Summary

Brig. Gen. (res.) Erez David Maisel (Twitter, LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to provide a crash-course in Israeli Intelligence history. Erez is a researcher and former head of the IDF’s International Cooperation Division.

FULL SHOWNOTES & FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE

What You’ll Learn

Intelligence

Early history of intelligence in Israel
The origins of Israeli intelligence organizations
Preparing for a Nazi invasion of British Palestine
The shift from British to American influence on Israeli intelligence

Reflections

The challenge of survival
Conflict and compromise, or lack thereof

And much, much more …

FULL SHOWNOTES & FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE

Episode Notes

This week on SpyCast, Andrew was joined by Erez David Maisel to discuss an overview of the history of intelligence and espionage in Israel. This episode is the first in our 5-part series on Israeli Intelligence. In this month-long series, SpyCast takes a deep dive into the ins and outs of intelligence and espionage in Israel – its intricate history, agencies, major successes and failures, and current state. In this first episode, Erez helps us to lay out a broad roadmap of the history of Israeli intelligence, providing an excellent foundation of knowledge to build upon in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

And…

Erez is an alumni of the University of Haifa, which sits atop the northeastern slope of Israel’s Mount Caramel mountain rage. On the western side of the range, you can find the The Nahal Me’arot / Wadi el-Mughara Caves, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that documents over 500,000 years of the history human evolution.

Quotes of the Week

“I would say that from 1909 until probably the early eighties of the 20th century, the biggest threat is survival. You know, this fear that somebody … would come and do something. And we have to protect ourselves from that.” – Erez David Maisel.

FULL SHOWNOTES & FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE

Resources

SURFACE SKIM

SpyCasts

Kenya, East Africa, and America with African Intelligence Chief Wilson Boinett (2023)
Irish Garda Intelligence Chief with Assistant Commissioner Michael McElgunn (2023)
Israeli Military Intelligence with IDF Brig. General (Res.) Yossi Kuperwasser (2023)
Hitler’s Trojan Horse – Nazi Intelligence with Nigel West (2023)

Beginner Resources

Israel Profile: Timeline, BBC (2019) [Timeline of important events]
The Israel-Palestine conflict: a brief, simple history, Vox, YouTube (2016) [10 min. video]
Zionism, Encyclopedia Britannica (2023) [Short background article]

FULL SHOWNOTES & FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE

DEEPER DIVE

Books

A State at Any Cost: The Life of David Ben-Gurion, T. Segev (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2019)
A History of the First Arab-Israeli War, B. Morris (Yale University Press, 2009)
The Sword And The Olive: A Critical History Of The Israeli Defense Force, M. Van Creveld (PublicAffairs, 2002)
One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate, T. Segev (Picador, 2001)

Primary Sources

The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel (1948)
Israel Requests Recognition From the United States, Jewish Virtual Library (1948)
Presentation of the Jewish case by representatives of the Jewish Agency, Jewish Virtual Library (1947)
The Balfour Declaration, Center for Israel Education (1917)
The Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916)
The Jewish Question and the Plan for the Jewish State, Center for Israel Education (1896)

Wildcard Resource

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That's Puzzling! for January 2026