Content area
Full text
New Mossad Chief Takes Charge in a New Era
Israel's foreign intelligence agency, Mossad, has a new director and an old problem. Mossad's director assumed office after an unusual behind-the-scenes controversy over who should have the job. He takes up his post at a time when Israel's intelligence community appears to be offering Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir (himself a longtime Mossad operative) information on both the intifadah and the PLO that he would rather not hear.
As always, the new chief of Mossad is not publicly identified. His predecessor, Nahum Admoni, had never been named in the Israeli press during his six and one-half year tenure. Admoni had come into the top intelligence post unexpectedly in 1982 during Israel's invasion of Lebanon, when the man designated as the new chief, Gen. Yekutiel Adam, was killed during the invasion. Although Admoni was a 35-year veteran of Mossad, this fact in itself led to some criticism, since former Mossad directors, at least since the end of the legendary reign of Isser Harel, have usually come from outside the agency, generally as career military men. At the beginning of this year, Israeli press reports claimed that there was a dispute over how to replace Admoni and, indeed, his replacement seems to have been somewhat delayed.
Israeli Intelligence Community Under Scrutiny
Though the head of Mossad is directly in charge only of Israeli overseas intelligence, the Mossad chief also traditionally heads...