The Israeli Secret Services and the Struggle Against Terrorism

by Ami Pedahzur

  10 Barry R. Posen, The Sources of Military Doctrine: France, Britain, and Germany Between the World Wars (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1984); Ganor, The Counter-Terrorism Puzzle, 251-265; John W. Soule, “Problems in Applying Counterterrorism to Prevent Terrorism,” 31-46; Brian Martin, “Instead of Repression,” 62; Jonathan Stevenson, “Pragmatic Counter-terrorism,” Survival 43, no. 4 (2001): 35-48; Jordan J. Paust, “Executive Plans and Authorizations to Violate International Law Concerning Treatment and Interrogation of Detainees,” Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 43, no. 3 (2005): 811-863; Philip Rumney, “The Effectiveness of Coercive Interrogation: Scholarly and Judicial Responses,” Crime, Law and Social Change 44, no. 4-5 (December 2005): 465-489; Dov Waxman, “Terrorizing Democracies,” Washington Quarterly 23, no. 1 (Winter 2000-2001): 15-19; Herb Keinon, “Civil Rights vs. Security,” Jerusalem Post, September 10, 1999; Elizabeth S. Silker, “Terrorists, Interrogation, and Torture: Where Do We Draw the Line?” Journal of Legislation 31, no. 1 (2004): 191-215; Yaakov Peri, Strike First (Tel Aviv: Keshet, 11999), 150-152; Ephraim Halevy, “On the Right for Renunciation and Duty for Loyalty,” in Hezi Karmel, ed., Intelligence for Peace (Tel Aviv: Yedioth Ahronoth and Hemed, 1998), 194-197; Yehoshafat Harkabi, “Tangled Between Intelligence and Captain,” in Avi Kober and Zvi Ofer, eds., Intelligence and National Security (Tel Aviv: Maarachot, 1987), 439-453; Shlomo Gazit, “Assessment of Intelligence and Captain,” in ibid., 459-469; Ephraim Halevy, Man in the Shadows: Inside the Middle East Crisis with a Man Who Led Mossad (Tel Aviv: Matar, 2006), 146-151.

  11 Richard K. Betts, Enemies of Intelligence: Knowledge and Power in American National Security (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007); Terry Terriff, “Innovate or Die: Organizational Culture and the Origins of Maneuver Warfare in the United States Marine Corps,” Journal of Strategic Studies 29, no. 3 ( June 2006): 480; Michael Eisenstadt, “Israel’s Approach to Special Operations,” Special Warfare ( January 1994): 22-29; Ariel Levite, “The Gulf War: Tentative Military Lessons for Israel,” in Joseph Alpher, ed., War in the Gulf: Implications for Israel (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1992), 148; Reuven Shapira, “Continuous Struggle for Prestige Gone Public,” Haaretz, December 21, 1997; Moshe Zonder, The Elite Unit of Israel ( Jerusalem: Keter, 2000), 302-303.

  12 Stephen Peter Rosen, Winning the Next War: Innovation and the Modern Military (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1991).

  13 The method of researching intelligence, including the research of intelligence organizations, is based on the study of official documents, news articles, books, and position papers that deal with various aspects of intelligence. Since the intelligence field deals with subjects that are hidden from the public eye, there is an extensive use of profile interviews with people who played key roles in the intelligence community, both in the past and present. They can provide a glimpse into the intelligence world. Among the books in the intelligence field that use this method are Alfred Maurer, Marion D. Tunstall, and James M. Keagle, Intelligence: Policy and Process (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1985); Jeffrey Richelson, Foreign Intelligence Organizations (Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger, 1988); Wesley K. Wark, Espionage: Past, Present, Future? (Ilford, UK: Frank Cass, 1994); Michael Herman, Intelligence Power in Peace and War (Cambridge: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1997); and Mark M. Lowenthal, Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2000).

  CHAPTER ONE THE EMERGENCE OF ISRAEL’S COUNTERTERRORISM DOCTRINE

  1 Yoav Gelber, Growing a Fleur-de-Lis: The Intelligence Services of the Jewish Yishuv in Palestine, 1918–1947 (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense, 1992), 1:14-27; Asa Lefen, The Roots of the Israeli Intelligence Community (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense, 1997), 21; Efraim Dekel, The Story of Shai (Tel Aviv: Davar, 1953), 144-145.

