The Lavon affair was a failed Israeli covert operation, codenamed Operation Susannah, conducted in Egypt in the summer of 1954. As part of a false flag operation, a group of Egyptian Jews were recruited by Israeli military intelligence to plant bombs inside Egyptian-, American-, and British-owned civilian targets: cinemas, libraries, and American educational centers. The bombs were timed to detonate several hours after closing time. The attacks were to be blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood, Egyptian communists, "unspecified malcontents", or "local nationalists" with the aim of creating a climate of sufficient violence and instability to induce the British government to retain its occupying troops in Egypt's Suez Canal zone. The operation caused no casualties among the population, but resulted in the deaths of four operatives. The overseer of the operation allegedly informed the Egyptians, after which 11 suspected operatives were arrested. Two died by suicide after being captured, two were executed by the Egyptian authorities, two of them were acquitted at trial, and the remaining five received prison terms ranging from 7 years to life in prison.
General Staff Reconnaissance Unit, more commonly known as Sayeret Matkal, is the special reconnaissance unit (sayeret) of Israel's General Staff (matkal). It is considered one of the premier special forces units of Israel.
Isser Harel was spymaster of the intelligence and the security services of Israel and the Director of the Mossad (1952–1963). In his capacity as Mossad director, he oversaw the capture and covert transportation to Israel of Holocaust organizer Adolf Eichmann. Harel was the only individual in the history of the State of Israel to hold a position that consolidated both internal and external intelligence responsibilities.
David "Dado" Elazar was an Israeli senior military officer who was the ninth Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), serving in that capacity from 1972 to 1974. He was forced to resign in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War.
Aharon Yariv was a Russian-born Israeli politician and general. During his military career, he was the first chief of the IDF Command and Staff College (PUM), Chief of Staff of the Central Military District, commander of the Golani Brigade, and from 1964 to 1972 Head of the Military Intelligence Directorate (AMAN), playing a significant role in the preparation of the Six-Day War. After completing his military service, he was an adviser to the Prime Minister on combating terror, then a member of the Knesset from the Maarah bloc, Minister of Transport and Minister of Information of Israel. During this period, he became one of the co-authors of the Yariva-Shem-Tova formula, which lists the conditions for Israel's negotiations with the Palestinians. Leaving public office in 1975, two years later he created the Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, which he headed until his death.
Zvi (Zvika) Zamir was a senior figure in the Israeli defense establishment and an Israeli businessman. He served as Commander of the Southern Command from 1962–1965 and as Head of the Mossad from 1968–1974. He was also the CEO of Oil Refineries Ltd. from 1976–1990.
Yitzhak Hofi was a member of the Palmach, IDF General, chief of the Northern Command (Israel), and director of the Mossad.
Reuven Shiloah was one of the leaders of the Israeli Intelligence Community and one of its founders. He was the founder and the first head of Mossad.
Binyamin Gibli was the head of Israeli Military Intelligence from June 1950 to March 1955. Gibli was forced to resign in the wake of the Lavon Affair, a failed Israeli operation in Egypt in 1954.
The Israeli Intelligence Community is made up of Aman, Mossad and Shin Bet.
Aluf Amos Yadlin is a former general in the Israeli Air Force (IAF), Israel Defense Forces military attaché to Washington, D.C., and head of the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate (Aman).
Unit 8200 is an Israeli Intelligence Corps unit of the Israel Defense Forces responsible for clandestine operation, collecting signal intelligence (SIGINT) and code decryption, counterintelligence, cyberwarfare, military intelligence, and surveillance. Military publications include references to Unit 8200 as the Central Collection Unit of the Intelligence Corps, and it is sometimes referred to as Israeli SIGINT National Unit (ISNU). It is subordinate to Aman, the military intelligence directorate.
The Research Department is a unit in the IDF Directorate of Military Intelligence (Aman) that serves as the national assessor of intelligence in the State of Israel.
Aharon Ze'evi-Farkash is an Israeli general. He was the head of the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate (Aman) from 2002 to 2006.
Isser Be'eri was the director of the Haganah Intelligence Service in Israel and was responsible for helping to reorganise Israeli intelligence services in 1948, as well as ordering the execution of Meir Tobianski, who had been convicted of treason but was later found to have been innocent. He was the founding director of the Israeli Intelligence Department, which later became the Military Intelligence Directorate.
Ran Goren is a retired fighter pilot and Major General of the IDF, former Deputy Commander of the Air Force and Head of the Manpower Directorate.
Amnon Reshef is a retired IDF major general who served as 14th Brigade Commander in the Yom Kippur War and as Commanding General of the Armored Corps from 1979 to 1982. In 2014 he founded Commanders for Israel's Security (CIS).
The Devil's Advocate Unit " is a small unit in the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate. Its purpose is to evaluate intelligence assumptions and products in a professional and critical manner, including serving as the "Devil's advocate" or the "Ifcha Mistabra" function. This means examining unlikely scenarios and questioning common assumptions of the Research Department as well as proposing adversarial evaluations. The unit works as an independent part of the Research Department.
Unit 504 is one of a military intelligence unit of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responsible for clandestine and covert operations, counterintelligence, HUMINT, intelligence assessment, and military intelligence. They are also trained in CQB/CQC self-defense in emergency situations.
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.
