Raviv, Dan and Melman, Yossi. Every Spy a Prince: The Complete History of Israel's Intelligence Community. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. 466 pages.

Several books in NameBase tell the history of Israel's Mossad, which is responsible for "foreign intelligence collection, political action and counterterrorism, ... [and which] conducts agent operations against the Arab nations and their official representatives and installations, particularly in Western Europe and the United States." This is from a CIA analysis that was discovered by Iranian students in Tehran in 1979, and reprinted in CounterSpy. Former Mossad chief Isser Harel called the CIA document "anti- Semitic" and a "nightmare" for him, and said that it was "shockingly irresponsible" for the CIA to keep a document like this "rolling around" in the U.S. Embassy. Mossad and Shin Beth have only 1,000 staff officers, but they manage to create more than their fair share of controversy.

Dan Raviv, a CBS news correspondent in London, and Israeli journalist Yossi Melman, a 1989-90 Nieman Fellow at Harvard, present what might be termed the "academic establishment" history of Israeli intelligence. This makes it less "complete" than their subtitle pretends, but they do cover other agencies in addition to Mossad: Israeli military intelligence (Aman), domestic security (Shin Bet), and nuclear secrets (Lakam). The authors regret Israel's recent intelligence setbacks, and feel there's no conflict between democracy and covert activity, as long as the public is in charge!
ISBN 0-395-47102-8

Extract the names from this source

Back to search page