Mossad | History & Functions (2024)

Mossad, (Hebrew: “Central Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations”), one of the three major intelligence organizations of Israel, along with Aman (military intelligence) and Shin Bet (internal security). The Mossad is concerned with foreign intelligence gathering, intelligence analysis, and covert operations.

Formally established in December 1949 as the Institute for Co-ordination, the Mossad was the successor to the intelligence arm of the Haganah (the Jewish military force in Palestine during the British mandate period). Reuven Shiloah, who had been involved in special operations and secret diplomacy during the pre-state period, served as the first director. Bureaucratic conflicts hampered the new agency in its early days; it took more than a year for the agency to become operational, and it suffered an early embarrassment in 1951 when an Israeli spy ring in Baghdad was exposed and intelligence officers were arrested.

Shiloah retired in 1952 and was replaced by Isser Harel, who had previously served as the head of Shin Bet. Harel was credited with building the Mossad into a highly professional organization capable of conducting operations around the world during his 11-year tenure (1952–63). One high-profile success, the capture in 1960 of former Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina by a Mossad team and his exfiltration to Israel to stand trial for war crimes, demonstrated the agency’s proficiency and confidence in high-risk operations.

The Mossad maintains numerous Israeli secret agents in Arab and other nations. The most famous of these was Eli Cohen, an Egyptian-born Jew who infiltrated the highest ranks of the Syrian government by posing as a Syrian businessman before being discovered and executed in 1965.

The Mossad and its operatives have carried out undercover operations against enemies of Israel and former Nazi war criminals living abroad. Mossad agents tracked down and assassinated the Arab guerrilla leaders responsible for the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, and the Mossad has also been linked with several assassinations of Palestinian leaders in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.