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Timeline: Israeli Intelligence and Covert Operations -From the Sinai Campaign to the Capture of Eichmann |
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Timeline: Israeli Intelligence and Covert Operations -From the Sinai Campaign to the Capture of Eichmann |
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This timeline includes intelligence and covert operations from the Sinai Campaign to the capture of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann.
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Israel Pre-State Intelligence Timeline | Israel Intelligence Timeline - 1948-1956 | Israel Intelligence Timeline 1956-1960 | Israel Intelligence Timeline 1961-1967 | Israel Intelligence Timeline 1968-1973 |Israel Intelligence Timeline 1974-1982| Israel Intelligence Timeline 1983-1991 | Israel Intelligence Timeline 1992-present
Intelligence gathering and covert operations are part of the normal function of any state. Israel has spied, and been spied against. A great deal of the success of Israel, a tiny and weak state for most of its existence, and of the Zionist movement before the creation of the state, was due to its renowned information gathering and covert operations activities, carried out by the Mossad, the IDF and the Shabak. The exploits of Israeli intelligence have been lauded by its friends, and naturally enough, condemned by its enemies. Israeli intelligence has also had a number of failures, and some of them were responsible for key setbacks, such as failure to predict the Yom Kippur War.
These timelines provide detailed accounts of Israeli and Zionist covert activities since 1915.
Further reading:
A Timeline of Zionist and Israeli history provides further context and background Additional links Zionism and Israel - historical sources, Photo Gallery of Zionist History and the history of Zionism and Modern Israel and Zionism & its Impact will help round out the picture. A detailed timeline of the Six Dar War 1967 Six Day War Timeline (chronology)
Additional information (off site) Brief History of Israel and Palestine and Labor Zionism The article - Anti-Semitism includes a Timeline of Anti-Semitism
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| Oct. 29, 1956 |
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| Nov. 9 | Operation Tushia, an operation to persuade Egyptian Jews to immigrate to Israel, begins when Avraham Dar and Aryeh (Lova) Eliav, disguised as French officers, manage to attach themselves to French forces after the 1956 Sinai Campaign and march with French and British troops into Port Said. Despite the sincere effort to initiate Jewish immigration to Israel, not many Egyptian Jews show interest. | |||
| 1957 | The Bureau of Scientific Liaison (LAKAM), initially called the Office of Special Assignments, is established. Its mission is to collect scientific and technical intelligence from open and covert sources. Its first director is Binyamin Blumberg. | |||
| 1958 | The Tevel wing is established in the Mossad, responsible for maintaining "shadow diplomatic relations" between the Mossad, rather than the Israeli Foreign Ministry, and countries with which Israel has diplomatic relations. Aharon Cohen, an Israeli citizen affiliated with leftist political party Mapam, is charged with maintaining contacts with a foreign agent. | |||
| July | A revolution breaks out in Iraq, contrary to the evaluation of AMAN (MI). Abd al-Karim Qassem takes power. | |||
| Apr. 1, 1959 | A general mobilization exercise is launched, by means of unit codenames broadcast over Israel Radio, without advance notification. to the public. As a result, Yehoshafat Harkabi as head of head of AMAN (military intelligence) and his head of Operations Branch, Major General Meir Zorea, are dismissed. Harkabi is replaced by Chaim Herzog for a second term as DMI. | |||
| 1960 | Seven-year-old Yossele Schumacher is kidnapped from Jerusalem by his ultraorthodox grandfather. Later the Mossad is tasked to trace him. | |||
| Feb. 18 | Due to fears of an Israeli strike against Syria, and Egypt's wish to reinforce its posture as a strong state and to stress the vitality of Egyptian-Syrian unity, Egyptian forces secretly and under radio silence begin to cross the Suez Canal. | |||
| Feb. 23 | Aerial reconnaissance photography discovers that the Egyptian fourth armored division has disappeared. Later the division is found widely deployed facing the Israeli frontier. | |||
| Feb. 24 | A discussion chaired by the chief of the general staff is held, in which the head of AMAN (military intelligence) reports on the above discoveries. Partial mobilization of the Israeli army takes place, under the name the Rotem Affair, but no confrontation occurs between Israel and Egypt. Following the intelligence failure in early detection of the entry of Egyptian forces into the Sinai Peninsula, the subject of early warning rises to the top of the list for notification of vital information. | |||
| April | The first hint to the public of the Affair (Bad Business) is made by Uri Avneri in his weekly Ha'Olam Ha'Zeh, by the device of a fictional thriller tale for the Passover festival. Until then, details of the episode have been kept under full blackout. | |||
| May | Eli Cohen is enlisted to the MI and trained as a spy. | |||
| May 11 | Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann is captured in Argentina in a stunning Mossad operation. | |||
| May 21, 1960 |
Adolf Eichmann, dressed in the uniform of an El Al crew member and drugged, is secretly placed aboard an El Al flight from Buenos Aires to Tel Aviv. Eichmann was in charge of the deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz and was a fugitive from justice. The Argentinean government had hidden him and other Nazi war criminals in defiance of international law. The photo shows Eichmann in trial in Jerusalem, in a special glass cage built for his protection. |
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