In The Israeli Intelligence Community, Brig. Gen. (Res.) Dr. Ephraim Lapid – a veteran of senior roles in IDF Intelligence and a former IDF Spokesperson – tells the story of Israeli intelligence from its beginnings, with an emphasis on the 1960s and 1970s.
Writing as an insider, Lapid explains how the community’s structure and leadership took shape, how its core disciplines of signals, visual, and human intelligence developed, and how intelligence influenced key moments in Israel’s history, from the Six-Day War to counter-terrorism operations such as the rescue of the hijacked Sabena flight in 1972. He presents its remarkable successes without shying away from its failures, including those that preceded the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
The book also includes an afterword on Israeli intelligence in the 2020s by Brig. Gen. (Res.) Yossi Kuperwasser and a timeline of key intelligence events by Brig. Gen. (Res.) Amos Gilboa.
“Ephraim Lapid's book presents the vast successes of the Israeli intelligence community, yet does not refrain from exposing its failures as well. A must-read for all who take interest in the security of the state and in the history of Israel, the IDF, and the clandestine community. With the trustworthy hand of one who was involved in the building, Ephraim Lapid spreads before us the story of the development of Israeli intelligence from its inception (with an emphasis on the ’60s and ’70s), painting a wide and complex view of the circumstances, threats, and opportunities that turned Israeli intelligence into one of the best in the world.”
-Lt. Gen. Ehud Barak, former Prime Minister, Defense Minister, and Foreign Affairs Minister of the State of Israel
“Ephraim Lapid provides the reader with a rare and detailed insight into the way the Israeli intelligence community steadily developed over the years and assumed a crucial role as both an originator of unorthodox diplomacy and a tool that was vital to Israel's success in leading the country from six hundred thousand to over six million Jews and over two million indigenous Arabs.… No other book provides the range and depth seen here.… The book provides a minute and detailed description of the infrastructure that has not only chalked up dramatic and critical operational results, but has also reinvented itself as new challenges have necessitated rapid solutions.”
-Efraim Halevy, ninth head of the Mossad; former chairman of the Israeli National Security Council
