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272 entries tagged Israel.

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  • Abraham Feinberg Abraham Feinberg was a wealthy New York businessman and ardent advocate of statehood for Israel.
  • Abraham Sourassi Abraham Sourassi was a senior Israeli engineer at Dimona, responsible for building the reprocessing plant.
  • Abu Nidal Palestinian terrorist and target of Israeli intelligence operations, connected to the Achille Lauro attack and arms trafficking networks.
  • Abul Abbas Palestinian terrorist involved in the 1985 Achille Lauro attack, which was allegedly an Israeli black propaganda operation.
  • Aharon Katchalsky Aharon Katchalsky, later known as Aharon Katzir, was a specialist in the electrolytic properties of chain molecules and a pioneer researcher in the related field of muscle-powered robotics.
  • Alan Garcia President of Peru who declared martial law in Ayacucho in 1980 due to the growing influence of the Shining Path Maoist terrorist group.
  • Alex Karp Alex Karp is the cofounder and chief executive of Palantir Technologies, a Stanford-trained social theorist who built the data-analytics firm with Peter Thiel and turned it into a major contractor to U.S. intelligence, the military, and Israel.
  • Alexander M. Haig, Jr. Secretary of State under President Reagan who was present at high-command meetings following Israel's 1981 bombing of the Iraqi Osirak nuclear reactor.
  • Algie A. Wells Director of international affairs for the AEC in 1958 who believed U.S. officials could have learned about Israel's Dimona reactor earlier.
  • Amiram Nir Nir resigned from his TV job to work as a public relations adviser for Peres during the 1981 elections.
  • Amos Deshalit Amos Deshalit was a prominent Israeli physicist who headed the physics division at the Weizmann Institute of Science.
  • Amos Lapidot Amos Lapidot was the chief of staff of the Israeli Air Force.
  • Andrew J. Goodpaster U.S. Army General who served as military aide to Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon and was involved in diplomatic exchanges regarding Israel's Dimona nuclear facility.
  • Anne Henderson-Pollard Anne Henderson-Pollard was Jonathan Pollard's wife who participated in his espionage operation by photocopying classified documents and assisting in their transfer to Israeli handlers, pleaded guilty in 1986 to two counts related to the operation, and died in Israel in February 1990 from complications of Crohn's disease.
  • Anthony Eden Anthony Eden was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1955 to 1957.
  • Anthony Pearson According to Mossad files, Pearson could also arrange assassinations for $50,000, splitting the fee with a hit man recruited in Louisiana.
  • Anwar Sadat He was informed by the Soviets about Israel's attitude towards a comprehensive peace settlement in the Middle East, following Golda Meir's meeting with Leonid Brezhnev in 1972.
  • Ardeshir Zahedi Iranian ambassador to the U.S. who served as a key intelligence source for Israel, reporting on American Middle East policy to the Shah.
  • Ari Ben-Menashe Ari Ben-Menashe is an Iranian-born Israeli-Canadian who describes himself as a former military-intelligence official and became a recurring source for claims about U.S.-Israeli arms dealing, the October Surprise, PROMIS, Robert Maxwell, and Jeffrey Epstein, claims repeatedly found uncorroborated and, by a congressional task force, not credible.
  • Arieh Shur Colonel Arieh Shur was an officer in the Israeli Defense Forces' External Relations Department.
  • Ariel Sharon Ariel Sharon was an Israeli General.
  • Arthur C. Lundahl Lundahl played a crucial role in the U-2 Spy Plane program, becoming the American government's most listened-to briefing officer.
  • Arthur Krock Arthur Krock was a prominent Washington columnist for the New York Times.
  • Avi Pazner Spokesman and national security adviser to Israeli PM Yitzhak Shamir, involved in covert operations including arms sales and Iraq-related intelligence.
  • Aviem Sella Colonel Aviem Sella was an Israeli Air Force officer and a nuclear targeting expert who was implicated in the Jonathan Pollard espionage case, where he worked with Pollard to obtain intelligence from the U.S.
  • Avraham Harman Avraham Harman was the Israeli ambassador to the United States.
  • Baruch Bar Lev Colonel Baruch Bar Lev was a former Israeli military attaché in Uganda.
  • Bashir Gemayel Elected president of Lebanon after the 1982 Israeli invasion; reportedly on the CIA payroll and assassinated before taking office.
  • Bertrand Goldschmidt Bertrand Goldschmidt was a French nuclear chemist who served during World War II with American nuclear researchers, becoming an expert in the chemistry of plutonium and plutonium extraction.
  • Binyamin Blumberg Binyamin Blumberg was a former military intelligence officer handpicked by Shimon Peres to direct the Office of Special Tasks, a new intelligence agency created to provide security for Israel's burgeoning nuclear operation at Dimona.
  • Bourke B. Hickenlooper Conservative Republican Senator who accused Israel of lying about its secret nuclear reactor at Dimona during a closed 1961 Senate session.
  • Bruce Williams Bruce Williams was a U.S.
  • Carl Kaysen Carl Kaysen is a distinguished political economist who served as deputy assistant to the President for national security affairs.
  • Carlos Cardoen Cardoen later resigned and became a private contractor, securing a deal to supply all blasting equipment to the Chilean Mining Corporation.
  • Caspar Weinberger Caspar Weinberger served as the Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan.
  • Chapman Pincher Chapman Pincher was a British journalist known for his close ties to the British intelligence and nuclear communities.
  • Charles de Gaulle Charles de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II and later founded the Fifth Republic, serving as its first President from 1959 to 1969.
  • Charles Lucet Charles Lucet was a senior French foreign ministry official who served as deputy ambassador in Washington D.C.
  • Charles N. Van Doren Deputy general counsel of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency who believed Israel was the Achilles heel of U.S. nonproliferation policy.
