Whether it is the Eichmann capture, the Munich revenge plot or the Entebbe rescue mission, they all illustrate the independence and determination of Israel’s intelligence community. They also show that the tiny Middle Eastern country is willing to take a lot of risks to do things its own way. Only hours after the nation of Israel was established on May 14, 1948, five neighboring Arab nations attacked, hoping to wipe out the new country. The attackers had far more soldiers and weapons than Israel but underestimated how much information Israeli spies had already gathered about the Arab nations’ military capabilities and strategies. The war quickly turned in Israel’s favor. Israel’s survival from 1948 to today has depended on its maintaining a well-established intelligence network to gather secret data, carry out covert operations, and counter terrorism. At the heart of this network is the Mossad, a shadowy organization charged with keeping Israel safe from outside enemies by any means necessary. Read all about Israel’s formidable spy network and their espionage missions around the world. Michael E. Goodman was born in Savannah, Georgia. He attended Yale University and graduate school at Brown University. He began as a high school English teacher in Providence, RI, and Teaneck, NJ, before turning to writing and editing and serving as an executive in corporate communications. He is a former senior editor at Scholastic and Prentice-Hall and executive editor at Peoples Education.