Historical Dictionary of Israeli Intelligence

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had good relations with the directors of the Mossad, in particular with
Nahum Admoni. However, following the kidnapping of Mordechai
Vanunuon Italian soil, relations between the two men cooled.

MARZOUK, MOSHE (1926–1955).Also known as Musa Marzuk.
Marzouk was born in Cairo to a Karaite family who immigrated from
Tunisia in the early 20th century, though they remained French citi-
zens. While working for the Jewish Hospital in Cairo as a doctor in
the early of the 1950s, Marzouk was recruited by Major Avraham
Darof Unit 131to the Cairo cell of the Jewish espionage network.
Marzouk secretly journeyed to Israel after his recruitment and under-
went a short series of military training courses to qualify him for his
clandestine work in Egypt. In 1954 the group carried out a series of
sabotage bombings that came to be known as the Bad Businessor the
Lavon Affair. The members of the network were caught, interrogated,
tortured, and tried. Marzouk was sentenced to death and was hanged
on 31 January 1955.

MEDIA-INTELLIGENCE RELATIONS.Relations between Israel’s
intelligence community and the media rest on the assumption that
journalists in Israel possess a sense of responsibility and understand-
ing and are law-abiding; at the same time, they uphold the democratic
prerequisite regarding the public’s right to know. Presumably, jour-
nalists possess vastly more classified information than the intelli-
gence functionaries imagine. Yet, because of their civic responsibil-
ity, journalists display self-discipline and censor security-sensitive
information themselves.
Relations between Military Intelligence(MI) and the media are
characterized by the fact that the director of MI, the head of its Re-
search Division, and intelligence officers in the various commands of
the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) give periodic briefings to journalists.
At times, MI uses the help of the IDF spokesperson, especially when
journalists pose questions and ask for clarifications. This occurs es-
pecially in times of fighting, as in the Defensive Shield Operation in


  1. Many years of such cooperation has led to sound relations be-
    tween MI and the media.
    Relations between the Israeli Security Agency(ISA) and the me-
    dia began to develop only recently, mainly since the outbreak of the


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