Spies in trouble

Despite new director, Mossad grappling with internal troubles, declining reputation
Ronen Bergman

It’s been three years since Meir Dagan was appointed as Mossad director, yet the state of affairs at Israel’s legendary intelligence agency is less than impressive.

Indeed, infighting and mass departures among the organization’s top echelon persist, as the Mossad continues to distance from its glory days of yore.

Accurately assessing the functioning of the Mossad chief, and that of the organization as a whole, in real-time is difficult, as we are dealing with an agency whose activities mostly take place in the dark.

Still, according to most assessments, including those formulated by the IDF, the Shin Bet, political figures, and also foreign intelligence services, Dagan’s three years at the helm of the Mossad have marked the agency’s continued decline.

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A large part of the organization’s employees can identify with the negative external estimates, making the atmosphere within the Mossad unpleasant. Many senior figures have already retired, and continue to retire, while the ones who are left make do with quiet grumbles, for fear of the director’s intolerance for criticism.

Top leadership being replaced

For the second time in three years, the Mossad’s top leadership is being replaced this week, and for the second time this isn’t a case of a planned, orderly appointment round, but rather, mass departure that mostly reflects lack of faith in the commander.

Meanwhile, in closed-door sessions with figures outside the Mossad, Dagan himself expresses serious mistrust in a large part of his senior subjects. The director did attempt to bring in new blood from the outside, mostly from the IDF, in the form of intelligence officials possessing a wealth of intelligence experience. However, that attempt also failed for the most part.

Despite the attractive employment terms and the glory surrounding the agency, senior figures did not wish to get involved with the problematic situation within the Mossad.

For years now, Mossad officials have (rightfully) complained that the agency does not have enough resources to deal with the slew of global threats. On the other hand, none of the former Mossad directors took the next step, namely saying: “We are strong in several areas, let’s focus there.” Instead, they preferred to play across the globe, ensuring successes that would serve to counterbalance the failures.

So what has changed since the sixties and seventies? The answer is probably found in the processes seen throughout Israeli society as a whole: Less idealism, less loyalty to the grand Zionist ideal, less naivete regarding government mechanisms, and more opportunism, individualism, and capitalism.

Expense accounts cut down

When Dagan arrived in Mossad headquarters he found, according to what he says, an organization in need of a shakeup. Three years later, even though almost nothing has changed, Dagan conveys a sense of satisfaction, almost euphoria. Today, he believes, he is leading an excellent intelligence agency.

To his credit, he has made the atmosphere at the top more pleasant, following two cold or frightening directors. He conveys friendless to his subjects, is not haughty, and addresses everyone as if they are his equal.

On another front, Dagan was able to cut to a large extent the ostentatious waste of money on overseas expenses in some of the Mossad’s operational wings, while introducing modern management methods from the IDF.

And although foreign ties and diplomatic cocktails are not his cup of tea, the Mossad’s Foreign Office, “Tevel” (Hebrew for “Universe”,) was the first one to hire more employees. Although some view the departments as a group of boastful, insignificant diplomats, “Tevel” agents say the Mossad got its best intelligence tips through foreign agencies. Indeed, Dagan appears to have realized that in today’s global reality, the abilities of an agency that only runs agents are limited.

Terror, nuclear arms designated as top threats

Upon his arrival, Dagan announced that he was placing the war on terrorism and non-conventional arms at the top of the agenda. He fulfilled the promise, but it’s unclear what has changed and whether it brought results.

Global terror top threat (Photo: AP)

In those two issues, terror and non-conventional threats, the key area is the ability to thwart the threats. In other words, it is much less important to look into what information the Mossad was able to acquire and assess its quality, and much more important to understand that the Mossad is tasked with the national responsibility to foil external threats.

The Mossad is responsible, on our behalf, for ensuring Iran does not acquire a nuclear bomb. It is responsible, on our behalf, to ensure Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders don’t walk freely in Syria.

The Mossad may indeed be responsible, but nothing is happening. A senior military intelligence official says: “In the seventies and eighties we didn’t give those terrorists a moment’s rest, anywhere in the world. Today, they are peacefully resting in Damascus.”

Libyan failure

When it comes to non-conventional threats, the Mossad screwed up on the Libyan front twice. First, when it failed to recognize the point where Gaddafi’s futile attempt to acquire nuclear arms became serious and menacing, and later, when the Mossad director read in the newspaper about the agreement between Gaddafi and the U.S., following lengthy British mediation efforts, to dismantle Libya’s nuclear program.

Libya’s Gaddafi – Israel left in the dark (Photo: AFP)

Officials in Tevel expressed their displeasure with their American counterparts over being left out of the loop, but the Americans shrugged in response. They simply didn’t trust the Israelis to refrain from leaking the news. Besides, the Americans told the Israelis, what about your sources in Libya?

That is indeed an excellent question.

As a senior Mossad agent said: “There is no other way to characterize this failure but as a terrible screw-up. The Mossad director wakes up in the morning, and reads in the paper that a country has been erased from his list of targets to monitor.”

The most threatening country when it comes to nuclear arms is of course Iran. In that area, the Mossad can boast of several tactical achievements since Dagan took up the post, some of them in the area of psychological warfare and others in gathering information. (However, the quality of the material is under dispute, with the Europeans claiming the information was forged by the Iranian opposition.)

One way or another, Teheran continues to advance. It may be true that Israel cannot address this threat on its own, yet if the Mossad is unable to thwart the major devious plan faced by Israel, why do we need it?

Full version of article first published in newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth