In a classified letter submitted to israel’s High Court of Justice on May 10–11, outgoing (June 2) mossad Director David Barnea revealed that the agency functions with virtually no formal legal oversight or “mossad Law,” reporting obligations for 99% of its operations, and routinely violates foreign laws abroad. He stressed that this “vast gray area” gives the director almost absolute freedom to set objectives and methods (“unlike Western spy chiefs”) making the leader’s “personal integrity” the sole safeguard against abuse.
Barnea used the filing to strongly oppose Netanyahu’s choice of Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman as his successor, citing Gofman’s history of bypassing military rules as an unacceptable risk for an organization that already operates beyond normal legal constraints.
“By way of deception thou shalt do war” is the widely cited former motto of the israeli intelligence agency mossad, derived from the Hebrew phrase Be-tachbūlōt ta`aseh lekhā milchāmāh. Former mossad officer Victor Ostrovsky (he discusses in clip 1) popularized the translation “deception” in his 1990 book , arguing that the agency interpreted the term to mean strategic ruses and concealment rather than honest counsel.
Israel references Proverbs 24:6 for the basis of this motto, but it actually states: “For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellers there is safety.” The Hebrew (modern jewish, not original) word tachbulot (תחבולות) is the root of the controversy, “implying ‘cunning’” or similar adjectives in exploitative interpretation.
