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  • Of all the world’s intelligence and spy agencies, one of the most infamous, and yet

  • secretive, is the Israeli Mossad. The organization has been directly implicated in everything

  • from extrajudicial assassinations, to capturing former Nazis, and successfully infiltrating

  • enemy governments. So, what exactly do we know about Mossad?

  • Well, Mossad, or "The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operationsis one of five intelligence

  • services of Israel. While others are predominantly focused on domestic, military, and law enforcement

  • intelligence, Mossad is considered the primary foreign intelligence service. Since Israel

  • is surrounded by relatively unfriendly countries, the information gathered by the spy agency

  • is critical enough to be reported directly to the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

  • As with any major spy organization, specific details about Mossad are not well known. Although

  • it was founded around 1950, its director was only publicly revealed in 1996. Additionally,

  • compared to other agencies, Mossad is incredibly small, with an estimated 1,200 personnel.

  • By comparison, the US’s equivalent foreign spy agency, the CIA, is estimated to have

  • about 20,000 employees.

  • One of the many functions they perform abroad is helping Jewish refugees escape countries

  • where they may be persecuted or attacked, in what is called Aliyah. Particularly hostile

  • or war-torn countries like Syria, Iran, and Ethiopia have seen Mossad agents help Jews

  • emigrate to Israel.

  • But in addition to clandestine humanitarian efforts, Mossad has also been accused of regular

  • extrajudicial assassinations. Human rights groups have widely criticized a 2006 ruling

  • by the Supreme Court of Israel which stated that government agents executing suspected

  • terrorists before they could act was a legitimate form of preemptive self defense. Mossad agents

  • have been suspected of killing high-ranking members of Hamas and Hezbollah, both long

  • considered terrorist groups by Israel and the United States. In 2010, one of the founders

  • of Hamasmilitary wing was found drugged and suffocated in a hotel room in Dubai, which

  • Dubai police blamed on Mossad. But not all the assassinations are so secretive. In 2004,

  • an Israeli Apache Helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles at close range at a founder of Hamas,

  • killing him and injuring multiple bystanders.

  • Mossad also works to bring international criminals to court. Following World War Two, Adolf Eichmann,

  • one of the principal architects of the Holocaust, avoided prosecution for war crimes by escaping

  • to Argentina. Fifteen years after the end of the war, in 1960, Mossad agents discovered

  • and captured Eichmann, taking him back to Israel to stand trial for war crimes and crimes

  • against humanity. He was found guilty and hanged in 1962.

  • Around that time, a Mossad agent, Eli Cohen, infiltrated the Syrian government. He befriended

  • high ranking government officials, and was eventually appointed the Chief Advisor to

  • the Minister of Defense. Although he was found out and executed by Syrian authorities in

  • 1965, the intelligence he gathered helped Israel win the extremely contentious Six Day

  • War.

  • Although Mossad performs some humanitarian and defensive purposes, many criticize the

  • Israeli government for letting agents act with impunity, especially in cases of extrajudicial

  • assassination. But whether the full extend of Mossad’s actions abroad will ever be

  • known is extremely unlikely.

  • Another infamously secret intelligence agency was the Soviet Union’s komitet gosudarstivnoy

  • bezopasnosti, or the KGB. Learn more about this massive and infamous agency by watching

  • this video!

Of all the world’s intelligence and spy agencies, one of the most infamous, and yet

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B2 中高級

為什麼以色列的間諜會引起如此大的爭議? (Why Are Israel's Spies So Controversial?)

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    BH 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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