Intelligence Against COVID-19: Israeli Case Study

摘要

With the outbreak of COVID-19, Israeli decisionmakers decided to use the capabilities of the national intelligence agencies in the "war" against the pandemic. Three national intelligence agencies were requested to cope with COVID-19: the Military Intelligence Directorate (MID), known in Hebrew as AMAN (an acronym for Agaf modi'in); the Israeli Security Agency (ISA), also known as the SHABAK (an acronym for Sherut bitahon klali) in Hebrew; and the Mossad. COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. It was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China and resulted in a worldwide pandemic. The first case thus far has been traced back to 17 November 2019. A total of 6,644,011 cases and 391,839 deaths had been confirmed in 216 countries and territories as of 6 June 2020,x while in Israel, as of the same date, 17,706 confirmed COVID-19 carriers and 292 deaths had been reported.2