---
category: Intelligence & Government
summary: Colonel Reuben Yirador was a department commander in Unit 8200, an Israeli
  Signals Intelligence (Sigint) unit.
tags:
- Person
- Israel
- Soviet
- Military
---

Colonel [Reuben Yirador](/people/reuben-yirador/) was a department commander in [Unit 8200](/organizations/unit-8200/), an [Israeli](/places/israel/) Signals Intelligence (Sigint) unit. He was later replaced by [Lt. Col. Sasson Yishaek](/people/sasson-yishaek/) as commander of the department, but remained in [Mossad](/organizations/mossad/).[^1]

In 1972, [Yirador](/people/reuben-yirador/) was involved in a significant discovery when he 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]

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