A friend of mine, an ultra-Zionist Judaism-friendly Christian, has recently developed an inordinate passion about haMossad. He says he wants to join. He says he can read newspapers and send them info, or he can learn different languages and infiltrate organizations. He’s crazy.
So, to knock some sense into him, I come here. What’s the straight dope on working for haMossad?
It seems there are those believe that Mossadniks are everywhere. Others believe haMossad makes people unknowingly work for them. Others think it’s just another intelligence/covert operations organization - nothing special or outstanding.
It also seems that many people who work for them are Jews or Arabs (the former out of love for Eretz Yisrael, latter for other reasons).
If someone does want to work for haMossad, how do you do that? It’s not like you can walk up to any Israeli foreign mission and say, “Hey! I’m here to work for haMossad! Where’s your resident katsa?” I know haMossad has a website and I even showed it to my friend, but he dismissed it: he refuses to believe it’s genuine, that haMossad will contact him after he fills out some information on a web form.
I don’t even know if anyone here can answer this. It’s far easier for someone to talk about the CIA - even from personal experience - than haMossad. It just seems . . . incongruous. As it is, haMossad is known for its secrecy. But, here’s to hoping someone does have some info. (And no Israel- or Mossad-bashing, please.)
I don’t have anything productive to add other than that this cracks me up.
I’ve always thought I’d be a great Mossad agent. No one ever thinks I’m Jewish. I actually had a boss (who was Israeli!) refuse me when I requested Yom Kippur off. Yes, I eventually got him to give me the day off, after having to repeatedly insist that I am Jewish.
But then there would be the part where I’d be working for the Mossad, which I’m not too into.
How to join? I have this idea, no doubt brought about by spy movies and John LeCarre’s Little Drummer Girl, that you don’t contact them, they contact you.
What super spy skills does your friend have to offer the Mossad, anyway?
I suspect it’s like Fight Club – the first rule is that you never talk about it.
But is it even legal for a (presumably) US citizen to work for a foreign intelligence agency? Obviously not if you work with top secret material, but what if you’re just an average joe on the street?
You can fight in a foreign army, if you like, just so long as it isn’t that of a belligerent (in an anti-US sense) state, so working for a friendly nation’s secret service shouldn’t be out of bounds.
Luckily we’re in MPSIMS here, so I can say this: I don’t know much about the Mossad, but I can’t help but think that in this day of Homeland Security, being an active member of the secret service of a foreign nation within the borders of the US might not look good on the resume, and might get your friend kind of arrested. Seriously, long-term, we’ll let you see a lawyer sometime, maybe, arrested. Even with the Israelis on our side.
This is somewhat along the lines of how I think the US and Israel view each other. Somewhere I read that the US even permits Israeli intelligence to penetrate the US so that the US can use the information the Israelis were able to get, which information would be illegal for US agencies to try to get by themselves. The US have to follow US law, but as a foreign intelligence entity Israeli intelligence by their very existence and operation in the US is not beholden to US law.
Nonetheless, I think it all depends on what level we’re talking about. Some merchant or doctor or journalist handing over information to Israelis would not be something the US would be alarmed by - they’d turn a blind eye and hope the Israelis will share any juicy information. But if it’s someone in any of the US intelligence, defense, or military entities, then we’re talking about treason, prison, and big trouble (unless the person flees to Israel).
Plus, I somehow think the US may draw the line at serving in the Israeli army: it’s a religious thing, almost, which is why the US permits it. But I don’t think the US would look so kindly upon espionage: I think, and I may be wrong, that it still would technically be treason for a US citizen to work for any intelligence entity, Israeli or otherwise.
Excellent point. Besides, in the recent issue of someone “caught” “spying” for the Israelis, Israel denies any intelligence or espionage in or against the US (yeah, right).
Pollard I think his name is: someone in the military (not even Jewish, go figure) who was caught spying for Israel big time. I read somewhere that, after that, relations between the US and Israeli intelligence communities began to become cool and distant, compared to the close cooperation before Pollard’s being caught. After Pollard, Israel announced, I believe, that it would end all intelligence activity in the US.
But how serious would the US be in prosecuting someone who’s quietly helping Israel out in the capacity of a civilian? My friend has no interest in getting into government or even anywhere he’d have access to confidential documents. If he just observes people, sends reports and the like, would he still be arrested and prosecuted and put to scorn?
Techinically the government can strip your citzenship for serving in any foreign army, but it generally tolerates people serving in armies of countries it regards as allies.
Mossad itself recruits pretty much exclusivey from those who have served in the Israeli armed services. The agreement between the USA and Israel pretty much prohibits all Mossad activity in the US.
Unless he has something specific to offer Mossad, I don’t see why they would even bother with him, also he might be well-inetioned, but not everyone in Israel is particularly welcoming of the ‘support’ of Christian religious Zionists, especially the more secular aspect of Israeli soceity which Mossad represent a part of; it was an ex-Mossad agent who said “G-d save us from these people!”
He might consider working for a moving company in Jersey City, NJ. I think the Mossad’s activities in the USA boil down to two main tasks:
(1) Watching the Arab-American communities in the US. This means the large Arab communities in the Detroit , MI area, and around NYC
(2) Stealing technical information needed by Israeli weapons manufactureres. For example, suppose IAI need s the details of a new airborne radar being developed by Lockheed. You are tasked with contacting the people involved, and offereing them bribes/payments to turn over the top secret details.
Good work? probably not too badly paid. And if you get caught, you probably won’t spend too much time in jail.
Hey, it worked for me. I didn’t get past the testing, but it got me a job interview.
I think the Mossad’s secrecy comes from the fact that it has little interaction with the Israeli public - it is strictly prohibited by law from operating inside our borders, so ther have been few local incidents of note that could lead to public exposes. Combined with a deeply ingrained institutional secrecy (until recently, the name of the head of the Mossad was classified information), people don’t know much about its internal workings.
Incidentally, “Mossad” means “institute”, and is short for HaMossad Limodi’in Vitafkidim Miyuchadim - the Institute for Intelligence and Special Purposes. It combines the roles of the CIA and NSA.
Thanks for that. However, you’re an Israeli in Israel. My friend’s a Christian in the US. I bit difficult to reach haMossad.
Complex Conjugate made an excellent point. My friend has nothing to offer them, so why should they even be interested in his offer to help? I mentioned this to him, and he hemmed and hawed. Ah hah! Stumped he was. Finally.
By the way, I found this online and thought it was very funny. Alessan’s sentence about what “Mossad” really stands for reminded me of this.