  • Christian A. Herter Secretary of State under Eisenhower who confronted Israel and France over the Dimona nuclear reactor after being shown photographic evidence.
  • Christian Pineau Christian Pineau was a French politician who served as Foreign Minister.
  • Cindy Hanin Bentov Cindy Hanin Bentov (a pseudonym) was a Mossad agent.
  • Cyrus Hashemi Iranian exile involved in secret arms sales and hostage negotiations during Iran-Contra who became a U.S. Customs informant before being found dead in London under suspicious circumstances.
  • Daniel Ellsberg Daniel Ellsberg was an American activist and former military analyst who famously leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times in 1971.
  • David Ben-Gurion David Ben-Gurion, often referred to as the 'Old Man,' was a central figure in the establishment of Israel and served as its first Prime Minister and Defense Minister from 1948 to 1963, with one brief interlude.
  • David E. Long State Department Middle East expert who revealed that Israeli nuclear intelligence was treated as a strictly taboo subject within the U.S. bureaucracy.
  • David Elazar David Elazar, also known as Dado, was the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army.
  • David Kimche David Kimche was a senior Mossad officer who became director-general of Israel's Foreign Ministry and served as the primary Israeli architect of the arms-for-hostages initiative that became the Iran-Contra affair, pressing the Reagan administration in mid-1985 to approve weapons transfers to Iran.
  • David Lowenthal David Lowenthal was one of the initial stockholders in the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC).
  • David Stern Leader of LEHI (Stern Gang), a Jewish terrorist group known for its anti-British stance, succeeded by Yitzhak Shamir.
  • Dino A. Brugioni Dino A. Brugioni (1921-2015) was a CIA photo intelligence officer who analyzed U-2 reconnaissance imagery and identified early evidence of the Israeli nuclear reactor at Dimona in the late 1950s, noting that senior officials chose to look the other way.
  • Donald M. Kerr, Jr. Acting director of defense programs at the Department of Energy who directed the Nuclear Intelligence Panel study of the 1979 Vela satellite flash, concluding it was a nuclear bomb.
  • Donna Hamilton U.S. consul general in Peru who enlisted Ari Ben-Menashe to secure the release of Cynthia McNamara, an American citizen jailed on Shining Path-related charges.
  • Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight D. Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States (1953-1961) who authorized Operation AJAX, Operation PBSUCCESS, and the U-2 aerial reconnaissance program, and whose farewell address warning against the military-industrial complex became foundational to critiques of Cold War national security state expansion.
  • Edward Teller Edward Teller was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who is widely known as the 'father of the hydrogen bomb.' He and other American nuclear weapons designers understood well before the end of World War II that a far more powerful nuclear device, with fission as merely a first step, was theo
  • Ehud Barak Ehud Barak is an Israeli former prime minister, defense minister, and military intelligence chief whose documented years-long relationship with Jeffrey Epstein included Epstein brokering an introduction to Peter Thiel over Palantir, an April 2014 email proposing a Thiel meeting, and a 2015 arrangement through which Epstein quietly invested approximately one million dollars in the Israeli surveillance-tech startup Carbyne.
  • Elad Peled Elad Peled was an Israeli Major General and director of Israel's Defense College.
  • Ephraim Evron Ephraim Evron, also known as Effy Evron, was an Israeli diplomat who served as the Israeli ambassador to Washington D.C..
  • Eugene M. Braderman Deputy assistant secretary of state for commercial affairs who was pressured by Israelis to help the U.S. accept Israel's nuclear weapons.
  • Eugene Wigner Eugene Wigner was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate.
  • Ezer Weizman Israeli Defense Minister under Begin who negotiated the SIMWA wartime alliance with South Africa and later became President of Israel.
  • Faissal Ghows In December 1980, Ghows delivered $56 million to Ari Ben-Menashe in Guatemala.
  • Fawn Hall Secretary to Oliver North during the Iran-Contra Affair and daughter of Robert McFarlane's secretary Wilma Hall.
  • Floyd L. Culler, Jr. Culler's team spent days at Dimona, climbing through various excavations, but found nothing suspicious, despite the elaborate Israeli deception, which included a false control room and practice sessions for Israeli technicians.
  • Frank Barnaby Frank Barnaby was a nuclear physicist and former employee of Britain's nuclear weapons installation at Aldermaston.
  • Frank Press Frank Press was the presidential science adviser during the Carter administration.
  • Gary Francis Powers Gary Francis Powers was an American pilot whose U-2 Spy Plane was shot down over the Soviet Union on May 1, 1960, leading to a major international incident.
  • George A. Cowan American nuclear weapons designer at Los Alamos for over twenty years who acknowledged close associations with Israeli physicists from the Weizmann Institute.
  • George Ball George Ball served as the Under Secretary of State during the Kennedy administration.
  • George Cave In February 1989, Cave was spotted in Paraguay with Earl Brian, visiting Gen.
  • George H.W. Bush Vice President under Reagan and 41st U.S. President who dealt with Israel's nuclear program, the VELA incident, and sanctions discussions after Osirak bombing, while simultaneously overseeing anti-drug efforts as Contra-connected drug traffickers operated with impunity.
  • Gerald Bull In 1981, Bull approached Israel Military Industries in Israel hoping to sell his project, but they were more interested in missile technology.
  • Gerald G. Oplinger Aide to National Security Advisor Brzezinski present at the White House situation room meeting responding to the 1979 Vela satellite nuclear test detection.
  • Gerald R. Ford In late 1976, at the end of his tenure as President, Henry A.
  • Glenn R. Cella Cella was dismayed that a study of the military balance in the region, ordered by the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), made no mention of Israeli nuclear capability.
  • Golda Meir In 1956, Golda Meir replaced Moshe Sharett as Foreign Minister, bringing her distinctive approach to Israel's international relations.
