In this Sunday, July 3, 2016. photo, Yossi Cohen, director of Mossad, Israel's state intelligence agency, attends the funeral of Miki ...
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The Isreali intelligence service veteran, Mossad chief Zvi Zamir has played a critical role during the Yom Kippur War.
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Established by the country's founding father and first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, the Mossad was originally commissioned to coordinate and improve cooperation between the existing security services—the IDF's intelligence department (AMAN), Israel's internal security service (Shin Bet), and the foreign office's "political department." Some estimates place the agency's annual budget at 10 billion shekels (US$2.73 billion), and is thought to employ around 7,000 people directly, making it the second-largest espionage service in the Western world, just behind the CIA.