American intelligence isn’t the only one that goes around “sheep dipping” its elite military members for clandestine service. The term refers to taking a military member out of uniform to perform work for an intelligence agency, thereby avoiding an act of war. The CIA is well-known for doing it, but we now know Israel does, too.
Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad, produces some of the world’s most skilled spies. So when they have a really well-placed operative, it doesn’t make sense to risk blowing their cover on a risky, high-profile assignment. That’s where the Caesarea branch comes in.
Caesarea, named for the ancient town in Israel built by King Herod the Great, is one of the most closely guarded areas of Mossad’s inner workings. It was established and led in the 1970s by the famed Israeli spy Michael Harari and quickly became one of its most important operations, as the world was a very different place for Israelis back then.
The Caesarea division of Israel’s Mossad was established in the early 1970s following the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre. Its formation was a strategic response to the growing threat of Palestinian terrorism and was overseen by Mossad operative Mike Harari. Mossad and the Israel Defense Forces would rescue Israeli hostages if possible. If not, Caesarea would be the ones to avenge them.
Using a specialized task force inside Caesarea called Kidon (or “bayonet”), which is made up of former IDF special operators, they would be Israel’s assassination squad.
With possibly hundreds of spies in place throughout the Arab world, they could easily identify and reconnoiter possible targets. When not actively working on an assassination plan, Caesarea collects information and conducts surveillance on possible enemy targets. Kidon is then sent in to end the threats or enact old-timey justice.
Of course, given the incredibly secretive nature of Mossad and its operatives, not much about the organization can be confirmed beyond the fact that it exists. Several prominent journalists have written about various targeted killing operations allegedly conducted by Caesarea and Kidon, but the sources for those stories are unknown.
It’s easy to see why Israel might want such a unit. The 1972 Munich Massacre saw Palestinian terrorists from the group Black September take the Israeli Olympic team hostage at the 1972 Summer Games in West Germany, killing five athletes, six coaches, two referees, and a German police officer. Mossad Operatives took revenge on the planners and perpetrators of the attack through targeted assassinations, in a mission dubbed “Operation Wrath of God.”
Kidon was also assumed to be involved in the 1997 attempt to kill Hamas leader Khaled Mashal in Amman. There, they used a unique poison sprayed into the terror leader’s ear. The operatives were chased down by Meshaal’s bodyguards, who turned them over to Jordanian authorities.
In this incident, Mashal was saved only by the intervention of King Hussein of Jordan, who threatened to withdraw from a peace treaty with Israel unless the Israelis provided the antidote to the poison, which they quickly did. Kidon is also said to have participated in similar targeted killings during the two Palestinian intifadas, which saw massive unrest among Palestinians and numerous terror attacks inside Israel.
Kidon and Caesarea are so secretive that even the domestic Israeli news agency Haaretz describes it as “the Mossad within Mossad.” The secretive nature also lends itself to several Israeli and international conspiracy theories, including hiring Monica Lewinsky to embarrass President Bill Clinton and the killing of Princess Diana.
The one thing anyone outside Mossad knows is that Kidon exists. And that’s all anyone may ever know for certain.
