by the Israeli
press. Its exposure led to the con- coctionofatissueofliesbyanISAofficer,whoclaimedthatBrigadier
GeneralYitzhakMordechayhadbeatentheterroriststodeathbeforede- liveringtheirbodiestoISAofficers.

OVERSEEING THEISRAELIINTELLIGENCECOMMUNITY

Given the importance of
intelligence, and especially the possibility of failures,oversightisessential.Firstandforemostisparliamentaryover- sightbytheKnessetSubcommitteeforIntelligenceandSecretServices. After almost every debacle, a
commission of inquiry is appointed to study the matter, to determine the reasons for the failure, and to recom- mendimprovements.

Followingthe1954BadBusiness,fourcommitteeswereappointed
toinvestigateit. ThefirstwastheUlshan-DoriCommissionin1955. ThencametheAmiadCommissionin1958,followedbytheCohen
Commission in 1960; the last to investigate this scandal was the Com- mitteeofSeventhatsameyear.Theproblemwasthatnoneofthese committeeswasastatecommissionofinquiry.

In 1963,
still in the wake of the Bad Business but also following on theheelsoftheDamoclesOperation,theYadin-SherfCommissionrec-
ommended some kind of structural change in the Israeli intelligence community,makingitmorepluralistic.Inasense,the
Yadin-Sherf CommissionattemptedtoduplicatetheU.S.pluralisticstructure,which hadevolvednaturally. Therecommendationonpluralismatthattime wasnotimplemented.

Inthewakeofthe1982eventsattheSabraandShatilarefugeecamps in Beirut on 28 September 1982, the Israeli government resolved to
es- tablish a commission of inquiry in accordance with the Israeli Com-
missionsofInquiryLawof1968.ThiswastheKahanCommission.

Nativ
as an intelligence organization was
from its inception ex- empted from the scrutiny of the Israeli state comptroller, but nowintelligence collecting was by means of spies in Arabcountries.However,sinceevenbeforethe1973YomKippurWar, Israeli intelligence has relied mostly
on technological intelligence, which includes signals intelligence (SIGINT).
Unit 8200 in MI is con- sideredamongthebestSIGINTagenciesintheworld,equalinstatusto theU.S.NationalSecurityAgency(NSA),albeitsmallerinbudgetand workforce.Israel,althoughasmallcountry,isoneofthepioneersinim- ageryintelligence(IMINT)andhasdevelopedintelligencesatellites.

The Mossad
is considered one of the leading intelligence agencies in the world in the
field of high-tech electronics. It has developed a pow- erful computer database, known as PROMIS, which can store and
re- trieve enormous quantities of information.This technology is even sold bytheMossadtointelligencecommunitiesofforeigncountries.

TRAITORS

Fromtimetotime,inIsraelasinothercountries,traitorsinthenation’sde- fenseestablishmentareuncovered.Thebestknown,andprobablytheone whocausedthemostdamagetoIsraelisecurityinterests,isYisraelBaer,
previously a lieutenant colonel in the
IDF and close to Prime
Minister Ben-GurionandhissecretsonthehistoryoftheWarofIndependence.He delivered state secrets
to the
Soviets and was arrested in
1961. Marcus Avraham Klinberg,
deputy director of the Biological
Institute in Nes Tsiona,
where Israel allegedly produces biological
weapons, was arrested in 1983
and convicted of
conveying secrets to the Soviets.
MordechaiVa-
nunu,anex-technicianattheDimonaNuclearResearchCenter,gaveaway secretsoftheIsraelinuclearweaponsprogramtotheSundayTimesin

1986.VictorOstrovsky,aformercaseofficertraineeintheMossad,wrote
andpublishedadetailedbookontheMossadwithoutpermission.Shimon
Levinson, formerly a colonel in
the IDF and affiliated with
the Mossad, wasarrestedin1993fortreasonandspyingfortheSovietUnion.

lii •INTRODUCTION

FUTURECHALLENGES

In the