Sublime

One of the most fascinating chapters in the history of the State of Israel concerns the contribution of young Israeli scientists to the security of the newly established State. The term Cheil Mada (the Science Corps)—or HEMED, as it was known—remains largely unknown. Only a handful of members of today’s generation are aware that David Ben-Gurion wa

Othman was the director of the Syrian Atomic Energy Commission.

In 1957, Harkabi decided to establish a new unit of Arabized operators within the HUMINT

This specialist unit, under the command of Avraham Arnan, was subordinated to the director of AMAN and evolved, after a few years, into the elite unit known as Sayeret Matkal.

Back in 1986, Major General Ehud Barak, then the head of the IDF Central Command, together with the head of the operations department of the General Staff, Major General Meir Dagan, set up a highly secretive unit, Duvdevan (Hebrew for “Cherry”), to combat terrorists in the West Bank. The unit was now put into action.

Ben-Gurion had forbidden the employment of any former members of the right-wing underground in government departments, and many of them were jobless, frustrated, and hungry for action. The Shin Bet believed that some of them were dangerous and were liable to start underground movements against the regime. Harel aimed to kill two birds: to set up hi

Adolf Eichmann had been a Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) and one of the architects of the Holocaust, a central figure at the Wannsee Conference that decided on the Final Solution, and, at the time of his capture, the highest-ranking Nazi official still alive. He had spent most of his time after the war living under a pseudonym in

Ben-Gurion was determined to snuff out any remaining embers of the Irgun and the Lechi, and he convinced the cabinet to give him broad powers to end acts of terrorism, including administrative detention without trial. The era of the Jewish underground,…

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