Israel's Intelligence Agency and Operational Mechanism

Israel's Intelligence Agency

When it comes to Israel's intelligence agencies, one has to mention the famous Mossad. This intelligence agency is located in a very inconspicuous old brown building on the seashore at the southern end of Tel Aviv, Israel. It was formally established in early 1951 and was originally part of the Political Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since the establishment of Mossad, it has affected the structure of its own country and even the East and West world with a series of shocking intelligence operations.

However, what most people do not know is that Mossad is not the only intelligence agency in Israel. Mossad is mainly responsible for external intelligence work. It was formerly known as the "Haganah", a secret military organization that was active in the Palestinian area before Israel's independence. Shin Bet is mainly responsible for the security work in Israel, including the occupied areas of Israel. Aman is mainly responsible for foreign military intelligence reconnaissance, analysis, counter-reconnaissance and military intelligence operations.

If the three major intelligence agencies of Israel correspond to those of the United States, Mossad is equivalent to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States; Shin Bet is equivalent to the FBI of the United States; Aman is equivalent to The National Security Agency (NSA), part of the Department of Defense.

In addition to the three major intelligence agencies, Israel also has the Intelligence Intelligence Research Department led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is mainly responsible for completing the reconnaissance and analysis of diplomatic intelligence; the Scientific Liaison Bureau is responsible for the reconnaissance and analysis of scientific and technological intelligence; the Public Security Bureau and the Criminal Investigation Bureau under the Ministry of Police are responsible for the management of domestic public security intelligence.

Operational Mechanism of Israel's Intelligence Agency

In terms of leadership system, Mossad has been directly under the command of the Prime Minister since its inception, and all other domestic institutions cannot issue orders to it. And they are only goal-oriented, basically there will not be too many administrative constraints. Mossad can not be restricted by Israel's democratic system, because there is no Israeli law to regulate the purpose and significance of its existence. It can be understood that the Mossad is an independent institution excluded from Israel's constitution.

Mossad's activities are very extensive, and anything that involves Israel's national security falls within its boundaries. Mossad's intelligence gathering capabilities are also very strong, and overseas lurking agents mainly enter the core and secret departments of the country where they are located to steal information. The stolen information is used to maintain a strong force to deal with the crisis of national survival in the geopolitical aspect caused by the hostility of the Arab countries; at the same time, the political information obtained is used to assist Israel's foreign policy decisions.

With the above advantages, Mossad has become the second largest intelligence unit in the Western world, second only to the CIA. Compared with Israel's national strength, the construction of Mossad's intelligence system has a certain scale and has a very complete governance structure. In addition to the Mossad directly obeying the Prime Minister, the cabinet directly leads the Shin Bet, engaged in domestic intelligence defense work and other tasks; Aman, which is directly led by the Ministry of Defense, not only conducts reconnaissance, design, and analysis of military intelligence, but also expands its business scope to political, economic, technological, cultural and other fields.

It can be clearly seen from the leadership system of the above three major intelligence agencies that Mossad has a higher status in Israel's intelligence organization and is only responsible to the country's top leaders. And this can also explain from the side why Mossad's global popularity is far greater than other intelligence organizations in the country.