The Life and Times of a Ruthless Mossad Chief
Deep Dives
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Meir Dagan
14 min read
The article's subject - understanding his full biography, military career, and controversial Mossad operations would provide essential context for this profile
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Mossad assassinations following the Munich massacre
15 min read
Mossad's most famous assassination campaign, which shaped the agency's operational culture that Dagan inherited and expanded during his tenure
A SHORT TIME AFTER the vaunted Maj. Gen. Meir Dagan was appointed head of the Mossad by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2002, a cabinet meeting was convened. Dagan, then 57, short and stocky, walked into the room with a limp—the result of wounds sustained in Israel’s 1967 and 1973 wars against Arab states and Palestinian terrorism. He was Sharon’s favorite warrior.
At the meeting, Dagan sat quietly at the far end of the conference table, as if he were trying to make himself invisible.
“Come sit next to me at the head of the table,” Sharon called out to him. Dagan replied with the dry, cynical humor that would become his trademark: “Mr. Prime Minister, wherever I sit is the head of the table.”
The room froze.
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