Manipulating Friends: Mossad's Covert Operations and Disinformation in Europe

Alongside targeted killing operations, intelligence agencies often organize disinformation campaigns to cast doubts about who is behind the murders. While there is a large body of literature that researches intelligence agencies’ efforts to influence the views of an enemy (such as propaganda or disinformation campaigns), this article looks at it differently: how does a disinformation campaign look like to influence the views of friendly counties or allies? The article focuses on specific reports sent by Mossad to European intelligence agencies during the early 1970s when Mossad was running a targeted assassination campaign in Europe. The reports that Mossad shared with its European partners provided alternative ways of interpreting Mossad assassinations. The article identifies two purposes of these cables beyond exchanging information: they allowed Mossad to feed disinformation to European agencies to deflect responsibility for the killings away from Israel. Later, they allowed European governments to plausibly deny knowledge of Israeli responsibility for Palestinian deaths and to continue to share intelligence with Mossad about Palestinian terrorist groups. This article advances current understandings of how states try to manipulate other states’ behaviour, and how friendly relations can be abused to foster one's own interests.