by Nathan Ronen
“Yes, sir. But this will require planning and assessments that will take longer,” Qasem Soleimani said, falsely ingratiating, sitting down.
“I’m an avid reader of the Israeli press review,” Jafari revealed as if sharing a secret. “And I’m aware of the debate taking place there regarding the issue of attacking Iran, and what their senior officers and former security agency heads have said in opposition to an attack. This trend should be encouraged through psychological warfare. We should do anything possible in order to frighten the Jews and deter Israel from attacking. I want to quote Pakistan’s minister of foreign affairs, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who, in 1965, said, ‘If India builds the bomb, we will eat grass and leaves for a thousand years, even go hungry, but we will get one of our own.’”
He looked to Revolutionary Guard spokesperson Colonel Hajida, pointed at him, and said, “And this is off the record, even for our newspaper!”
The commander of Basij,32 General Ahmet Rheibparvar, rose and said, “We’ll act in the field of cyberwarfare. Basij’s activity in the cybernetic field will be aggressive. We have to infiltrate the world of digital products. This is a topic that can no longer be ignored. Cyberspace is a golden opportunity to establish a presence in the field of cyberwarfare. I’m pleased to announce the recent return of the graduates of the hacker course in Pyongyang who studied in North Korea. You have to understand that part of the war currently takes place on social media. All of our psychological warfare activities to intimidate the Israeli public can take place from here, without any problems. The ISIS terrorist organization has managed to recruit hundreds of volunteers through social media. The entire election campaign takes place in cyberspace these days. Currently, there are several heads of state who owe their victories to a virtual campaign, rather than to the press.”
“All of these are excellent ideas! In two days, the Supreme National Security Council is meeting with the Supreme Leader and the president. I’ll update the Supreme Leader and receive his authorization for this plan of action. He doesn’t like to be surprised and wants to hear and approve every plan in advance,” Field Marshal Ali Jafari said. “I believe he will be very pleased.”
* * *
30The Houthi movement is a Shiite Islamic political and armed movement that emerged in northern Yemen in the 1990s. It promotes regional political-religious issues in its media, including the overarching U.S.–Israeli conspiracy theory and claims of Arab “collusion.”
31A shahid is a Muslim martyr.
32Basij, or “The Organization for Mobilization of the Oppressed,” is one of the five forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. It is a paramilitary volunteer militia established in Iran in 1979 by order of Ayatollah Khomeini. Today it consists of young Iranian volunteers who receive military training, and also serves as an internal security force, a police force of sorts protecting the regime.
Chapter 28
The Campaign Between the Wars
The headquarters of the Israeli Mossad Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations is located in central Israel, on a lofty hill.
That day was a special one at the Office. Raya Ron, the new Mossad Director, also referred to as OH (Office Head), was gathering all of the agency’s employees for an initial conversation. The government general assembly had confirmed her appointment that morning, and her photo was in all the daily papers, along with the heading “The Iron Lady Arrives at the Mossad.”
It was a strange turn of events as two adversaries took their new positions on the chessboard of the Middle East’s clandestine battlefield.
In the stylishly designed conference hall at the Isser Harel Instruction Center, all managers with a rank of department head and higher were awaiting her arrival. The first rows were reserved for division heads and the heads of special units.
Raya Ron stepped up to the stage and introduced herself. She looked very elegant in a turquoise shantung silk power suit, which highlighted her athletic build. The expression on her face was unusually peaceful, that of a self-aware woman, one who would never let anyone, male or female, intimidate her or threaten her.
“Hello, my name is Raya Ron. ‘Ron’ is a shortened form of my original name, Rosenberg. Some of you know me from my previous role as head of the Office of Intelligence, Strategy, and Regional Cooperation, while others may remember me from my military service as head of the Military Intelligence Directorate’s Research Department. When my military career came to an end, I applied for the role of head of the Intelligence and Research Division here at the Mossad, but I wasn’t chosen…” She chuckled to herself.
“I want to thank the government of Israel and Prime Minister Ehud Tzur for appointing me as Mossad director, and I want to use this opportunity to express my condolences to the family of mythological Mossad director Ben-Ami Cornfield, who died under tragic circumstances.”
She gazed at the audience, which was mesmerized by her low voice, and continued, her expression solemn.
“I want to present my vision of the new Mossad, as I see it adapting to the twenty-first century, an approach confirmed by the prime minister, who gave me carte blanche to carry out these changes.
“Israel is at a historic crossroads. In the current age, it finds itself in the eye of a hurricane swirling around it at 200 miles per hour, in constant motion. The question facing the policymakers is how to stay within the eye of the storm without getting dragged out into the storm itself. We’re surrounded by unstable regimes, and we have two cold peace agreements with only two of the Arab countries surrounding us. Our only access to the world is through sea or aerial routes. To get some perspective, we are eight million Israelis as opposed to 422 million Arabs, in a world in which there are a billion and a half Muslims.
