” Israel kills 2 militants in Gaza – Hamas( 12.24.07)
(I quote)…’Air strike on car traveling near al-Bureij refugee camp kills two Islamist group members, wounds two more’…’Israel has killed more than 20 militants in the past two weeks in increased military action in the coastal territory.” …, see here.
This is the daily (sad) chronicle of belligerence along the Gaza Strip border. As any warfare system, to achieve such precise results, it needs Intelligence.
The Israeli Mossad and Shabak (Hebrew) have a good reputation as intelligence agencies. These everyday clashes between the Hamas and the IDF in the Gaza strip shows how updated or perhaps streaming intelligence, targets in real time the Hamas men on their way to launching the qassams into Israel.
As a matter of fact, this is a situation where the countries surrounding Israel, strive to get their own intelligence on Israel.
Ronen Bergman, Israeli security and intelligence analyst, in an Article from 07.31.07, wrote … “The ‘intelligence war’ between Iran and Israel is gaining momentum, as both countries’ intelligence services are increasing efforts to recruit Hebrew and Farsi speakers to their ranks.”..”The Iranian regime needs Hebrew speakers to work as translators, intelligence agents and as part of its propaganda machine against Israel. The main source of Hebrew speakers is Palestinian students studying abroad or Palestinian terrorists sent for military training in Iran and Lebanon.”.. “One of the most prominent centers for Hebrew studies is located at Iran’s embassy in Beirut, where Hezbollah members learn Hebrew at the Education Center”, see here, …
“Meanwhile (I quote), Israel’s Mossad agency on Tuesday published an ad in the country’s largest daily newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, inviting Israelis who speak fluent Farsi to join its ranks. The Persian-speaking Mossad recruits would presumably be responsible for translating intercepted Iranian transmissions and materials published by the regime in Tehran.”…see here, (July 31, 2007).
Now, Egyptian universities do the same, …”More than 10 Egyptian Universities currently offer Hebrew courses, usually as part of Oriental Language faculties that also teach Turkish and Persian.
Two major Egyptian universities, Ain Shams University and al-Azhar University, even boast a separate Hebrew language faculty. This is a major accomplishment, especially in universities that are considered bastions of strong anti-Israel sentiments.”…(12.20.07), see here.
Other countries, on their official public intelligence sites, advertise for linguists jobs in the Middle East languages.
The MI6 (UK) is also recruting Linguist Careers in SIS (MI5) (From on 05.06.06) ..”We are currently recruiting linguists with skills in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Chinese.. .”, see here.
The MI5(UK) is also recruting in his language unit…”The Security Service protects our society from terrorist threats. To do so we need to recruit people from all the diverse communities we serve.”…” Arabic (all dialects, particularly North African), Kurdish Central (Kurdi, Sorani),…. Somali, and Persian.”…see here.
The NSA (National Security Agency, USA) is recruting: …” Career Paths in Foreign Language NSA is particularly interested in individuals who are proficient in Asian or Middle Eastern languages. We are looking for those with the following language capabilities Arabic, Persian-Farsi ….”,(Among other languages), see here.
…”The FBI (USA) needs to English-speaking candidates with a professional-level language fluency in, between other languages, Arabic, Farsi , Hebrew, …”, see here.
…”Since George Bush left office, many people have begun to dismiss the possibility of a US attack against Iran.
Judging by today’s event, the same can not be said about an intelligence war against Iran. Obama is no Bush, but he is no pacifist either. It is possible that he, alongside other allies, is going to rely more and more on intelligence as an alternative to military action. With domestic problems increasing at home, this will disappoint Ayatollah Khamenei, as such operations do not provide him with much needed excuses to try and rally the public around the flag.”…
So “Farsi, Arabic and Hebrew” is a more relevant than ever issue in Middle East affairs.
korzac, I never realized that my Hebrew skills were so marketable…but I wont be working for Iranian intelligence anytime soon. Thanks for posting this fascinating story.
at 11:08 on December 25th, 2007
Ryan, it has already been said somewhere, that we are “אור לגויים” (A Ligth Unto the Nations)…
Thanks for the flag.
Very interesting story, korzac. It had me wondering if there are any “stoppers” that Israelis use to detect foreigners — words that are difficult to pronounce even for fluent speakers. For example, soldiers in the Dominican Republic have asked people they suspect to be illegal Haitian immigrants to repeat the word “perejil” (parsley). It has a Spanish “r” sound different from the Creole equivalent, followed by the guttural “j” (like “ch” in “Bach”),which somewhat resembles the Creole “r”. And a Dutch friend of mine told me that resistance fighters in World War II demanded that suspected German spies say words with the Dutch “g” sound (as in “Van Gogh”).
at 00:05 on December 26th, 2007
denseatoms, about your Dutch friend, I can tell you that he is right. Because my first language is Flemish (the Belgian variant of Dutch) I know the difference in sound when a “g” is pronounced by a Belgian and he same “g” as pronounced by a non-Belgians.
As for Israel, the situation is more complicated, because most of us where ‘foreigners’ in the past, when emigrating to Israel from many countries over the world, so when we speak today Hebrew there are always phonetic reminiscences of our first languages. Phonetic ‘stoppers’ wouldn’t help here…But I suppose there are o
korzacsol 