  • Guy Mollet Guy Mollet was a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 1956 to 1957.
  • Hans Bethe Hans Bethe was a German-American theoretical physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1967.
  • Harold M. Agnew American physicist and Los Alamos director (1970-1979) who served on the Nuclear Intelligence Panel and criticized suppression of the VELA Satellite findings.
  • Harry H. Schwartz Aide to Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Warnke who witnessed Warnke directly confronting Israeli Ambassador Rabin about Israel's nuclear weapons program.
  • Harry S. Truman 33rd U.S. President who declined Israeli military offers during the Korean War, reportedly fearing a binding security arrangement with Israel.
  • Hashemi brothers The Hashemi brothers were a trio of Iranian brothers living in the West who claimed to have connections in Iran with Ahmed Khomeini, the son of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
  • Hedrick Smith Hedrick Smith was a Washington correspondent for the New York Times.
  • Henry A. Kissinger Henry A. Kissinger served as National Security Advisor (1969-1975) and Secretary of State (1973-1977) under Nixon and Ford, and endorsed Israel's covert nuclear weapons program at Dimona while privately advocating that Japan and Israel were better served by having the bomb than submitting to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
  • Henry Grunwald Editor-in-chief of Time magazine who vetoed publication of the North-Nir story that later became known as the Iran-Contra Affair.
  • Hermann F. Eilts Hermann F. Eilts (1922-2006) was the U.S. Ambassador to Egypt during the Yom Kippur War and Kissinger shuttle diplomacy era, who later disclosed that Kissinger had withheld information about Israeli nuclear arming until a final meeting in late 1976.
  • Hushang Lavi Iranian Jewish arms dealer recruited by Mossad who coordinated the October 1980 Washington meeting on hostage release negotiations.
  • I. I. Rabi American physicist and Nobel laureate who visited Israel's Dimona reactor in 1961 and reported no evidence of a weapons facility.
  • Ian Smart Ian Smart was a young British diplomat who served as third secretary of the British embassy in Tel Aviv in the late 1950s.
  • Idi Amin Relations between Israel and Uganda deteriorated after Col.
  • Iran Najd Rankuni Tehran contact for the Hashemi brothers, head of the Dervish movement, and son-in-law of future Iranian president Rafsanjani.
  • J. Robert Oppenheimer Oppenheimer's personal papers indicate he visited Israel in May 1958 to participate in ceremonies marking the opening of the Institute of Nuclear Science in Rehovot.
  • Jack P. Ruina His panel's assignment was carefully weighted towards investigating the possibility that the VELA sighting had been a false alarm.
  • Jack Varona Assistant Deputy Director of the DIA for technical affairs who headed the U.S. delegation at a 1979 Israel-U.S. intelligence exchange.
  • James A. Baker III Chief of Staff under President Reagan who agreed sanctions against Israel were essential after the 1981 bombing of Iraq's Osirak reactor.
  • James E. Lovett Senior AEC scientist hired by NUMEC who discovered that missing uranium was embedded in concrete floors and ventilation systems.
  • James Jesus Angleton James Jesus Angleton served as the CIA's chief of counterintelligence from 1954 to 1974, running the illegal HT/LINGUAL mail opening program, overseeing Operation CHAOS domestic surveillance, opening a 201 file on Lee Harvey Oswald in 1960 under a deliberately wrong name, maintaining the CIA's Israeli intelligence liaison under KK MOUNTAIN, and conducting a mole hunt triggered by his betrayal by Kim Philby that destroyed dozens of CIA officers' careers while the actual Soviet penetrations - Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen - operated undetected for years after his 1974 firing.
  • James R. Schlesinger Secretary of Defense under Nixon and Ford who observed Kissinger's strategy during the 1973 Yom Kippur War of wanting Israel to succeed but bleed.
  • Jamshid Hashemi One of the Hashemi brothers, involved in secret arms sales to Iran and later became an informant for U.S. Customs.
  • Jens C. Hauge Norwegian official who conducted Norway's only inspection of heavy water sold to Israel, accepting Bergmann's claims uncritically.
  • Jerome B. Wiesner President Kennedy's science adviser who was deliberately excluded from intelligence about Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor at David Ben-Gurion's request.
  • Jimmy Carter 39th U.S. President who led nuclear nonproliferation efforts against South Africa, provided Israel KH-11 satellite access, and oversaw early psychic research funding.
  • Jody Powell Jody Powell was President Jimmy Carter's press secretary.
  • John A. McCone McCone's leak was his parting shot as AEC commissioner, as he announced his resignation shortly after.
  • John F. Kennedy Kennedy's presidency was marked by a struggle with Israel over its nuclear ambitions, particularly concerning the Dimona reactor.
  • John Foster Dulles John Foster Dulles served as the Secretary of State under President Dwight D.
  • John Knight London-based arms dealer who ran Dynavest Limited, supplying weapons from Yugoslavia to Palestinian groups via Mohammed Radi Abdullah.
  • John L. Hadden Hadden sent Colonel Carmelo V.
  • John von Neumann John von Neumann was a Hungarian-American mathematician and physicist who made significant contributions to quantum physics, functional analysis, set theory, economics, computer science, and nuclear physics.
  • John Vorster John Vorster was the Prime Minister of South Africa.
  • John W. Finney Finney's article, published on December 19, 1960, on the front page of the Times, informed the American public about what Arthur C.
  • Jonathan Pollard Pollard was an unhappy child in South Bend, Indiana, tormented and beaten in grade school for being Jewish.
  • Jose Rodriguez Colonel Jose Rodriguez was a pilot in Paraguay, serving as the pilot for Ari Ben-Menashe during his inspection of Cardoen Industries' chemical plant.
  • Joseph O. Zurhellen, Jr. Deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv who dismissed concerns about Dimona as Israeli disinformation.
