---
category: Intelligence Operation
location: near Tel Aviv, Israel
start: 1952
summary: Unit 8200 is Israel's primary signals intelligence and code-breaking unit,
  housed at a base near Tel Aviv adjacent to a Mossad facility, operating under strict
  compartmentalized need-to-know protocols.
tags:
- Program
- IntelligenceOperation
- Israel
---

[Unit 8200](/organizations/unit-8200/) is an [Israeli](/places/israel/) Signals Intelligence (Sigint) unit, specializing in code-breaking. It is housed in a base located near a country club north of [Tel Aviv](/places/tel-aviv/), with a nearby building known as "the villa" belonging to [Mossad](/organizations/mossad/), where top-secret security meetings were held. The unit operates on a need-to-know basis, with departments requiring special permission to access each other's areas.[^1]

Key personnel mentioned in connection with [Unit 8200](/organizations/unit-8200/) include Col. [Yoel Ben-Porat](/people/yoel-ben-porat/) (unit commander, known as Buffy), Lt. Col. [Sasson Yishaek](/people/sasson-yishaek/) (number-two in code-breaking, later commander), Col. [Reuben Yirador](/people/reuben-yirador/) (department commander), and [Shulamit Ingerman](/people/shulamit-ingerman/) (head of the Iranian desk and a cryptographer).[^1]

[Ari Ben-Menashe](/people/ari-ben-menashe/) was stationed in [Unit 8200](/organizations/unit-8200/)'s code-breaking department, specifically on the [Iranian](/places/iran/) desk, from 1975 to 1977. He claims to have broken the [Iranian](/places/iran/) diplomatic code, which allowed [Israel](/places/israel/) to read coded messages faster than the [Iranians](/places/iran/). This breakthrough eliminated the need to "acquire" the weekly black book sent by diplomatic pouch to the [Iranian](/places/iran/) embassy in Ramat Gan.[^1]

[Unit 8200](/organizations/unit-8200/) was involved in monitoring [Iranian](/places/iran/) communications through satellite stations in Bet Ella and listening stations in northern [Israel](/places/israel/), the [Sinai](/places/sinai/), and overseas (e.g., [Japan](/places/japan/), [Italy](/places/italy/), Ethiopia). These stations intercepted traffic from the [Iranian](/places/iran/) Foreign Ministry, Royal Court, [SAVAK](/organizations/savak/), and [Iranian](/places/iran/) military intelligence.[^1]

In 1972, Col. [Reuben Yirador](/people/reuben-yirador/) decoded a [Soviet](/places/soviet-union/) intercept (VENONA) that revealed the [Soviets](/places/soviet-union/) were bugging the office of [Golda Meir](/people/golda-meir/), then Prime Minister of [Israel](/places/israel/). This discovery, along with [Meir's](/people/golda-meir/) meeting with [Leonid Brezhnev](/people/leonid-brezhnev/) and her rejection of a peace settlement, informed [Anwar Sadat](/people/anwar-sadat/) and may have prompted the 1973 war.[^1]

In 1976, [Ari Ben-Menashe](/people/ari-ben-menashe/), while on duty in [Unit 8200](/organizations/unit-8200/), intercepted a telegram detailing [Lockheed](/organizations/lockheed-aircraft-company/) bribes paid to Defense Minister [Shimon Peres](/people/shimon-peres/). This information was subsequently covered up by superiors, including [Buffy](/people/yoel-ben-porat/) and [Lt. Col. Yishaek](/people/sasson-yishaek/).[^1]

[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992.