History of Mossad

Mossad history starts almost immediately after the inception of the State of Israel.

In 1949 ‘Central Institute for Coordination’ was set up to improve coordination between the Shabak, AMAN and political department of the Foreign Office. It was under the control of Foreign Ministry.

In 1951, CIC was replaced by Mossad under direct supervision of the Prime Minister. In June 1951 Mossad signed a clandestine agreement with the American CIA.

The first high profile operation of Mossad came in 1960 when it managed to kidnap Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi war criminal, from Argentina. Eichmann was sentenced to death for his role in killing Jews in Europe.

During the 60’s Mossad provided critical information about Egyptian air force during the 6 day war. It helped an Iraqi defector Munir Redfa and his family escape Iraq.

Mossad was responsible for assassinating members of a group, who killed Israeli athletes in 1972 during the Munich Olympics.

In 1973 it killed an innocent Moroccan waiter Ahmed Bouchiki in Norway. The agency confused him as the leader of a Palestinian group ‘Black September’, which was responsible for the Munich massacre.

This was later known as the ‘Lillehammer affair’. The incident caused a diplomatic row with the Canadian government, as the six Mossad agents involved in the murder had used Canadian passports.

In 1975, Mossad arranged a secret meeting between the Israeli and Jordanian heads of state. It also arranged a second meeting in 1977. Mossad agents were sent to Uganda, to free 100 hostages held in a plane from Tel Aviv. The agency assisted in ‘Operation Moses’ in late 70’s. This operation was used to immigrate Jews from Ethiopia.

In 1980 Mossad agents killed Yahya al-Mashad, an Egyptian nuclear physicist. The agency provided vital information to the government about the Iraqi nuclear assets. This information was used in the air attacks on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981. In the same year, the agency’s attempt to use British passports to infiltrate china created uproar in Britain.

The agency provided intelligence during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Mossad organized an attack on PLO headquarters in Tunisia that killed 56 Palestinian citizens. Mordechai Vanunu was kidnapped from Rome by the agency in September 1986. He was an Israeli citizen who informed western media about Israel’s covert nuclear program.

The agency failed to assassinate Saddam Hussein in 1991. It suffered several failures in 1997. Most notably the assassination attempt on Hamas leader, Sheikh Khaled Mashal. Israel had to release 70 Palestinian prisoners in order to save the life of Mossad agents involved in the affair.

Mossad helped Turkish intelligence kidnap the Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah Öcalan from Kenya in 1999.

In 2001, the agency warned CIA of Al-Qaeda’s plans but they not taken seriously. Two Mossad agents Eli Caram and Uriel Kelman tried to obtain New Zealand passports illegally in 2004. The New Zealand authorities apprehended the men, sentenced them to six months in prison and imposed diplomatic sanctions on Israel. The Israeli foreign Minister later apologized for the incident.

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