had as its intelligence arm a body known as the Infor- mationService(SheruthYedioth,orShai).Itstaskwastocollectinfor-
mationontheBritish,the Arabs,andtheJewsinPalestine.Shaiwas formallysetupinSeptember1940andwasstructuredasthreemainde-
partments. TheBritishdepartment,alsoknownasthePoliticalDepart- ment, was assigned to infiltrate the British army, police, and govern- mentinmandatoryPalestine.The ArabDepartmentwasheadedbya
JewishArabist,EzraDanin.TheInternalDepartmentfocusedprinci- pally
on Jews on the right of the political spectrum in Palestine who weremembersofmilitiasotherthantheHaganah.

AftertheriseofIsraelasanindependentstateinMay1948,Shaiwas
disbanded the next month on 30 June. Utilizing Shai’s manpower and experience, the formal Israeli intelligence organizations were created. MI was
established in the IDF, initially as
the Department for Military Intelligence,laterupgradedtotheDirectorateofMilitaryIntelligencein

1953. ThemaintaskofMIinthe1950swastoassesstheoperational
feasibility of military reprisals against proposed targets after fedayeen infiltrationandattacksonIsraelicivilians.Anothertask,whichbecame
the most dominant one, was to provide early warning against a possi- bilityofwarbeinglaunchedagainstIsraelbyanyneighboringArab
country. MI is still considered the
principal intelligence organization
in theIsraeliintelligencecommunityinassessingimminentthreats.

The
main activity of MI nowadays is to produce comprehensive na- tional intelligence estimates for the
Israeli prime minister and cabinet, including communications interception, target studies on the nearby Arabstates,andintelligenceaboutthechancesofwar.
Thisfunctionis knownasassessment.

Aftertheconclusions drawn as to whether it servesthepolicymakersbetterornot.

Followinganotherrecommendationofthe
AgranatCommission,an intelligence arm was reestablished in
the Foreign Ministry, again with thepurposeofpluralismofassessment.Thisnewlyestablishedbody was named the Center for Political Planning and Research
(CPPR). But in1977,theforeignministerMosheDayanwasreluctanttoinvolvethis intelligencearmtoomuchintheplanninganddecision-makingprocess, so the word “planning” was
dropped and the name today is the Center forPoliticalResearch(CPR).Itsmaintaskisanalysisofinformationre-
ceivedfromforeignministrydiplomatsworldwide.

TheIsraeliSecurity
Agency(ISA)—popularlyknowninIsraeland
worldwide by the Hebrew acronym Shabak and also as Shin Bet—was formed
initially in 1948 as a unit in the IDF for internal security and
counterespionage.TheArabAffairs Branch of the ISAmainly conducts antiterroristactivities.TheNon-ArabAffairsBranchisresponsiblefor counterespionage; it was at first subdivided into Communist
and non- Communist subsections, but that distinction became obsolete after the
collapseoftheSovietUnion. ThefunctionsoftheProtectiveSecurity BranchofISAincludeprotectingforemostIsraelifiguressuchasthe

xliv •INTRODUCTION

president, the prime
minister, and other government
ministers. In addi- tion, it is in charge
of protecting state buildings, embassies, and Israeli airlines.AttherecommendationoftheAgranatCommission,aresearch departmentwassetupintheArabAffairsBranchoftheISA.This branch covers three fields:
Palestine: political; Palestine: sabotage; and Palestinians:Israeli. Academicsintherelativedisciplinesareengaged
forresearchintheseISAareas.

In1960,whenShimonPereswasdeputydirector-generaloftheMin- istry of Defense, LAKAM was
instituted, as