  • Kermit Roosevelt CIA officer who orchestrated the 1953 coup that restored the Shah of Iran to power after the overthrow of Mohammed Mossadegh.
  • Leonid Brezhnev In 1972, Brezhnev met with Golda Meir, then Prime Minister of Israel, in Finland.
  • Levi Eshkol Levi Eshkol was an Israeli politician who served as Prime Minister of Israel from 1963 to 1969.
  • Lewis L. Strauss Strauss chose not to talk about the Israeli nuclear program because, as a Jew with deep feelings about the Holocaust, he privately approved of it.
  • Louis H. Roddis, Jr. Nuclear Intelligence Panel member who concluded the 1979 Vela satellite event was a South African-Israeli nuclear test and accused the White House of suppressing the finding.
  • Malcolm Toon Malcolm Toon was the U.S.
  • Marta Stroessner Daughter of General Andres Rodriguez and daughter-in-law of Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner, linking two prominent Latin American authoritarian dynasties.
  • Maurice Bourges-Maunoury Maurice Bourges-Maunoury was a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France in 1957.
  • Max Ben Max Ben was a Princeton-trained pharmacologist who was helping the Israelis set up a pharmacology institute under United Nations auspices.
  • McGeorge Bundy McGeorge Bundy served as the National Security Advisor to President John F.
  • Mehdi Bazargan First prime minister of revolutionary Iran under Khomeini who sought to normalize relations with the U.S. before being ousted by extremists.
  • Menachem Begin Menachem Begin was the 6th Prime Minister of Israel, serving from 1977 to 1983.
  • Menachem Schneerson Large amounts of money were funneled through his institutions to Drexel Burnham, a brokerage house where Michael Milken built his junk-bond fortune.
  • Michael Milken Large amounts of money from the arms sales to Iran were funneled through American banks and held at Drexel Burnham, contributing to Milken's firm's stature and its ability to underwrite huge quantities of junk bonds.
  • Miles Copeland Retired CIA officer who helped restore the Shah in 1953 and later gathered anti-Carter CIA veterans during the Iranian hostage crisis.
  • Mir Hossein Mousavi Iranian Prime Minister with ties to CIA agent Ghorbanifar who sought to open a second channel for arms sales alongside Rafiqdoost.
  • Mohammed Jalali Colonel Mohammed Jalali was the Defense Minister of Iran.
  • Mohammed Mossadegh Iranian Prime Minister overthrown in 1953 with CIA help after nationalizing oil, leading to the Shah's restoration to power.
  • Mohammed Radi Abdullah Colonel Mohammed Radi Abdullah was a former colonel in the Jordanian Army.
  • Mohsen Rafiqdoost Iranian minister for the Revolutionary Guards aligned with Prime Minister Mousavi who sought to open a second arms-sales channel to Iran.
  • Mordecai Gur Mordecai Gur was the Israeli military attaché.
  • Mordecai Hod Mordecai Hod was the chief of staff of the Israeli Air Force.
  • Mordecai Vanunu Vanunu began working as a technician at Dimona in August 1977 and spent much of the next eight years assigned to various tasks inside the reprocessing plant, formally known as Machon 2 and informally as the Tunnel.
  • Mordechai Tsippori Director general of the Israeli Ministry of Defense who in 1980 authorized Israel to develop a hydrogen bomb for testing.
  • Morton H. Halperin Close aide to Kissinger on the NSC staff who recalled Kissinger's belief that Israel and Japan would be better off with nuclear weapons.
  • Moshe Sharett Moshe Sharett was the second Prime Minister of Israel, serving from 1954 to 1955.
  • Myer Feldman Myer Feldman, also known as Mike Feldman, served as President John F.
  • Myron B. Kratzer Director of international affairs for the Atomic Energy Commission during the period Israel's nuclear program was exposed in 1960.
  • Nachum Admoni Acting and later full Director of Mossad who served on the Iran-Israel Joint Committee for supplying arms to Iran during the Iran-Iraq War.
  • Niels Bohr Niels Bohr was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922.
  • Nikolai Bulganin Nikolai Bulganin was a Soviet politician who served as the Premier of the Soviet Union from 1955 to 1958.
  • Oliver North Marine lieutenant colonel and National Security Council staff member who ran the illegal Contra resupply operation from the White House, central figure in the Iran-Contra Affair implicated in drug trafficking, arms dealing, and obstruction of justice.
  • Olof Palme Prime Minister of Sweden whose government was involved in military equipment sales to Iran through Israel before refusing to continue.
  • Ora Ben-Shalom After the deaths of Freddie and Herut (Ari Ben-Menashe's daughter), Ora and Ari Ben-Menashe began a relationship in late 1986, eventually living together in Jerusalem.
  • Orwin C. Talbott Lieutenant General told point-blank by Israeli Chief of Staff David Elazar about Israel's nuclear threat during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
  • Oscar Guerrero Freelance Colombian journalist who met Mordecai Vanunu in Sydney and received top-secret photographs of Israel's nuclear facility.
  • P.W. Botha P.W. Botha (1916-2006) was the Prime Minister (1978-1984) and State President (1984-1989) of South Africa who forged a covert wartime alliance with Israel and, following the 1979 VELA satellite detection of a probable nuclear test, publicly hinted at South African nuclear weapons capability.
  • Patrick J. Parker Deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence who assessed Soviet intentions during the 1973 Yom Kippur War nuclear alert.
  • Paul C. Warnke Assistant Secretary of Defense who pressured Israel to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and directly confronted Israel about its nuclear weapons program.
  • Pesah Melowany Colonel Pesah Melowany was an officer in the Israeli Defense Forces' External Relations Department.
  • Peter W. Rodman Longtime assistant to Henry Kissinger present during sensitive meetings with Israeli officials during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
  • Philip J. Farley Special assistant to John Foster Dulles for arms control who quietly investigated the French connection to Israel's nuclear program.