  2 Zvi El-Peleg, “‘The Arab Revolt’: Causes, Development, and Results,” in Mordechai Naor, ed., Days of Wall and Stone (1936–1939) ( Jerusalem: Yad Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, 1987); Yehuda Lapidot, The Birth of an Underground: Etzel in the 1930s (Tel Aviv: Brith Hayalei Etzel, 2001); Ezra Danin, Zionist in Every Condition ( Jerusalem: Kidum, 1987), 147; Celia E. Rothenberg, “A Review of the Anthropological Literature in English on the Palestinian ‘Hamula’ and the Status of Women,” Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies 2 (1998-99): 24-48; Samith K. Farsoun and Christina F. Zacharia, Palestine and the Palestinians (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1997), 24-26; Sharif Kanaana, “Survival Strategies of Arabs in Israel,” MERIP Reports 41 (1975): 6-7.

  3 Danin, Zionist in Every Condition, 33, 124-134; Ian Black and Benny Morris, Israel’s Secret Wars (London: Warner, 1992), 8-10; Lefen, Roots of the Israeli Intelligence Community, 116-118; Mordechai Naor, ed., Lexicon of Haganah (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense Publishers, 1992), 294, 340; Arie Shalev, The Intifada: Causes and Effects (Tel Aviv: Papirus, 1990), 32-33; Yehuda Sluzki, “From Defense to Struggle,” in Ben-Zion Dinor, ed., The Book of Haganah History (Tel Aviv: Maarachot, 1964), 939-967; Yehoshua Porat, From Riots to Revolt: The National Palestinian Movement, 1933–1939 (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1979), 174-175.

  4 Sluzki, “From Defence to Struggle,” 774-778; Yigal Eyal, “The British Army’s Repression of the Palestinian Arab Revolt, 1936-1939” (PhD thesis, University of Haifa, 1993), 334-398; El-Peleg, “The Arab Revolt”; Jeffrey Herf, “Convergence: The Classic Case of Nazi Germany, Anti-Semitism, and Anti-Zionism During World War II,” Journal of Israeli History 25, no. 1 (March 2006): 74-75.

  5 Danin, A Zionist in Every Condition, 220; Black and Morris, Israel’s Secret Wars, 44-45; Lefen, Roots of the Israeli Intelligence Community, 226-253; Gelber, Growing a Fleur-de-Lis, 318, 507, 729.

  6 Lefen, Roots of the Israeli Intelligence Community, 89-92, 95; Gelber, Growing a Fleur-de-Lis, 499-500, 516-525.

  7 “7 Jews Killed by Arab Fire,” Haaretz, December 1, 1947, 1; Yaacov Markovetzky, “Battles on Haifa and Nearby Areas in the Independence War,” in Mordechai Naor and Yossi Ben-Artzi, eds., Haifa in Development, 1918–1948 ( Jerusalem: Yad Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, 1989); “36 Killed and 45 Wounded in a Deadly Arab Attack on Medical Workers in Sheikh Jarrah Neighborhood,” Haaretz, April 14, 1948; Yehuda Lapidot, In Flame of Revolt: Etzel in Jerusalem (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense Publishers, 1996).

  8 Danin, A Zionist in Every Condition, 205-208; Meir Pail, Independence (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense Publishers, 1990), 26; Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, “Palestinian Personalities,” www.passia.org; Baruch Kimmerling and Joel Migdal, Palestinians: The Making of a People (Jerusalem: Keter, 1999), 132; Yoav Gelber, Independence Versus Nakba (Or Yehuda: Kinneret, Zmora-Bitan, and Dvir, 2004), 41, 47-54.

  9 Lefen, Roots of the Israeli Intelligence Community, 92, 114, 237-242; Gelber, Independence Versus Nakba, 61, 80.

  10 Yeroham Cohen, By Light and in Darkness (Tel Aviv: Amikam, 1969), 47-49; Yeroham Cohen, “‘Mista’arvim’—Palmach Arab Unit,” Maarahot 297 (1985): 44-45; Oded Granot, “Intelligence Corps,” in IDF and Its Corps: Encyclopedia of Army and Security (Tel Aviv: Revivim, 1981), 8:18; Cohen, By Light and in Darkness, 61.

