007. V. 3. p. 68.Shaltiel David — an article from the Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia Centralized collection and processing of information from regional staff was in place.
Danin saw his main task as developing a theory of intelligence work applicable to Palestinian conditions. It was he who formulated the key principle of Israeli intelligence: "Know your enemy". He asserted:We are not against all the Arabs in general, but against a very specific Arab. We have to know who he is. Some young man sits down on a hill or down in the valley and shoots, and we all scream and panic and jump into the trenches, whereas we should be dealing with a specific Ali or Mohammed. We should be identifying him and taking action against him. Danin counted 25 organizations and fields of activity in which Arabs and Jews worked together. For example, freight and shipping, telecommunications, railroads, journalism, municipalities, prisons, and British administrative offices. He proposed that Jewish workers recruit Arab agents there. This concept differed from British intelligence methods, which only sought potential informants in political, paramilitary, and subversive organizations.
Initially, "Sherut Yediot" consisted of three divisions: Internal Security (the so-called "Jewish Division"), Political (infiltration of the British authorities), and Arab. Three regional divisions were also planned, but at the time they existed only on paper.
Reorganization in 1942 In March 1942 the Shai was reorganized. It was stripped of its counterintelligence functions and removed from the structure of the military organs. The Shai was placed directly under the "Haganah" leadership and the "Jewish Agency" political department. Instead of Moshe Shertok, the entire Shai intelligence service was headed by Yisrael Amir, who had previously been in charge of arms procurement for the "Haganah". The organization operated under the guise of the "Soldiers' Welfare Committee" and was headquartered in Tel Aviv at 85 Ben Yehuda Street.Ландер И. И. Палестина // Негласные войны. История специальных служб 1919—1945. Одесса: Друк, 2007. V. 3. p. 71.
The political division was headed by Boris Guriel (Gurevich) from 1945, the Arab division was headed by Ezra Danin (who was the only professional in the organization), from 1945 his assistant instead of Mashbetz was Binyamin Gibli (future head of military intelligence) The Jewish division was headed by Joseph KrakovskyЛандер И. И. Палестина // Негласные войны. История специальных служб 1919—1945. Одесса: Друк, 2007. V. 3. p. 69. and by 1944 he was replaced by Isser Harel (future head of the Shi Bet and Mossad).
During World War II, a file cabinet on Arab extremists began to be created and was systematized by 1943. Open source intelligence gathering was organized, research into the demographics, economics and culture of the Arab community was initiated, and the interception of British and Arab telephone conversations was introduced. The last chief of the Shai was Lieutenant Colonel Isser Be'eri, who succeeded David Shaltiel as of February 1948.
At the same time, Reuven Shiloach formulated the goals and objectives of the Israeli intelligence services, which remain relevant to this day:The Arabs are the number one enemy of the Jewish community, and professional agents must be infiltrated into the Arab environment. Israeli intelligence must not be limited to Palestine. It must fulfill the role of the Jewish-Zionist guarantor of the security of Jews throughout the world. Covert activities should be based on modern technology, utilizing the latest advances in espionage, and maintaining links with friendly services in the U.S. and European countries. (Reuven Shiloah)Thus, by the time of the declaration of the State of Israel, the theoretical and personnel basis for the establishment of the intelligence services of the new state had been prepared.
1948-1951 period
Reorganization in 1948
With the beginning of the second phase of the Palestine war in May 1948, the network of informants created by Danin practically collapsed — the settlements were separated by the front line, and the Shai did not yet have radio transmitters. At the outbreak of the war, the entire Jewish secret service had 68 employees.
On June 7, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion summoned two Haganah officers he trusted, Reuven Shiloach and Isser Be'eri. The three decided to reorganize Israeli intelligence along British lines.
On June 30, Be'eri called a meeting at Shai's headquarters at 85 Ben-Yehuda Street in Tel Aviv. In addition to Be'eri himself, five top leaders of the organization were present: Avraham Kidron from the Galilee, David Karon from the Negev, Binyamin Gibli from Jerusalem, Isser Harel from Tel Aviv, and Boris Guriel, who headed the political directorate of the newly created Foreign Ministry. At this meeting, Be'eri announced that the "Old Man" (as Ben-Gurion was colloquially known) had decided to disband the Shai and reorganize the intelligence services.
Lt. Col. Be'eri headed the Military Intelligence (Sherut Modiin, Hebrew שירות מודיעין), with Chaim Herzog as his deputy. The counterintelligence service, called the "Israeli Security Agency", was headed by Isser Harel, and his deputy was Yosef Israeli of the Ministry of Defense. Both services were under the Ministry of Defense. Intelligence operations outside Israel were entrusted to the Political Directorate of the Foreign Ministry, in which a so-called "Research Department" (Mahleket ha-Mihkar) was established for this purpose under Boris Guriel.