  • Pierre Gallois Pierre Gallois was a retired French general and the intellectual spokesman for the French nuclear program.
  • Pierre Mendes-France Pierre Mendès-France was a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 1954 to 1955.
  • Pinhas Lavon Pinhas Lavon was an Israeli politician who served as Defense Minister.
  • Pinhas Sapir Pinhas Sapir was an Israeli politician who, along with Levi Eshkol, dominated the Israeli budget process for more than fifteen years.
  • Rafael Eitan Rafael Eitan was a veteran Israeli intelligence operative who led the LAKAM science intelligence bureau, ran Jonathan Pollard as an intelligence asset against the United States, and was alleged by multiple sources to have acquired and internationally distributed PROMIS software with a hidden surveillance backdoor.
  • Raymond Fox Raymond Fox was an American nuclear physicist who emigrated to Israel in 1957 from California, where he had access to weapons design information at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
  • Reuben Yirador Colonel Reuben Yirador was a department commander in Unit 8200, an Israeli Signals Intelligence (Sigint) unit.
  • Reuven Yerdor Reuven Yerdor, also known as Rudi, was an accomplished linguist and a senior officer in Israel's Detachment 515 (later redesignated Detachment 8200), which is in charge of signals intelligence and code-breaking.
  • Reza Hashemi Iranian arms dealer and one of the Hashemi brothers involved in secret arms sales and hostage negotiations related to Iran-Contra.
  • Richard Helms Richard Helms served as Director of Central Intelligence from 1966 to 1973, authorizing Operation CHAOS domestic surveillance and ordering destruction of CHAOS and MKULTRA records before congressional investigation.
  • Richard V. Allen Allen personally relayed the message to Ariel Sharon in the fall of 1981 that the United States would no longer permit Israel to get KH-11 imagery of the Soviet Union or any other country outside the hundred-mile limit, re-enforcing the initial 1979 restrictions.
  • Robert Maxwell Robert Maxwell was a British publishing magnate, Labour MP, and alleged simultaneous asset of Mossad, British, and Soviet intelligence whose empire collapsed after he looted the Mirror Group pension funds, who was alleged to be the international distributor of backdoored PROMIS software, and who died at sea off the Canary Islands in 1991 amid contested allegations of foul play.
  • Robert S. McNamara Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and Johnson who was pressured by pro-Israel fundraiser Abraham Feinberg not to interfere with Israel's nuclear activities.
  • Robert T. Webber Physicist and scientific attache at the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv who gathered intelligence on Israel's Dimona nuclear facility alongside CIA station chief John Hadden.
  • Robert W. Komer National Security Council staff member during the Kennedy administration who observed internal tensions over Israeli influence on U.S. Middle East policy.
  • Samuel W. Lewis U.S. ambassador to Israel present at the pivotal 1981 Reagan White House meeting where Begin and Sharon proposed a sweeping U.S.-Israeli strategic alliance.
  • Sarcis Sargalian American arms dealer of Lebanese-Armenian extraction involved in supplying military equipment to Iraq alongside Ihsan Barbouti.
  • Seymour Hersh Hersh conducted extensive research for The Samson Option, interviewing many senior American officials, most of whom spoke for the first time about their knowledge of Israel's nuclear arsenal.
  • Shahpour Bakhtiar After the Shah's departure from Iran in January 1979, Bakhtiar proved unable to function effectively.
  • Shalheveth Freier Shalheveth Freier was an Israeli nuclear physicist with impeccable credentials.
  • Shimon Lavee Lieutenant Colonel Shimon Lavee was the branch head of the Special Assistance Branch (SIM) of the External Relations Department of the Israel Defense Forces/Military Intelligence.
  • Shimon Peres Peres's rise to influence began in late 1953, when David Ben-Gurion appointed the then thirty-year-old Shimon Peres as director general of the ministry of defense.
  • Shimon Yiftach Shimon Yiftach was the director of scientific programs for the Israeli defense ministry.
  • Shlomo Gazit Major General Shlomo Gazit was the Director of Israeli Military Intelligence.
  • Simcha Dinitz Simcha Dinitz was the Israeli ambassador to Washington D.C.
  • Spencer Oliver Chief counsel for the House Foreign Relations Committee involved in Iran-Contra hearings, later admitting the hearings were a cover-up.
  • Spurgeon M. Keeny, Jr. Deputy director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency who was troubled by what he saw as deliberate manipulation of the 1979 Vela nuclear test assessment.
  • Stuart Symington Stuart Symington was a Democratic Senator from Missouri.
  • Timothy Phelps Middle East correspondent for Newsday who received early details of the Iran-Contra story from Ari Ben-Menashe.
  • Uri Lubrani Uri Lubrani was a former Israeli ambassador to Iran.
  • Uri Simchoni Brigadier General Uri Simchoni was a member of the Iran-Israel Joint Committee.
  • Walter W. Jenkins President Lyndon Johnson's most trusted aide whose 1964 arrest led to discovery of a private cash cache from pro-Israel fundraiser Abraham Feinberg.
  • Walworth Barbour Walworth Barbour was the American ambassador to Israel from 1961 to 1973, serving longer in one post than all but three other American ambassadors.
  • William B. Bader Assistant deputy under secretary of defense for policy in 1979 who was frustrated by Israel's unauthorized access to KH-11 satellite intelligence.
  • William J. Casey William J. Casey was Reagan's 1980 campaign manager and CIA Director from 1981 to 1987 who, among other disputed roles, is alleged to have secretly negotiated with Iranian representatives in Madrid and Paris in 1980 to delay the release of American hostages past Election Day -- the core allegation of the October Surprise -- and who died of a brain tumor in May 1987 as the Iran-Contra scandal unfolded.
