CONTROL UNIT.See DEVIL’S ADVOCATE.CROSS, TED.See GROSS AFFAIR.– D –
DAGAN, MEIR (1945– ).Born Meir Huberman in the Soviet Union,
Dagan was taken to Israel in 1950 as a child survivor of the Holo-
caust. In 1963 he was inducted into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF),
and in the 1970s Dagan, under Ariel Sharon as head of Southern
Command, led the undercover Rimon unit, which killed Palestinian
militants in Gaza. Rimon worked in cooperation with the Israeli Se-
curity Agency(ISA). Its members were Mista’aravim, soldiers dis-
guised as Arabs.
In 1982 Dagan held a field command during the Israeli invasion of
southern Lebanon and the ensuing war; he then helped to establish the
pro-Israel South Lebanese Army. In Lebanon he engaged in activities
similar to those in the 1970s in the Gaza Strip. In his military career,
Dagan was twice wounded. He was awarded the medal of valor.
At the time of the first Palestinian uprising (Intifada) in the West
Bank and the Gaza Strip, Dagan served as special assistant to the IDF
chief of the General Staff (1987–1993). His task was to set up un-
dercover units attached to the general staff.
After retiring from the IDF as a major general, in 1987 Dagan was
appointed counterterrorism adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Ne-
tanyahu. In this position Dagan, known for his hawkish views, wished
to expand his powers to initiate more “offensive” and “aggressive”
measures against terrorists. He continued to serve in this position un-
der Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
In September 2002 Dagan was appointed the 10th director of the
Mossad. The appointment was controversial: former Mossad opera-
tives commented in private that Dagan lacked adequate experience in
running agents. His supporters maintained that he possessed all the
necessary attributes for the post. In any event, Dagan was a close
confidant of his old commander Ariel Sharon, now prime minister.
Since taking office Dagan, with the prime minister’s backing, has
tried to shake up the Mossad and make it relevant to the realities of the72 • CONTROL UNIT06-102 (02) A-G.qxd 3/24/06 7:23 AM Page 72