Few intelligence organizations in the world evoke as much fascination, fear, admiration, and controversy as the Mossad. Officially known as HaMossad leModi’in uleTafkidim Meyuhadim , “The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations”. Mossad is Israel’s foreign intelligence service. Since its founding, it has operated largely in secrecy, yet its actions have repeatedly altered the course of Jewish and Israeli history.

Mossad was not created for conquest or empire. It was created for survival.

Mossad was officially founded on December 13, 1949, barely a year after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The young Jewish state was surrounded by hostile enemies, had no strategic depth, and carried the fresh trauma of the Holocaust,  the systematic murder of six million Jews while the world largely looked away.

Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion understood a painful truth: Israel could never afford to be blind. Intelligence failures would not mean defeat; they would mean annihilation.

Ben-Gurion appointed Reuven Shiloah as Mossad’s first director. The organization was tasked with gathering intelligence abroad, conducting covert operations, protecting Jewish communities worldwide, and ensuring that threats to Israel were neutralized often before they reached Israeli borders.

From the beginning, Mossad operated under a guiding principle that still defines it today:

“Never again.”

Unlike many intelligence agencies, Mossad’s mandate has always been global. Its agents operate far beyond Israel’s borders, often without diplomatic cover, blending into foreign societies with extraordinary skill. They are linguists, psychologists, engineers, cyber experts, and operatives trained to work alone if necessary.........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)