Mossad: Israel's Most Secret Service by Payne Ronald

Author:Payne, Ronald [Payne, Ronald]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Endeavour Press
Published: 2015-07-06T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen – The Twilight Zone

The third arm of Israeli intelligence, and the one with the least savoury reputation, is Shin Beth — sometimes known as Shabak — the general security service. Its methods are tough, usually disciplined, frequently brutal. It relies heavily upon informers, people who are sometimes paid and sometimes bullied to act as narks. The members of its interrogation unit are trained in the art of getting information from suspects on the subject of HTA, as they like to call it — Hostile Terrorist Activity. When he first became prime minister Menachem Begin, by no means thought of as a soft liberal, issued an order to Shin Beth recommending it to use its brains rather than its brawn in the quest for information.

By the nature of their watchdog job Shin Beth officers regard all foreigners, and many of their compatriots, with suspicion. They tap telephones, make use of electronic eavesdropping and surveillance, open letters and break and enter premises. The service is there to sniff out spies, stifle subversion from whatever quarter, and eliminate terrorism and sabotage. The polite designation of these duties is counter-espionage and internal security.

As if that were not enough, Shin Beth also has the job of providing security at airports and for the national airline, El Al; something it does with great efficiency. It also guards government buildings and embassies. The main counter-espionage targets are the Arab states and the Soviet and eastern bloc intelligence services. In the Arab affairs department it keeps a counter-intelligence index and a watchful eye on goings-on among Palestinians living in Israel and in the occupied territories.

As Palestinian resistance increased, Shin Beth expanded and became heavily involved in covert action against agitators and their cells inside Israel. It was a task they went to with a will. But there was less enthusiasm and more circumspection in the service for the other side of the internal security role — operations directed against Israeli terrorists attacking the Arab population. Despite the reluctance of some officers, action was finally taken after extremists booby-trapped the cars of three Arab mayors and conspired in an attempt to blow up the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, one of the most sacred shrines of Islam. Twenty-seven people were arrested and charged with belonging to a ‘Jewish terrorist underground’.

In the curiously named Non-Arab Department, whose title itself seems to give an indication of the order of priorities, security officers are instructed to probe both communist and non-communist subversion. Its counterintelligence activities concentrate on penetration of both hostile and friendly intelligence services. Shin Beth also has responsibility for the interrogation and vetting of immigrants from the Soviet Union as eastern Europe, for it is obvious that Israel must be on the alert for Jews who have been recruited and trained by the KGB before starting their new life in Israel.

With plenty of recruits available who had gained their experience in the tough struggles among clashing Jewish groups before independence, Shin Beth scored a number of successes in the early years after independence by uncovering Soviet spy networks.

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