  • William N. Dale Dale objected to the policy change after the 1967 Six-Day War, when Walworth Barbour ordered the embassy's military attachés to stop reporting on Dimona and to no longer undercut the Israelis by conducting operations with their British or Canadian counterparts.
  • William R. Crawford Crawford recalled that Ben-Gurion's reply was long, evasive, and did not agree to the IAEA inspection of Dimona.
  • Wilma Hall Secretary to Robert McFarlane at the NSC and mother of Fawn Hall who helped expose McFarlane's contacts with Rafi Eitan.
  • Yaacov Nimrodi Yaacov Nimrodi was an Israeli arms dealer and former military intelligence attache in Iran who served alongside David Kimche and Al Schwimmer as part of the 'troika' that managed the first three Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages transfers in 1985.
  • Yehoshua Sagi Yehoshua Sagi (also rendered Saguy) served as director of Israel's Military Intelligence Directorate (Aman) from 1979 to 1983 and was found by the Kahan Commission to bear personal responsibility for indifference regarding the Sabra and Shatila massacres.
  • Yehoshua Saguy Yehoshua Saguy was the chief of military intelligence in Israel.
  • Yekutiel Adam General Yekutiel Adam was an Israeli military leader who was in line to take over as Director of Mossad in 1981.
  • Yigael Yadin Yigael Yadin served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Israel.
  • Yigal Allon Yigal Allon was a 1948 war hero and a close adviser to Prime Minister Levi Eshkol.
  • Yitzhak Hofi Yitzhak Hofi was the director of Mossad, Israel's primary foreign intelligence service.
  • Yitzhak Rabin As army chief of operations, Yitzhak Rabin was among the old-fashioned military men, including Yigal Allon and Ariel Sharon, who believed that Israel's essential advantage over the Arabs was the quality and training of its military personnel.
  • Yitzhak Shamir Israeli Prime Minister and former LEHI member who authorized intelligence sharing with the Soviet Union and oversaw covert arms deals with Iran and the Iran-Israel Joint Committee.
  • Yoel Ben-Porat Colonel Yoel Ben-Porat, known as Buffy, was the unit commander of Unit 8200, an Israeli Signals Intelligence (Sigint) unit.
  • Yosef Zeira Yosef Zeira was a senior department commander in Israeli signals intelligence Unit 8200 who, according to Ari Ben-Menashe, briefed a select team of officers about the 1976 Entebbe hostage rescue operation and ordered them into communications isolation for the operation's duration.
  • Yuval Neeman Yuval Neeman was an Israeli physicist and defense ministry intelligence officer.
  • Zalman Mordecai Shapiro Zalman Mordecai Shapiro was an American Jew and owner of the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC), a privately owned nuclear enriching plant in Apollo, Pennsylvania.
  • Zbigniew Brzezinski Brzezinski dismissed suggestions from Prime Minister Begin that the U.S.

Organizations (31)

  • Agranat Commission The Agranat Commission was a commission appointed by the Israel prime minister in 1974 to investigate the intelligence failures of the 1973 war, where Israel was surprised by the Syria-Egypt attack on Yom Kippur.[^1]
  • Bank Leumi Bank Leumi is Israel's oldest and one of its largest banks, whose American branch board included Walworth Barbour, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel, after his 1973 retirement.
  • Carbyne Carbyne is an Israeli-American emergency-communication and surveillance technology company founded in Tel Aviv as Reporty Homeland Security, into which Jeffrey Epstein quietly invested approximately one million dollars in 2015 through an arrangement brokered by former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, and which has also received backing from Peter Thiel's Founders Fund and has been deployed by U.S. police departments including Miami-Dade.
  • Committee for the Denuclearization of the Middle East The Committee for the Denuclearization of the Middle East was a group of prominent Israeli scholars and scientists, including two former members of Ernst David Bergmann's Atomic Energy Commission, who privately banded together in late 1961.
  • Degem Degem was an Israeli-controlled computer company with operations in Israel, Guatemala, and Transkei, alleged to have been the primary vehicle through which Robert Maxwell distributed backdoored PROMIS software to foreign governments worldwide.
  • Eagle Eagle was an Israeli arms company whose representative Pesach Ben-Or assisted the Guatemalan military regime in establishing a computer tracking system against leftist insurgents, connecting Israeli military exports to Latin American authoritarian regimes.
  • El Al El Al is the Israeli national airline that played a role in the covert arms shipments and financial transactions described by Ari Ben-Menashe in his account of Israeli-American intelligence cooperation.
  • Golani infantry brigade The Golani Brigade is an elite Israeli Army infantry unit whose former commander Uri Simchoni later served as a member of the Iran-Israel Joint Committee during the Iran-Contra arms transfers.
  • Hagannah The Haganah was the main Zionist paramilitary organization in British Mandate Palestine (1920-1948) that became the core of the Israel Defense Forces upon Israeli independence.
  • Histadrut Histadrut (the General Organization of Workers in Israel) is a powerful labor union federation that historically controlled a large segment of Israeli industry, whose leadership by Pinhas Lavon placed it at the center of the political fallout from the Lavon Affair.
  • Iran-Israel Joint Committee The Iran-Israel Joint Committee was established in the fall of 1980 by Menachem Begin 1, who ordered Yehoshua Sagi and Nachum Admoni to appoint it.
  • Israel Bond Organization The Israel Bond Organization is a financial institution that raises funds for the State of Israel through the sale of Israel Bonds.
  • Israel Chemicals Company Israel Chemicals Company is the largest state-owned enterprise in Israel, to which Mossad officer Rafael Eitan was appointed in a senior position authorized by Ariel Sharon following Eitan's exposure in the Jonathan Pollard spy scandal.
