A FORMER commando took control of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service, yesterday in a move that could open the way for reprisals against Israel’s militant enemies abroad.

General Meir Dagan, who served in the Israeli Army with Ariel Sharon, the Prime Minister, and assisted him during his election campaign, was confirmed yesterday as head of one of the world’s most respected and feared intelligence organisations.

“I hope I can advance the Mossad, preserve its sharpness as an incisive tool in the service of the State of Israel,” he said during his confirmation ceremony at the Israeli presidential residence in Jerusalem.

The Times reported earlier this year that Mr Sharon wanted to move Ephraim Halevy, the outgoing Mossad chief, after the two clashed repeatedly about what strategy to adopt against Palestinian violence. Although Mr Halevy denied the split and insisted that he wanted to stay in his post, he was eased out three months ago to head a government advisory committee on national security. The British-born former spy chief and nephew of the late Sir Isaiah Berlin, who helped to negotiate a peace deal with Jordan, was brought in to restore credibility to Mossad after two bungled operations led to the arrests of agents in Switzerland and Jordan.

But two years into the Palestinian intifada, Mr Sharon is known to have wanted a far more aggressive Mossad director. General Dagan, 55, who led an undercover commando unit that tracked and killed Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, is regarded as the man for the job.

“He (Dagan) is not someone who came out of nowhere. He’s worked with intelligence in the military and I don’t think anyone questions the guy’s ability to do the job,” one Israeli official said. “Sharon’s conception of it is that he thinks Mossad should go back to the undercover and special operations for which it is renowned.

“During the Rabin and Netanyahu eras there were a lot of fiascos. Sharon believes Halevy was very successful in reorganising Mossad; now he wants someone who can take it up to the next level.”

However, one Israeli intelligence analyst said that there was little prospect of a return to the 1970s and 1980s, when Mossad operated abroad with relative impunity. “It is a different political climate now. Some countries . . . who were willing to turn a blind eye would not do so now.”

Mossad has scaled down overseas assassinations after a series of bungled operations in the late 1990s.

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