about the Egyptian and the Syrian military capabilities and their armies’
deployment was known; yet despite all, there was a deep misunder-
standing with regard to Egyptian and Syrian intentions.
Every democracy, and a democracy more than a nondemocracy,
needs the tool of covert action. This is usually regarded as the “third
option,” something between all-out war, which is overwhelming, and
diplomacy, which often produces no effective results. Israeli intelli-
gence acts covertly. Some of the actions have been highly successful
and impressive, while others failed and turned into fiascos. Covert
actions were undertaken primarily by the Mossad, but MI and the
elite units (especially Sayeret Matkal) took part in the most striking
ones. The Israeli Security Agency (ISA) has also engaged in covert
actions.
While covert action is not unique to Israeli intelligence, the Mossad
and Nativ have been given a unique responsibility for taking care of
Jewish citizens of other countries in distress, especially in so-called
rogue states and in the former communist bloc countries. These activi-
ties have included bringing Jews secretly out of Arab countries, such as
those of the Maghreb, as well as from Ethiopia. No other intelligence
service in the world is known to protect such a widespread group of
people who are not citizens of the state to which the intelligence service
belongs.
The Israeli intelligence community, especially the Bureau of Scien-
tific Liaison (LAKAM), has engaged in the acquisition of military tech-
nology and know-how for Israel, which frequently was embargoed by
Western counties. For example, after the 1967 Six-Day War, France was
reluctant to sell Mirage III aircraft to the Israel Air Force, and so
LAKAM undertook the theft of Mirage III blueprints. LAKAM was
also involved in obtaining uranium for Israeli nuclear weapons devel-
opment.
The 1968 Plumbat Operation, known also as the Uranium Ship Op-
eration, is a good example of such covert activity, in which a team of Is-
raeli agents hijacked a ship full of uranium for the use of the Israeli nu-
clear weapons program. Israeli intelligence, through the director of
security for the Defense Establishment (DSDE), was in charge of pro-
tecting and hiding the “greatest secret,” the Israeli nuclear weapons pro-
gram. But it failed when Mordechai Vanunu revealed the program to the
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