  11 Samuel M. Katz, Soldier Spies: Israel Military Intelligence (Novato, Calif.: Presidio Press, 1992), 42, 47.

  12 Haggai Eshed, One-Man Mossad: Reuven Shiloah, Father of the Israeli Intelligence (Tel Aviv: Edanim, 1988), 120; Gelber, Growing a Fleur-de-Lis, 516-517.

  13 Yoav Gelber, “Reuven Shiloah—Contribution to Development of Israeli Intelligence,” in Hezi Carmel, ed., Intelligence for Peace (Tel Aviv: Miskal, 1998), 42; Eshed, One Man Mossad, 129-130; Reuven Miran, “One Man Mossad,” Haaretz, October 29, 1997.

  14 Eshed, One-Man Mossad, 129-130; “History,” HaMossad leModi’in u le Tafkidim Meyuhadim, Mossad Web site, www.mossad.gov.il (accessed February 6, 2008); Shlomo Nakdimon, “Death of the Spy,” Makor Rishon 289 (February 28, 2003): 14-17.

  15 Hillel Cohen, Good Arabs: The Israeli Security Service and the Israeli Arabs (Jerusalem: Ivrit, 2005), 10; Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited (Ca
mbridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004); Naseer Hasan Aruri, ed., Palestinian Refugees: The Right of Return (London: Pluto Press, 2001); Gelber, Independence Versus Nakba, 382-384, 387; Kimmerling and Migdal, Palestinians, 169; Avi Plascov, The Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, 1948–1957 (London: Frank Cass, 1981).

  16 Yair Bauml, “The Military Government Over Israeli Arabs and Its Cancellation: 1948-1968,” Hamizrach Hahadash 53 (2002): 133-156; Yair Bauml, “Relations Between the Israeli Establishment and the Arabs in Israel: Policy, Principles, and Actions in the Second Decade, 1958-1968” (PhD thesis, University of Haifa, 2002), 153-156, 159; Cohen, Good Arabs, 37-47; Yaacov Peri, Striking First (Tel Aviv: Keshet, 1999), 34-40; Raanan Cohen, The Political Development of the Israeli Arabs in Light of Their Voting in the 1984 Electoral Campaign (Tel Aviv: University of Tel Aviv), 117-122; Yaacov Caroz, The Man with Two Hats (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense, 2002), 80-83; Black and Morris, Israel’s Secret Wars, 141.

  17 Dan Soen and Mustafa Mashhour, “The Influence of the Clan in the Political Life of an Arab Village in Israel,” Orient 25, no. 2 (Spring 1984): 257-269; Zeev Schiff and Raphael Rothstein, Fedayeen: The Story of Palestinian Guerrillas (London: Valentine and Mitchell, 1972), 4-5; Benny Morris, Israel’s Border Wars, 1949–1956: Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation and Countdown to the Suez War (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1996), 18-20; Rafi Sutton and Yitzhak Sasson, Men of Secrets, Men of Mystery ( Jerusalem: Idanim, 1990); Black and Morris, Israel’s Secret Wars, 120-121.

  18 Shabtai Tevet, “Old Versions, New Versions,” Haaretz, September 16, 1994; Nir Hefetz and Gadi Bloom, The Shepherd: Life Story of Ariel Sharon (Tel Aviv: Miskal, 2005), 88-101; Uzi Benziman, Sharon: An Israeli Caesar (New York: Adama Books, 1985), 42-45, 52; “Unit 101,” IDF Paratroopers Web site, http://202.org.il/Pages/tagmul/y101/unit101.php (accessed February 9, 2008); Interview with Yoav Gelber, Haifa University, October 10, 2006; Benny Morris, “The Israeli Press and the Qibya Operation, 1953,” Journal of Palestine Studies 25, no. 4 (Summer 1996): 40-52; Hani Ziv and Yoav Gelber, The Bow Bearers (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense, 1998), 203.

