Mossad Operations

Mossad, Israel’s main intelligence agency, is one of the most efficient intelligence organizations in the world. Its ability to obtain intelligence information from various locations is unparalleled by intelligence organizations of other countries. The organization has achieved success in extremely difficult situations. Most Mossad activities involve identifying potential threats and countering threats through various means. Mossad is famous due to its assassinations. The intelligence agency has assassinated people who nobody thought could be located, let alone assassinated. Mossad collaborates with intelligence agencies of ally countries and provides the countries with intelligence information. Mossad collaborates with American intelligence agencies to improve the efficiency of both agencies in collecting intelligence information.

Mossad’s main activities are collecting intelligence information in foreign countries and communicating with intelligence agencies of countries that are friendly to Israel. To ensure the efficiency of its activities, Mossad separates the activities into distinct areas of knowledge. It ensures that the activities are as specific as possible. Separation of the activities is known as compartmentalization. Compartmentalization ensures that employees work on their specific duties and minimizes the risk of the leakage of information to external parties (Webster 13). Business organizations also use compartmentalization to improve the efficiency of their activities. Thus, it is pertinent to say that Mossad conducts its activities like a business organization. However, unlike a business organization whose activities focus on making money, the activities of Mossad focus on collecting intelligence information that would benefit Israel and its allies.

One intriguing characteristic of Mossad is that it collects a large amount of intelligence information from sources that are available to the public. These include television, newspapers, and the Internet. Mossad also collects information from surveillance. It uses various technological devices that observe people or organizations secretly (Webster 13). Therefore, despite public sources providing a large amount of information to Mossad, surveillance helps in verifying the information and offers information that is more detailed. This makes surveillance extremely useful in gathering intelligence information.

Mossad is simply a human intelligence organization that helps in collecting intelligence information outside Israel. However, Mossad does not collect information on certain military targets. Israel's location is in a unique international position. It is in a state of war with its Arab neighbors. This state of war is the longest international dispute between countries. This necessitated the Israeli government to form an intelligence agency that prepares military fact and figures – Aman (Laqueur 220). Thus, Mossad can provide certain military information, but interpretation of the information is the duty of Aman.

Even though Mossad does not interpret intelligence information on military targets, Mossad has a special operations division that undertakes activities that may counter the military activities of enemy nations. The special operations division is the most secretive arm of Mossad. This division’s main activity consists in the assassination of various individuals. In addition, this division undertakes activities that involve foreign military groups. The special operations division undertakes activities that may be risky or unpopular with authorities in the country where Mossad is operating (Webster 16). The unpopular nature of activities of the special operations department is the main reason that makes the special operations department be secretive. Precision is the main emphasis of the activities of this department. A small error could lead to disastrous circumstances.

Mossad has a Political Action and Liaison Department that communicates with foreign intelligence agencies of ally and enemy states (Davies and Tomlinson 17). This department shares and receives information from various information intelligence agencies. However, the department does not share all intelligence information with the foreign agencies. This helps in obtaining information on political targets. In addition, Mossad has a department that is responsible for propaganda – Lohamah Psichlogit Department. This department and the Political Action and Liaison Department help Mossad improve the efficiency of political strategies of Mossad (Webster 16). This makes Mossad use these avenues to determine and affect political actions of various countries, whether friendly ones or enemies.

Mossad places considerable emphasis on industrial espionage. It realizes the importance of technology in economic and political advancements. Mossad identifies certain information that may benefit it and sets in motion activities that would enable it to gain access to that information. Military technology is one of the main targets of the organization in industrial espionage. Most Mossad agents have a professional qualification that enables them to engage in industrial espionage. Various organizations hire these without knowing that they secretly work for Mossad. The agents may provide information to the technology department of Mossad to help it develop technologies that would help the organization produce sophisticated systems that would be of a great help in improving the activities of Mossad (Wester 17). Countries that engage in industrial espionage access technological advancements without having to invent vast sums of money. All the countries need to do is to steal the technology (Blunden 22). Mossad appreciates the economic benefits of industrial espionage and uses it to improve its efficiency. Industrial espionage enables Mossad to be at pace with technological advancements of other countries.

Intelligence agencies ensure that its agencies do not defect and leak classified information to enemy countries, as this would have disastrous effects. Loyalty is one of the key attributes that enhance the success of intelligence organizations. Intelligence organizations that have a high level of loyalty are, therefore, very successful. Mossad draws its strength from the unity of its agents. Mossad agents believe that their service is a national calling. In addition, Mossad enjoys the goodwill of Israelis. Israelis in other countries are also willing to help Mossad whenever its agents have operations near their areas of residence. Mossad regularly enlist the help of ‘Sayanin’ whenever it needs their help. Sayanim are Jews who live in other countries who have other professional but are willing to help Mossad agents. In some instances, Sayanim offer their services freely (Webster 18). Solidarity of Jews in various locations around the globe helps Mossad in its activities significantly.

Mossad mainly undertakes assassinations of people perceived to be enemies of Israel. However, in undertaking the assassination operations, sometimes things go wrong. This leads to the death of many innocent civilians. Tendency of Mossad to use assassinations instead of the rule of law makes the organization be unpopular with various authorities. The assassinations sometimes lead to counter offenses by the enemy organizations. Mossad’s killing of leading nuclear scientists has only fueled the tension between the two countries (Martin 397). Mossad disregards the negotiations that Iran has with other parties on its nuclear program. This makes the authorities not want to be associated with the organization. In addition, friendly nations do not trust Mossad completely. This is due to the tendency of the organization to exploit the good will of the friendly nation to Mossad’s own advantage. It is common to find Mossad spies who have infiltrated into various intelligence agencies of the friendly nations. In fact, in 1986, the US navy discovered a Mossad spy – Jonathan Pollard – working within the ranks of the navy. This was despite the fact that US is a friendly nation to Israel (Ross & Kay 15). This caused a serious scandal in the US government.

In conclusion, Mossad is one of the most efficient intelligence agencies in the world. Very few intelligence organizations can match its ability to undertake extremely risky operations successfully. The organization enjoys the good will of Israelis making it highly efficient in industrial, political, and military espionage. However, the total disregard of Mossad to various diplomatic activities that attempt to solve issues is one of the main weaknesses of the organization. Assassinations only fuel the tension between two enemy nations.