“Israel has vital interests as well as essential boundaries it must protect, and the sphere in which we must attain them isn’t located merely in the classic battlefield, but also in the arenas of media, cyberspace, and the international courts.
“We will have to adapt the Mossad to this era, and not the other way around. We don’t have the luxury of doing it slowly and leisurely, but I promise you, it will be done in the best and more effective way, in full coordination with division and department heads.
“The Mossad nearly doubled its resources during Cornfield’s era. We grew institutionalized. We’ve multiplied our capacity, especially on cyber issues, and now we have to establish new capabilities for the State of Israel, by reestablishing the determent abilities the Mossad once possessed. We have to retain our ability to act quickly, determinedly, and aggressively, without unnecessary limitations due to procedures, authorizations, or receiving confirmation for everything from legal advisors.
“The main and greatest risk, in my humble opinion, is the strategic risk of trying to keep the war at bay, which might result in precisely the opposite. There’s always the fear that our actions will veer off track and escalate and will in fact end up bringing the war closer to us.
“Military force is no longer the be-all and end-all. Today, a talented guy in a cyberwarfare unit, sitting in front of a computer in some basement, might cause damage that exceeds that caused by a brigade of tanks. The classic intelligence collection methods based on HUMINT (human intelligence) will also apparently have to undergo a radical change. A talented Mossad field agent no longer has to come to us from the naval commando or a Special Forces unit. He can also come to us after having flown observation balloons for the Air Force.
“We cannot rest on our laurels, feeling pleased with ourselves. Technological changes take place at a rapid pace in the world these days. If you want to stay in place, you have to start running. The Israeli Mossad Institute for Intelligence currently works under an organizational structure conceived in the seventies. We might need to break through borders and think creatively about cooperating with international corporations and new entities in a world based on profitabi
lity, on give and take.
“The world of terrorism isn’t stagnant, either. Terrorist organizations have undergone a Darwinian process. The stupid ones died off and the smart ones survived. After years of pursuing Palestinian terrorist groups, we find that the terrorists who have survived are more dangerous and that some of them are being trained by professional instructors from countries such as Iran, which also supplies them with plenty of money, weapons, and hiding places, but most of all, people who are ready and willing to quickly snuff out human lives.
“We live in the Middle East, an area where we’re hearing once again of the hope to realize the dream of establishing an Islamic Caliphate. ISIS’s declaration of renewing the Caliphate within the areas of Iraq and Syria has proven that we are not dealing mainly with the revival of a historic religious-governmental institution, but with a living, breathing idea that is still a part of the lives of Muslims throughout the world today, inspiring their imagination. However, in the twenty-first century, unlike the era of the Caliphate in the 1300s, Muslims have monetary resources resulting from their reserves of oil and natural gas, and they are well-equipped with twenty-first-century weapons.”
Arik was sitting in the front row, caught up in his own thoughts, and marveling at the fact that many of the topics Raya Ron was bringing up in her vision for the agency’s future were things he himself had planned to say if he had been there on the stage as the head of the agency.
He emerged from his musings when he heard his own name mentioned.
“I intend to ask Arik Bar-Nathan, head of the Operations Administration and second-in-command to the Mossad director, to be in charge of organizational change, and to present me with an agreed-upon proposal for the new organization, openings, and budgets within six weeks.”
Raya Ron’s public declaration of his promotion to second-in-command to the Mossad director surprised him. The Mossad director traditionally had two deputies who were heads of administrations: operations and logistics, both bearing the title of Assistant Director. His promotion was not merely a matter of semantics. Had this been a Freudian slip?
Arik was sitting in the front row, among longtime Mossad operatives. Some of them were senior division heads who had been his teachers in terms of Mossad work. He was surprised to hear his own name brought up as someone who might be recommending the early retirement of some of his previous commanders. They turned to him with hopeful eyes, while also knowing that their fates were sealed.
Raya Ron was scanning the first rows, in which the Mossad’s management was sitting, assessing the attendees’ reaction. Her eyes seemed to operate with the slowness and confidence of a lie detector.
“Next week, we’ll renew the routine schedule of work at the Office, including the weekly division heads meeting. Afterwards, each of the division and special unit heads will be invited to a one-on-one meeting. Before that happens, I want to receive a one-page executive summary, printed on a yellow page, containing the details of the division you head, main challenges, successes and failures, and your recommendations for improvement. All succinctly written. You can attach appendices that seem important to you. I want to tell you that I despise long documents. If I need more clarifications, I’ll call you.
“Any questions?” She smiled at the members of management in a way that made a chill crawl down their spines.
Arik sat there, his face immobile, not revealing his turbulent emotions. He remembered a saying by Viktor Frankl: “Feeling can be much more sensitive than reason can ever be sensible.”33
* * *
33From The Unconscious God (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975). Frankl is a psychiatrist, neurologist, psychotherapist and Holocaust survivor.
