post at the NSC until the appointment of a new chair. One can expect
that Eiland’s successor as NSC chairman will be no more than a civil
servant. After all, with four different heads of the National Security
Council in a period of only six years, it would appear that the NSC
and its chairman have no real status and that the leadership in Israel
has no intention of imparting any substantial content to this body.NATIV. Formerly called Bilu, this intelligence organization was estab-
lished in March 1951 after the dismantling of the Mossad Le’Aliyah
Beth, which was active in illegal immigration to Palestine during the
period of the British Mandate. Its cover name was Liaison Bureau
(Lishkat Ha’Kesher), and its first director was Shaul Avigur.
Nativ was responsible for the connection with Jews in the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and Eastern Europe, and for im-
migration to Israel from those countries. Over the years, Nativ became
an inseparable part of the Israeli intelligence community. It estab-
lished research and intelligence-gathering units and carried out clan-
destine operations, such as sending agents under diplomatic cover to
Israeli consulates in countries behind the Iron Curtain. Nativ also ran
secret operations to establish contact with Jews and to provide them
with informational materials about Israel, prayer books, Hebrew dic-
tionaries, and the like. To this end, it recruited Jews who were citizens
of countries other than Israel and members of youth movements
abroad. As a cover for its operations, Nativ also used vessels of the Is-
raeli merchant fleet that visited Soviet harbors, especially Odessa.
Every ship carried a Nativ operative, who was routinely suspected by
the Soviet KGB and tailed along with the other crewmen.
In 1961 Nativ expanded its operations and set up a unit called Bar,
which received funding from organizations in the United States con-
trolled by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), among others. The
unit was charged with spearheading a movement among Jewish or-
ganizations and leaders throughout the world to apply pressure on the
Soviet Union to allow Jews to immigrate to Israel. The Kremlin con-
sidered Nativ a hostile espionage organization inciting the Jewish
population to emigrate, and every effort was made to repress it, in-
cluding placing the Nativ operatives under surveillance by the KGB.
The expansion of its operations enabled Nativ to set up stations at
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