Historical Dictionary of Israeli Intelligence

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The main task in this sector was surveillance of underground groups
that still existed from the prestate period such as the Irgun.His other
task was counterintelligence, principally with respect to Britain, which
was then considered a hostile country. The ISA had the job of tracing
British citizens still in Israel after the end of the Mandate, whose num-
ber could not be assessed. In 1951 Caroz was transferred to Jerusalem
and appointed head of the Jerusalem sector.
In early 1951 Caroz participated in the first interservice course of
the Israeli intelligence community. Participants were from Military
Intelligence, the intelligence unit of the Israel Police, and the ISA.
After graduating from the course later that year, he was appointed to
head the Arab Affairs Branch of the ISA. He engaged in preventing
the organization of hostile Arab movements within Israel’s borders.
After Isser Harel, the first director of the ISA, became director of
the Mossad, Caroz was transferred to the latter organization and was
sent to Paris, mainly on missions of conveying Jews from North
Africa to Israel. He remained in France, where he headed Misgeret,
the Mossad’s subagency for smuggling Jews out of North Africa (es-
pecially Morocco and Algeria) to Israel. In Paris, Caroz also helped
in some ways to develop Franco-Israeli relations on the eve of the
1956 Sinai Campaign. In November 1957, Caroz was dispatched for
a short period to Iran to develop Israel’s relations with that country.
In December 1957 Caroz returned to Paris, ending his career there
in April 1958. He was then sent a few times on brief secret missions
to Ethiopia and Sudan as part of Israel’s Periphery Doctrineof fos-
tering relations with countries on the edges of the Arab world.
In 1958 Caroz was asked by Harel to set up the Tevel wing of the
Mossad, which was to be responsible for maintaining “shadow
diplomatic relations” between the Mossad, rather than the Israeli
Foreign Ministry, and countries with which Israel did not have
diplomatic relations. Liaison between the Mossad and foreign intel-
ligence communities had existed almost from the day of its estab-
lishment but a wing dedicated to this matter had not existed before


  1. Caroz created and was the first head of Tevel. He left this po-
    sition in summer 1961.
    In the 1960s Caroz was on the team searching for the kidnapped
    Israeli boy Yossele Schumacher. He also took part in the Damocles
    Operationto prevent German scientists from developing surface-to-


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