Chapter 29
The Supreme National Security Council, Teheran
In a secluded corner in the bureau of Iran’s Supreme Leader, two people dressed as ayatollahs, the highest rank in the Shiite hierarchy, were sitting in tall chairs. Both of them sported white beards. One of them wore a black turban and the other a white turban. The two sat across from each other, mildly sipping sweet, fragrant Iranian jasmine tea.
One of them was Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei, deemed Iran’s Supreme Leader. He had called in the elected president of the republic, Hussein Rahimi, chairman of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council by virtue of his role as president of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The ayatollahs’ doctrine stated that only a religious leader was worthy of being a supreme leader, like the devout Shiite imams and the prophet Muhammad. Therefore, Iran’s Supreme Leader determined foreign and internal policy, appointed the commander of the armed forces, as well as the apparatus of intelligence and internal security agencies; he had sole authority to declare war. The Supreme Leader appointed the commanders of the Iranian Army, the Revolutionary Guard, Quds Force, and the heads of the judicial authority, radio and television networks, and the press. The Leader also appointed the imams leading Friday services, which served as his regional representatives, and six out of the dozen members of the Guardian Council of the Constitution.
The two men customarily met before every meeting of the Supreme National Security Council in order to exchange opinions.
The Supreme Leader began, “I’m proud to tell you that the Foundation of the Oppressed34 has become the largest charity fund in Iran and the second-largest financial entity in the country. The foundation’s CEO told me they have become the leading financial concern with regard to financial groups in the fields of services, industry and mining, energy, construction, and agriculture.”
President Rahimi did not like the fact that he had no control over such a large, wealthy financial entity, which served to fund the Revolutionary Guard in areas on which he had no say but chose to hold his tongue.
“I’m sure you’ll be happy to know that the Foundation of the Oppressed and the companies it owns are not subject to American sanctions,” Khamenei continued. “But it’s unclear if the sanctions recently declared by the Americans will encompass the foundation, since, legally speaking, it’s considered a charity.”
“Excellent,” Rahimi complimented him.
They continued to drink their tea without making eye contact.
“I sense that something is troubling you,” the Supreme Leader finally said.
“You’re right. I’m apprehensive about Haj Qasem Soleimani,” Rahimi said. “His soldiers admiringly call him ‘the living Shahid.’ He’s got the magic touch. In my mind, he has too much power, and he acts like a mad dog, a lone wolf.”
The Supreme Leader listened and did not reply, merely drinking his tea, highly attentive.
“He’s not a team player, and he always acts on his own,” Rahimi continued. “He’s extreme, ascetic, a man without boundaries, and too impulsive for my liking. He could drag us into trouble. I don’t trust him.”
Khamenei laughed pleasantly. “I know he’s a rebellious type. But he’s also someone who knows how to recognize angles and opportunities in places where other people merely see danger or a problem they don’t want to approach. That’s his main strength.”
“It’s true, he’s not exactly the kind of fish who stays with the group and swims with the current. Even the Revolutionary Guard’s new chief of staff is afraid of him,” Rahimi said, trying to diminish Soleimani’s stature in the boss’s eyes.
“The fish that swim with the current are usually dead fish. I prefer a nutcase like Soleimani. He’s a white shark with teeth. When you try to control him, he bites you, too,” Khamenei laughed. “And besides, it’s my problem. The Revolutionary Guard is subordinate to me, and I haven’t heard any complaints from Jafari about Soleimani yet.”
President Rahimi slurped his tea loudly, buying some time to think about how to phrase his statement. A bitter thought occurred to him. He remembered how the previous president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had sustained a public slap in the face from Rev
olutionary Guard commander General Mohammad Ali Jafari during a heated argument about freedom of the press in a meeting of the Supreme National Security Council. Jafari had not been harmed in any way. He was Khamenei’s favorite, directly subordinate to the Supreme Leader, rather than to the president.
“Divide and conquer is an age-old method, but the question is, who’s commanding whom?” he finally said. “The fact that Qasem Soleimani is supposed to extend the Islamic revolution outside the borders of the country, with no supervision, worries me. Soon, the two of them will show up for the council meeting along with the prime minister, the minister of foreign affairs, and the head of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security. I don’t think that one person should have so much power. With all due respect, I think we should compartmentalize our anti-Israel activity, not only, heaven forbid, because I’m seemingly wary of General Qasem Soleimani, but because we’re as leaky as a sieve.”
“I accept your view on role division,” Khamenei concurred. “Jafari will be in charge of maintaining the revolution internally and developing our new weaponry and ballistic missiles against the enemies of the revolution from a military standpoint. While Quds Force commander General Soleimani will be in charge of exporting the revolution with regard to Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Israel, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and the region. We’ll allocate the intelligence work abroad to the minister in charge of intelligence matters, Sayyid Muhammad Alawi. We’ll let them work on parallel tracks, without knowing about each other.”
“I think I can live with that,” President Rahimi said. “I thank you, sir, for the openness that allows me to reveal my heart to you. What do you think of the idea of promoting Qasem Soleimani to field marshal as well, just like Chief of General Staff Jafari, thus creating a balance of terror between them that will make it easy for us to control them?”
