Mossad (Hebrew for "The Institute", whose full name is “The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations”) is Israel's foreign intelligence agency, responsible for intelligence-gathering and special operations. It was founded in 1949, and since then has made quite a name for itself, achieving almost legendary status and instilling fear and awe worldwide.
Mossad started its world rise to prominence when it passed on to the West Nikita Khrushchev's secret speech, delivered on February 24, 1956, at the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party, in which he denounced Stalin's crimes and renounced Stalinism. Although the details of the speech were generally known, Western officials considered it of paramount importance to obtain the exact text of the speech, but efforts by intelligence organizations around the world to obtain it failed. The speech in its entirety was transmitted by journalist Viktor Grejevsky to Shin Bet personnel at the Israeli embassy in Warsaw. From there it was transmitted to Israel, and onwards to the CIA, who published the full speech in the New York Times.
Additional operations cemented Mossad’s status in the intelligence world as one of the premier intelligence agencies in the world. Some of the more famous ones include the capture of Adolf Eichmann (leading to the trial and execution of one of the main masterminds of the Holocaust), the infiltration of the Syrian government by Eli Cohen (which provided crucial intelligence to Israel), Operation Wrath of God (a covert operation to assassinate individuals involved in the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, during which one of Mossad’s biggest failures also happened in the Lillehammer affair) and its involvement in Entebbe raid (where current PM Netanyahu’s brother was KIA).
More recently, Mossad has been involved in the decapitation of Hezbollah’s leadership and large swaths of its fighters in what was dubbed Operation Grim Beeper and Israel’s bombing of Hezbollah's headquarters, located in a deep bunker underneath civilian infrastructure. It also took part in the planning and execution of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last year, which resulted in the earlier round of aggression between Israel and Iran.
Mossad has had its share of failures and controversies as well. Like the Lillehammer affair mentioned above, the capture and return to trial of Mordechai Vanunu, famous for revealing Israel’s (officially unconfirmed but unofficially confirmed) nuclear capabilities, drew worldwide condemnation. Similarly, Mossad’s frequent use of assassinations has at times drawn condemnations as well.
All this brings us to today, with Israel’s attack on Iran still ongoing. While things are still playing out, its now clear Mossad had its hands very deep inside the Islamic Republic of Iran. As was previously reported, it is known that Mossad infiltrated Iran's anti-Israel spy team. With the current crisis unfolding, it seems Mossad successfully tracked and killed Iran’s top military leadership, including the commander in chief of Iran’s military (second highest commander after Supreme Leader), the deputy commander in chief of the armed forces, a number of commanders in the IRGC leadership including the head of the IRGC, as well as several nuclear scientists. Mossad crippled Iran's ability to respond to the attacks by providing crucial information to the Israeli Air Force, though Iran still likely has additional capability to respond. It also provided detailed information on Iran's air defenses, which were largely destroyed by the Israeli Air Force and allows Israel to enjoy air superiority in Iranian airspace. I’m certain there are many more details and actions we do not know about — but the overall picture painted shows Mossad’s complete dominance and superiority.
All of this, though, does make me wonder one thing. How is it that Mossad, with all of this proven and, let’s be honest, impressive capabilities, missed October 7th? This is not aimed at starting or promoting conspiracy theories, and we can all make our own assumptions and have our own thoughts on the matter. Yes, technically its Shin Bet’s area of responsibility in Gaza and the West Bank, but if they truly were blind to it, there is a lot of introspection that the Israeli intelligence community needs to do.