  • Jewish Defense League The Jewish Defense League (JDL) is a New York-based extreme right-wing organization associated with Meir Kahane.[^1]
  • Labor Party The Labor Party is an Israeli center-left political party formed in 1968 by the merger of Mapai, Achdut Avodah, and later Rafi, under the economic leadership of Pinhas Sapir.
  • LAKAM LAKAM (Hebrew acronym for Science Liaison Bureau) was an Israeli Ministry of Defense intelligence agency, previously known as the Office of Special Tasks.
  • LEHI LEHI (Lohamei Herut Israel), also known as the Stern Gang, was a Jewish paramilitary organization founded by Avraham Stern and later led by Yitzhak Shamir that conducted assassinations and bombings against British Mandate authorities and Arab targets in Palestine.
  • Likud Party The Likud Party is Israel's major right-wing nationalist political party whose surprise May 1977 victory ended twenty-nine years of Labor dominance and brought to power a government under Menachem Begin even more committed to the Samson Option nuclear deterrent.
  • Mapai Party Mapai (Israel Workers' Party) was the dominant political party in Israel from the state's founding through 1968, whose total control under David Ben-Gurion shaped Israeli nuclear policy and whose internal disputes over the Lavon Affair permanently split the party.
  • Medan Computers Ltd. Medan Computers Ltd. was the Israeli franchise of Honeywell, staffed entirely by Israel Defense Forces reservists and computer experts, which was involved in the implementation of PROMIS software in Guatemala.
  • NSO Group NSO Group is an Israeli cyber-intelligence company founded in 2010 by Unit 8200 alumni Omri Lavie, Shalev Hulio, and Niv Karmi, developer of the Pegasus spyware capable of zero-click mobile-phone compromise, whose government clients used the product to surveil over 50,000 targets including Jamal Khashoggi's family, 180 journalists, Catalan independence leaders, and Mexican activists before the July 2021 Pegasus Project exposure.
  • Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), founded 1964 and led by Yasser Arafat's Fatah from 1969, conducted guerrilla campaigns from Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia before the 1994 Oslo Accords established it as the recognized Palestinian representative body and created the Palestinian Authority.
  • Rafael Rafael is Israel's top-secret defense research and manufacturing agency responsible for the country's most sensitive weaponry, including the final stage of nuclear warhead production at a facility north of Haifa.
  • Rafi Rafi (Israel Workers' List) was an Israeli political party founded in June 1965 by David Ben-Gurion after his resignation from Mapai, with Shimon Peres as its power broker and Moshe Dayan as a prominent member.
  • Shas Party The Shas Party is an orthodox political party in Israel, which emerged as a significant force in Israeli politics.
  • Shin Bet Shin Bet is Israel's internal security service, whose officials Uri Geller claimed to have worked with - alongside military intelligence and Mossad - performing intelligence tasks including clairvoyant target viewing and troop deployment prediction.
  • Solel Bone Ltd. Solel Bone Ltd., of Haifa, was the largest Israeli engineering company involved in the construction of Dimona.
  • Stern Gang The Stern Gang was another name for LEHI (Lohamei Herut Israel, Hebrew for Fighters for the Liberation of Israel), a Jewish terrorist group founded by David Stern and later led by Yitzhak Shamir.[^1]
  • Tahal Tahal is the Israeli government-owned water planning corporation that constructed the expertly concealed underground shelters for Israel's first nuclear missile field at Hirbat Zachariah, importing missile launch tubes marked as pipeline.
  • Unit 8200 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.
  • Weizmann Institute of Science The Weizmann Institute of Science is Israel's preeminent research institution, whose chemistry and isotope research divisions, directed by Ernst David Bergmann after 1948, provided a scientific foundation for Israel's nuclear weapons program.

Programs (1)

  • KK MOUNTAIN KK MOUNTAIN was the CIA code-name for its Cold War financial subsidy program providing annual cash payments to Mossad, Israel's primary foreign intelligence service.

Events (10)

  • Achille Lauro 1985 cruise ship attack described as an Israeli black propaganda operation designed to portray Palestinians as terrorists.
  • Entebbe hijacking 1976 hijacking of an Air France jet by the Baader-Meinhof Group, ended by a daring Israeli commando rescue raid at Entebbe Airport in Uganda.
  • Hashemi Sting The Hashemi Sting was a 1986 U.S. Customs undercover operation targeting illegal arms sales to Iran, prosecuted by U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani's Southern District of New York office, which resulted in indictments of arms dealers including former Israeli general Avraham Bar-Am; it intersected directly with the Iran-Contra network and the October Surprise investigations, and its key informant Cyrus Hashemi died in London under disputed circumstances shortly after the sting concluded.
  • Lavon Affair Covert 1954 Israeli operation in Egypt involving bombings of American, British, and Egyptian targets designed to damage Western-Egyptian relations.
  • Lockheed bribe scandal 1976 scandal involving bribes paid by Lockheed Aircraft Company to Israeli Defense Minister Shimon Peres and other international figures.
  • Munich Olympic Massacre The Munich Olympic Massacre (September 5-6, 1972) was the Black September seizure of eleven Israeli Olympic team members, all of whom died in a failed West German rescue at Fürstenfeldbruck, leading directly to Israeli Operation Wrath of God and the creation of West Germany's GSG 9.
  • October Surprise The October Surprise allegation holds that William J. Casey and other figures in Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign secretly negotiated with Iranian representatives to delay the release of 52 American hostages past Election Day in exchange for promises of arms and release of frozen Iranian assets, with the hostages released minutes after Reagan was sworn in on January 20, 1981.
  • Osirak bombing 1981 Israeli air strike on the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak near Baghdad, carried out with U.S.-supplied F-16s and condemned internationally.
  • Sabra and Shatila massacres September 1982 massacre of Palestinian refugees in Beirut by Lebanese Christian Phalangists, facilitated by Israeli forces under Defense Minister Ariel Sharon.
