MOSSAD (Mossad Le Biyyun U-le-Tafkidim Meyuhadim; Institute for Espionage and Special Tasks, in Hebrew)

Founded in 1951, during the regime of David Ben-Gurion, Mossad is the organization charged with the external security of the State of Israel. This service has been known for many operations involving assassination, in particular those responsible for the murder of the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games in September 1972. Despite claims as "the best intelligence service in the world," Mossad has known many reversals. If it has shown itself capable of realizing audacious operations, the incompetence of some of its members has been equally notable, and it has gone through periods of obvious internal dysfunctionality. Along with its failure to foresee the 1973 Arab-Israel War, between 1984 and 1989 Mossad endured the fiasco of the Jonathan Pollard affair and found itself implicated in the U.S. Irangate scandal.

At the end of 1997, an internal report alluded to the lack of serious preparation for certain operations. Additionally, there was a series of failures that led to the resignation, in February 1998, of its director, Dani Yatom, replaced by two directors, charged with reforming the service. The successive heads of Mossad have been: Reuven Shiloah (1951–1953), Isser Harel (1953–1963), Meir Amit (1963–1968), Zvi Zamir (1968–1974), Yitzhak Hofi (1974–1982), Nahum Admoni (1983–1990), Shabtai Shavit (1990–1996), Dani Yatom (1996–1998), Ephraim Halevy and Amiram Levine (1998–2002), and Meir Dagan (2002–). The Mossad has been criticized for failing to anticipate the outbreak of the al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000. At the same time, senior Mossad officials have been increasingly involved in the peace process.