Middle East: Mossad chief promotes women at top

  Mossad Director David Barnea briefly emerged from the shadows on August 25 to denounce the upcoming nuclear agreement with Iran as being "based on lies" and the choice to leave open three investigations indicating undeclared Iranian nuclear activity as "an unprecedented national fraud," as was foreseen and reported here in an advance exclusive.

In recent days, Barnea briefed Prime Minister Yair Lapid and other top officials on the developing agreement with Iran. He also conducted several rare background briefings with reporters, explaining that even if the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) findings were still pending, once the deal was signed, nobody would move an inch to complete them.

The Mossad has recently evolved into a pioneer of gender emancipation while waging its covert fight to prevent Iran from nuclearization, a mission that the late agency head Meir Dagan was given with 20 years ago by the then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Last Monday, the organisation made a historic announcement detailing the nomination of two women to its top leadership forum. The Chief of Military Intelligence's counterpart, A., a longtime Mossad employee who rose through the ranks of the mostly male organisation, now leads the Mossad's Intelligence Directorate. K., another longtime Mossad employee, is in charge of the Iran campaign and is responsible for dealing with Israel's most dangerous foe, including the nuclear threat it poses.

With the exception of its director, whose name is the only one in the Mossad hierarchy that is permitted for publication, the organisation never announces top appointments. Other office holders' names are forbidden. The concept of having women as significant enemies is probably not appealing to the Tehran ayatollahs.

Since their establishment more than 70 years ago, women have held positions in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the General Security Agency (Shin Bet), and the Mossad. Some have obtained high positions inside these institutions, but never the top positions. Women typically work in advising, human resources, or general staff duties when they are in top positions.

Barnea reportedly boasted to his coworkers about leading what he sees as a revolution, despite his insistence that the two women were chosen solely based on their qualifications and not as a result of affirmative action.

He was cited as stating, "They were both simply the best, the most qualified and the most appropriate," by a security source who spoke on the condition of anonymity. They didn't receive any free passes, either. Throughout the lengthy years of their ascent through the ranks, they were simply the greatest among all the men they faced competition from.

Israel was founded in 1948 as a secular, liberal state, but it has been gradually moving in more conservative, religious directions. A rising number of religious communities and organisations ban women from leadership and influential positions in public life, separate men and women at their public events, and relegate females to domestic roles such as wives, mothers, and breadwinners. This makes the top appointments of women in Israel's most prestigious security service all the more unexpected.

Israel is still a militarised, predominately male country with few women in positions of authority. The late Prime Minister Golda Meir, the only woman to lead the nation, was a transient phenomena brought on by political circumstances, but she will be most remembered for the terrible outcomes of the Arab-Israeli War in 1973, which took place during her tenure. Barnea’s appointments run counter to the strong macho culture that prevails behind closed doors of most senior security forums. Could his dramatic moves augur the naming of a woman as Mossad director? Right now, probably not. In the future, quite possibly