  19 Yosef Argaman, It Was Top Secret (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense, 1990), 19-20, 24-28; Benny Morris, Israel’s Border Wars, 1949–1956 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 359-360; Yohai Sela, “Assassination of Colonel Hafez,” Omedia, www.omedia.co.il (accessed February 9, 2008); Michael Bar-Zohar and Eitan Haber, The Quest for the Red Prince (Tel Aviv: Zmora, 1984), 144-147; Ehud Yaari, Egypt and the Fedayeen, 1953–1956 (Givat Haviva, Israel: Center for Arabic and Afro-Asian Studies, 1975), 29-30.

  CHAPTER TWO THE PATH TO THE DEFENSIVE MODEL AND BACK

  1 Oded Granot, “Intelligence Corps,” in IDF and Its Corps: Encyclopedia of Army and Security (Tel Aviv: Revivim, 1981), 8:74; Eitan Haber, “Syrian Attempts to Sabotage Foiled,” Yedioth Ahronoth, January 14, 1965; “Thwarted Attempt of Palestinian Terrorists to Damage Water Infrastructure,” Haaretz, January 15, 1965; “Three Jordanians Members of Fatah Attacked in Ramat Hakovesh,” Haaretz, May 26, 1965.

  2 “Suddenly I Felt I Was Flying in the Air,” Maariv, October 9, 1966.

  3 Interview with Rafi Malka, former GSS executive officer, August 22, 2006; Ian Black and Benny Morris, Israel’s Secret Wars (London: Warner, 1992), 248-249; Yaakov Peri, Striking First (Tel-Aviv: Keshet, 1999), 45-54; Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv, The Imperfect Spies (Tel Aviv: Maariv, 1990), 154-156; David Ronen, The Year of the Shabak (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense, 1989), 26; Tom Segev, 1967: Israel, the War and the Year That Transformed the Middle East (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2007), 487; Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Which Came First—Terrorism or ‘Occupation’?” (March 2002), www.mfa.gov.il (accessed February 16, 2008); Ehud Yaari, Fatah (Tel Aviv: Lewin Epstein, 1970), 87-88; Christopher Dobson, Black September: Its Short, Violent History (New York: Macmillan, 1974), 75-78; Andrew Gowers and Tony Walker, Behind the Myth: Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Revolution (New York: Olive Branch Press, 1992), 51.

  4 Mark Tessler, The History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994), 376-377, 660.

  5 Samuel M. Katz, Soldier Spies: Israel Military Intelligence (Novato, Calif.: Presidio Press, 1992), 212-213; Rafael Eitan, Raful (Tel Aviv: Maariv, 1985), 108-109; Yasser Arafat, “A Discussion with Yasser Arafat,” Journal of Palestine Studies, 11, no. 2 (Winter 1982), 8; David Hirst, “Yasser Arafat,” Guardian, November 11, 2004.

  6 NSSC Dataset on Palestinian Terrorism, http://nssc.haifa.ac.il; Hani Ziv and Yoav Gelber, Sons of the Bow: One Hundred Years of Struggle, Fifty Years of IDF (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense, 1998), 278.

  7 Zeev Schiff and Raphael Rothstein, Fedayeen: The Story of Palestinian Guerrillas (London: Valentine and Mitchell, 1972), 229-230; Black and Morris, Israel’s Secret Wars, 238; Shlomo Shpiro, “Intelligence Services and Political Transformation in the Middle East,” International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence 17, no. 4 (October-December 2004), 579. For a thorough review of Israeli-Jordan secret relations, see Moshe Zak, King Hussein Makes Peace: Thirty Years of Secret Talks (Ramat-Gan: Bar Ilan University Press, 1996).

  8 David Raab, Terror in Black September: The First Eyewitness Account of the Infamous 1970 Hijackings (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007); Oriya Shavit, “Precedent of Black September,” Haaretz, April 10, 2002; Dobson, Black September, 36-37; Andrew Gowers and Tony Walker, Behind the Myth: Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Revolution (New York: Olive Branch Press, 1992), 81; Zeev Schiff and Ehud Yaari, Intifada (Tel Aviv: Shocken, 1990), 229-230; Black and Morris, Israel’s Secret Wars, 238; Katz, Soldier Spies, 267; Bruce Hoffman, “All You Need Is Love: How the Terrorists Stopped Terrorism,” Atlantic Monthly, December 2001.