  • USS Liberty Incident 1967 attack on the U.S. Navy intelligence ship USS Liberty by Israeli forces during the Six-Day War, killing 34 crew members and sparking enduring controversy.

Concepts (4)

  • Ein Brera Ein Brera, meaning 'no alternative' in Hebrew, is a doctrine deeply ingrained in Israeli strategic thought.
  • Jericho I The Jericho I was a medium-range ballistic missile jointly developed by Israel and the French Dassault company beginning in 1963, designed to deliver nuclear warheads to targets 300 miles away.
  • Samson Option The Samson Option is a concept deeply ingrained in Israel's national security doctrine, referring to the idea that Israel possesses a nuclear arsenal that it would use as a last resort to prevent its destruction, even if it means causing massive...
  • TOW Missile The BGM-71 TOW is a U.S. Army crew-portable anti-tank guided missile system developed by Hughes Aircraft that was the primary weapons system transferred to Iran through Israeli intermediaries in the August-September 1985 phase of the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages scheme.

Places (16)

  • Beersheba Beersheba (Be'er Sheva) is the largest city in southern Israel and the administrative capital of the Negev Desert region; it appears in this vault primarily as the regional center nearest to the Negev Nuclear Research Center at Dimona and as a hub for the Israeli military and intelligence infrastructure concentrated in the southern Negev.
  • Dimona The Dimona facility, officially known as the Negev Nuclear Research Center, stands as a deeply clandestine and pivotal complex within Israel's national security apparatus, nestled in the arid Negev Desert south of Jerusalem.
  • Egypt Egypt is a country in northeastern Africa whose modern intelligence history spans from Nasser's Arab nationalism and Soviet alignment through Sadat's pivot to the United States, the Camp David Accords, and Mubarak's role as a U.S. client state - with the CIA maintaining extensive ties to Egyptian intelligence throughout.
  • Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip is a small coastal Palestinian territory on the Mediterranean, bordered by Israel and Egypt, that was under Israeli occupation from 1967 to 2005 and is governed by Hamas since 2007; it appears in this vault primarily as the home territory of Palestinian factions referenced in the vault's Israeli intelligence and Mossad operational subjects.
  • Jerusalem Jerusalem is the contested capital of Israel and a site claimed by Palestinians for a future capital; it appears in this vault primarily in connection with Israeli intelligence operations, Camp David Accords negotiations, and the Sabra and Shatila massacre investigations.
  • Kibbutz Mishmar Hasharon Kibbutz Mishmar Hasharon is a kibbutz in Israel where Ari Ben-Menashe studied Hebrew in 1969 and where he first encountered Michael Dennis Rohan, the Australian who later carried out the arson attack on the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
  • Machons (Dimona Facilities) Machons are the numbered self-contained facility buildings within Israel's Dimona nuclear complex, whose functions including plutonium extraction and weapons component fabrication were publicly described by Mordechai Vanunu after his 1986 defection.
  • Negev Desert The Negev Desert is the arid southern region of Israel comprising approximately 60 percent of the country's land area; it appears in this vault primarily as the location of the Negev Nuclear Research Center near Dimona, where Israel developed its undeclared nuclear weapons program beginning in the late 1950s with French technical assistance, and which was exposed publicly by Mordechai Vanunu in 1986.
  • Palestine Palestine is the name used for the territory comprising the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem claimed for an independent Palestinian state; Palestinian organizations including the PLO, Black September, and PFLP figure extensively in the vault's Mossad operations and Israeli intelligence subjects, as do the CIA's relations with Palestinian intelligence.
  • Sinai The Sinai Peninsula is the triangular Egyptian landmass between the Suez Canal and the Red Sea that was captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and returned to Egypt under the 1979 Camp David Peace Treaty; it appears in this vault primarily as the theater of the 1973 Yom Kippur War's initial Egyptian crossing that constituted a major CIA and Israeli intelligence failure, and as the subject of the Camp David Accords intelligence dimensions.
  • Sinai Peninsula The Sinai Peninsula is the triangular Egyptian landmass between the Suez Canal and the Red Sea that was captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and returned to Egypt under the 1979 Camp David Peace Treaty; it appears in this vault primarily as the theater of the 1973 Yom Kippur War's initial Egyptian crossing that constituted a major CIA and Israeli intelligence failure.
  • South Africa South Africa is a country at the southern tip of Africa whose apartheid-era government developed nuclear weapons with covert Israeli assistance and maintained extensive illicit arms trading networks that intersect with Iran-Contra and Cold War covert operations subjects in this vault.
  • Suez Canal The Suez Canal is the artificial waterway in Egypt connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, whose nationalization by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser in July 1956 triggered the Suez Crisis - an Anglo-French-Israeli invasion that ended in humiliating withdrawal under U.S. and Soviet pressure, marking the definitive end of British and French imperial power.
  • Tel Aviv Tel Aviv is Israel's largest metropolitan area and de facto commercial and intelligence capital; it served as a key node in the Iran-Contra arms pipeline and the Israel-South Africa arms relationship, and is home to institutions central to the vault's Israeli intelligence subjects including Mossad headquarters.
  • Uganda Uganda under Idi Amin (1971-1979) is significant for this vault primarily through the 1976 Entebbe hostage crisis, in which Amin provided support to Palestinian and German hijackers holding Israeli passengers at Entebbe Airport; the Israeli raid to rescue the hostages became one of the most celebrated special operations of the Cold War era.
  • West Bank The West Bank is the Palestinian territory captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and subsequently occupied; its political status and the intelligence operations conducted there by Israeli security forces are relevant to the vault's Mossad, Shin Bet, and Palestinian intelligence subjects.

Misc (1)

Meta (1)