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This article provides an overview of the relationship of two Israeli intelligence services and the media over four decades. It explores how Israel’s external and internal intelligence services have dealt with the public sphere in times of publicised crises, and analyses the main differences between the internal and external intelligence services when addressing the media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sheds light on the strategic communication of intelligence services in the new media age. Intelligence services operate in the dark, as far away as possible from the attention of the media and the public. However, in the new media age, intelligence services face a fresh set of unfamiliar challenges, including a dramatic change in the concept of time, the presence of alternative voices in the new media and a dramatic reduction in the ability to manage and control information. Using a case study approach, three traditional methods employed by Israeli intelligence services when addressing situations of exposure are examined: censorship, gag orders and the Editors’ Committee. The study addresses the organizations’ dilemmas, choices and difficulties in adjusting to the new media environment. On a broader theoretical level, the research demonstrates the importance of recognizing the differences among the diverse actors in the field of strategic communication as manifested within the well-established concepts of strategic communication, adaptation and adjustment. Since the field of strategic communication aims to include so many types of organizations and actors, it is crucial that nuances and differences among them are identified and analyzed within their specific context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three case studies concerning crises involving the Israel Security Agency (ISA) are presented. The article examines the capture of former Soviet spy and Israeli public servant Israel Beer in 1961, the ISA rescue operation of an Israeli bus on Line No. 300 and subsequent killing of two of the Palestinian terrorists believed to be responsible for the hijacking, and the ISA's failure to prevent the 1995 assassination of then-Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Abstract: This essay presents for the first time an integrated and comprehensive historical analysis of the relationship between the external intelligence service in Israel, the Mossad, and the media. The theoretical framework of this research demonstrates the significance of analyzing the relationship through the lens of a challenge–response model, based primarily on public relations literature. Since different changes have taken place in society, culture and media, it is crucial to define what issues the Mossad faced during each era in order to accurately evaluate its strategic communications. The Mossad's ability to cope efficiently with crisis situations was majorly influenced by the proportions between the challenges and the responses. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]