  9 Ronen, The Year of the Shabak; interview with David Maimon, former military governor of the Gaza Strip, February 25, 2007; Uzi Benziman, Sharon: An Israeli Caesar (New York: Adama Books, 1985), 115; “Sayeret Rimon,” Israeli Special Forces and Special Operations Database, www.isayeret.com/content/units/disbanded/rimon.htm (accessed February 16, 2008); David Ronen, “And in the Terrorists’ Role: Mistaarvim,” Maariv, Saturday Supplement, March 25, 1994; David Maimon, The Evincible Terror: Terror Oppression in Gaza Strip, 1971–1972 (Tel Aviv: Steimatzky, 1993), 169.

  10 “GSS and Aman: Responsibility Division,” Haaretz, November 16, 2000; Gad Shimron, The Mossad and Its Myth ( Jerusalem: Keter, 2002), 123; Gabriel Weimann, “The Theater of Terror: Effects of Press Coverage,” Journal of Communication 33, no. 1 (December 1983): 38-45; Gabriel Weimann, “Media Events: The Case of International Terrorism,” Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 31, no. 1 (1987): 21-39; Gabriel Weimann and Conrad Winn, The Theater of Terror (New York: Longmans, 1994); Brian Michael Jenkins, International Terrorism (Los Angeles: Crescent, 1974); Naftali Lavie, “The Israelis Still Held in Algiers,” Haaretz, July 24, 1968; “The Implementation of ‘Gesture’ Begins: Five of Sixteen Released,” Haaretz, September 18, 1968; “Representatives of Red Cross Met with Sixteen who had Been Released in ‘Gesture,’” Haaretz, September 5, 1968; Mitchell Bard Geoffrey, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Middle East Conflict (Tel Aviv: Alpha Books, 2002), 377—378; Moshe Zonder, The Elite Unit of Israel ( Jerusalem: Keter, 2000), 109; interview with Michael Koubi, former GSS interrogator, April 26, 2007; Moshe Betser and Robert Rosenberg, Secret Soldier: The True Life Story of Israel’s Greatest Commando (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1996), 84; Malka interview.

  11 Aaron Klein, Striking Back: The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and Israel’s Deadly Response (Tel Aviv: Miskal, 2006) Simon Reeve, One Day in September: The Full Story of the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and the Israeli Revenge Operation “Wrath of God” (New York: Arcade, 2000), 36. “1972: Israeli commandos storm hijacked jet,” BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/9/newsid_4326000/4326707.stm (accessed February 17, 2008).

  12 Zonder, Elite Unit, 22—23, 25, 30—31; Amos Harel, “The Price of the Choice of the Shayetet’s Commander,” Haaretz, July 7, 2004; Roni Hadar, “The
Daring in the Enemy’s Home Front,” Haaretz, March 3, 2006; Shimron, The Mossad and Its Myth, 133—134.

  13 For an analysis of the alliances among the various terrorist groups during the 1960s, see Eli Carmon, Coalitions Between Terrorist Organizations: Revolutionaries, Nationalists and Islamists (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 2005), as well as Carmon’s PhD thesis, “Coalitions of Terrorist Organizations,” University of Haifa, 1996.

  14 Amos Hadar, “Twenty Killed and Fifty Wounded in Terrorist Attack at Lod Airport,” Haaretz, May 31, 1972; Edgar O’Ballance, The Language of Violence: The Blood Politics of Terrorism (San Rafael, Calif.: Presidio Press, 1979), 151—152; Patricia G. Steinhoff, “Portrait of a Terrorist: An Interview with Kozo Okamoto,” Asian Survey 16, no. 9 (September 1976): 837—838; “The Killers Changed Their Plan,” Haaretz, June 1, 1972; Amos Hadar, “Caught Terrorist: The Operation Was Meant To End with our Death,” Haaretz, June 1, 1972.

  15 Malka interview; Lisa Beyer, “Is This What We Really Want?” Time, September 16, 2001; Paulo Prada and Daniel Michaels, “Israel Airport Is Safe but Hard to Emulate,” Wall Street Journal, September 17, 2001; Jacoby, “What Israeli Security Could Teach Us,” Boston Globe, August 23, 2006; Ellis Shuman, “El Al’s Legendary Security Measures Set Industry Standards,” Israel Insider, October 3, 2001.