Inside Israel's Mossad: The Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks Book

Describes the history and current goals of Israel's intelligence service, the Mossad.

School Library Journal

Gr 5-9-Webster covers the establishment of Israel in 1948, the formation of Mossad and what it means to the country, and the various departments of this intelligence agency. The book also includes Mossad's success in helping Moroccan Jews to immigrate to Israel, its work in bringing Adolf Eichmann to trial, the Suez Canal crisis in November, 1956, and the Six-Day War. The book ends with a short examination of Israel's role as an ally with the U.S. in the war on terrorism post-September 11, 2001, and the Mossad's involvement in this endeavor. The writing reads like a textbook, and there are several misleading sentences and passages that seem condescending. For instance, Webster explains the word "intelligence" as "information- it suggests the kind of knowledge that somebody else would prefer to keep secret." He goes on to give the example: "-imagine -Bob is cheating on his girlfriend and you know about it. This knowledge is a piece of intelligence about Bob that could be very important to his girlfriend. It could be important to Bob, too, depending on how you use it." This seems like a trite and poor analogy. Furthermore, when explaining the various types of intelligence, the author states "The best kind of information a Mossad agent can receive is called human intelligence, or humint." Very interesting, except that he never explains why human intelligence is better than, say, signal intelligence. As there is little on the subject, librarians may want to consider this title for purchase, but those subscribing to good online databases will find much of the same information there.-Leslie Barban, Richland County Public Library, Columbia, SC Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.