Sharett, and the director of the Mossad, Reuven Shiloah, decided
that the intelligence-collecting function should be removed from the
Foreign Ministry; thus its Political Department would be dismantled.
A month later the Mossad became part of the Prime Minister’s Office,
reporting directly to the prime minister.
As a result of this organizational change, on 2 March 1951 senior
executives of the Political Department submitted their resignations.
For one, Asher Ben-Natan, stationed in Europe where he headed the
Political Department’s operations and activities on that continent re-
fused to acquiesce to the new arrangement. On that day, he assembled
his senior operations officers at Geneva, and they resolved not to
work for any other of the Israeli intelligence organizations. This col-
lective resignation became known as the “spies’ revolt.” The rebels
threatened that if Ben-Natan was not left in charge of the foreign es-
pionage operations of the Political Department, Israeli intelligence
activities would suffer severe damage.
The revolt did not last long; Shiloah enjoyed Ben-Gurion’s unre-
served backing and the reorganization process went ahead. The func-
tions of the Political Department were distributed among the other Is-
raeli intelligence organizations. Responsibility for special
assignments was transferred to Military Intelligenceof the Israel
Defense Forces, headed by Colonel Binyamin Gibli. This depart-
ment soon established the ultrasecret Unit 131with the mission of
planting agents in Arab countries. All other activities of intelligence
collections and operations in foreign countries were assigned to the
Mossad. The revolt ended on 1 April 1951, subsequently considered
the official birth date of the Mossad.SPRING OF YOUTH OPERATION.Launched on 9 April 1973,
this operation was carried out by approximately 40 commandos
from the elite Sayeret Matkalof the Israel Defense Forces, which
chose the operation’s name. Its purpose was to avenge the deaths of
the Israeli athletes slaughtered in the Munich massacre at the 1972
Olympic Games by eliminating those in any way responsible for the
killings.
In February 1973 Ehud Barak, the Sayeret Matkal commander,
obtained photographs and precise information as to the whereabouts
of three Palestinians involved in the massacre: Kamal Adwan, Ka-
mal Nasser, and Mahmoud Yussuf Najjer, known as Abu Yussef,SPRING OF YOUTH OPERATION• 27306-102 (04) Q-Z.qxd 3/24/06 7:26 AM Page 273