Thursday, March 28th | 18 Adar II 5784
GOVERNMENT
No intelligence agency in the world is as revered or as feared as Israel’s Mossad, and its current chief Yossi Cohen is proving to be both in keeping with this reputation and quite different from his predecessors.
Cohen has served in the Mossad for decades, slowly rising through the ranks. After serving as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser, he was appointed director of Mossad in 2015. Cohen is the first Mossad chief to be openly religious, a historic shift from the staunch secularism of his predecessors.
Also notable are Cohen’s hawkish views on the threat from Iran, which places him in direct contrast to previous Mossad chiefs, several of whom publicly denounced the prime minister’s aggressive stance on Iran’s nuclear program and sought to thwart a possible military strike.
Cohen has also set up a fund to encourage start-ups in the field of espionage technology and sought to recruit more women into the intelligence service. (Photo credit: Alchetron.)
GOVERNMENT