The Mossad has an annual budget of approximately $1 billion, employs 1,200 staff, and is the second largest intelligence agency in the Western world after the CIA. Consequently, the person chosen to lead the Mossad wields immense power.

In [Month] [Year], David "Dadi" Bamani succeeded Yossi Cohen. The selection of the new Mossad chief was a closely guarded secret, known only to a few within the Israeli Prime Minister's Office, the agency itself, and the Civil Service Advisory Council. The members of the council approved the Prime Minister's appointment—even the cabinet and parliament were not involved.

Traditionally, the identity of the Mossad head was not disclosed, but in [year], with the appointment of Major General Danny Yatom, former Deputy Commander of the Israel Defense Forces, the situation changed. Mossad now tends to announce the name of its new head either after confirmation or at the beginning of a five-year term.

Although the top spies of Mossad are all male, the agency has modernized in recent decades. It has a relatively popular website and maintains a page to assist in recruitment. With several Israeli thrillers achieving great success on streaming services, including the highly acclaimed "Tehran" and "False Flag," Mossad's popularity has significantly increased.

Mossad Spy Chief Resume David "Dadi" Ben-Yehuda ( '') succeeded Yossi Cohen ( ) in Ben-Yehuda (right) at the 2019 swearing-in ceremony

Spy chiefs typically come from one of two backgrounds. Among the 12 directors who served before Bagnasco, seven were career officers from the secret service, and five were former army officers—not surprisingly, some had both careers.

Baniya joined the Israel Defense Forces in [year], serving as a combat soldier in the elite Sayeret Matkal unit. He also attended New York Institute of Technology and earned an MBA in Business Administration from Pace University, after which he worked at an Israeli investment bank.

Yossi "Yossi" Cohen, the former head of the Mossad, was conscripted into the Israel Defense Forces in and volunteered to become a paratrooper, serving as a squad leader before being promoted to an officer in the secret service, responsible for case investigations. Before taking over the Mossad in in , Yossi Cohen also served as the deputy head of the Mossad and the national security adviser of Israel.

The five-year term of a spy agency The head of Mossad is expected to serve for five years, but this is not always the case. Meir Dagan, the director of Mossad, served from to , and the Israeli Prime Minister extended Cohen's term by six months. Previously, the tenure of the Mossad director was shorter. Danny Yatom served as the director of Mossad from to , but resigned after the failure of a Jordanian attack on a Palestinian militant in .

It is alleged that Mossad agents attempted to assassinate Khaled Meshaal (one of the founders of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement) by injecting poison into his ear. They used forged Canadian passports as cover, thereby triggering a diplomatic crisis.

Mossad Chief: Personality Type The head of Mossad has not revealed much information, but clues about their personality type can be gathered from their missions. Cohen is suspected to be the mastermind behind the assassination of Iranian nuclear weapons chief Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in 2020, with The Jerusalem Post describing him as an "adventurer." The Times of Israel reported that under his influence, Mossad increased its budget and personnel, almost replacing the strategic relationship of the Foreign Ministry with the Sunni Arab world.

Cohen's predecessor, Tamir Pardo (-), is often portrayed as more conservative, focusing on intelligence gathering and maintaining a low profile. However, German news media sources have linked him to the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Darioush Rezaei, who was shot in the throat by two attackers on motorcycles.

Dagan, a distinguished general, spymaster, and critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is described as a "bold commander." President Reuven Rivlin praised Dagan as a "strategic thinker, a wise man, a loving man, a rugged yet beloved man, a leader and a man of the people." The retired general participated in the Six-Day War, the Yom Kippur War, and the First Lebanon War. Reportedly, he also carried out missions abroad, including assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah members in Dubai and Damascus.

The Origins of Mossad According to the Mossad website, the agency was established by Israel's founding father and first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, in the 1950s. Its duties included rescuing Jews and attacking Arab thugs. Initially under the Ministry of Defense, it operated as part of the State Department under the leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with two departments: the Collection Department (primarily in Europe) and the Analysis Department (operating from the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tel Aviv).

Mossad's "Wrath of God" Operation The "Wrath of God" operation was a covert mission aimed at assassinating individuals involved in the Munich massacre of 1972, which resulted in the deaths of 11 Israeli Olympic team members. Steven Spielberg explored this operation in his film "Munich" (2005).

Mossad also evacuated persecuted Jews from Ethiopia, a scenario depicted in the espionage thriller "The Red Sea Diving Resort."

The Red Sea Diving Resort ( ) The Red Sea Diving Resort (also known as Operation Brothers) is a 2019 spy thriller film, written and directed by Gideon Raff. The film stars Chris Evans, who plays an Israeli Mossad agent in charge of a covert operation to rescue Ethiopian Jewish refugees from a Sudanese camp to a safe haven in Israel.

The film is broadly based on Israel's Operation Moses and Operation Joshua from to , during which the Mossad secretly rescued Ethiopian Jewish refugees persecuted in Sudan, smuggling them to safe areas in Israel. The operation utilized a base in the once-abandoned resort village of Arus on the Red Sea coast of Sudan, approximately kilometers ( miles) north of Port Sudan.

Since its establishment, Mossad has conducted various special operations, many of which have been depicted in films and television, including the pursuit of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in "Operation Finale."