{{unreferenced, date=December 2013 The Research Department ( he, חטיבת המחקר) is a unit in the IDF Directorate of Military Intelligence (Aman) that serves as the national assessor of

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as the a ...

in the State of Israel. The Research Department's principal roles involve the analysis of information gathered by Aman's collection units and from the Intelligence Community at large; and forming tactical, strategic, and operative assessments, as well as reporting on the likelihood of war, and presenting these to military and political decisionmakers, including the

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

. The Research Department is the most established, senior research branch in the Intelligence Community, and works closely with the research bodies of

Mossad Mossad ( , ), ; ar, الموساد, al-Mōsād, ; , short for ( he, המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים, links=no), meaning 'Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations'. is the national intelligence agency ...

, Shabak, as well as those of the

Airforce An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an a ...

and Naval intelligence agencies, the regional command's intelligence research branches and other intelligence entities from the IDF, the

Security Forces Security forces are statutory organizations with internal security mandates. In the legal context of several nations, the term has variously denoted police and military units working in concert, or the role of military and paramilitary forces (s ...

, and the military industries and

development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development hell, when a project is stuck in development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting *Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped *Photographi ...

bodies. It has an available reserve of human resources it can draw upon from among active-service soldiers. The Department's activities are not limited to classical military intelligence research (i.e. purely military matters concerning hostile countries), but engages in a state, economic, industrial-developmental, internal security, and political areas which often do not have an immediate, literal military meaning. Israel is the only liberal-democracy in the world where

military intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from ...

is charged with assessing the intelligence map on a national, military, and ''state'' levels, and there have been repeated calls to transfer some of these roles from the Research Department to a civilian body, such as the

National Security Council A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a n ...

, as is the case in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. The Department is currently led by

Brigadier-General Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointed ...

Amit saar.

History

Although on the operative and tactical level, the Research Department has often proven quite successful, on the strategic and political front it has committed crucial failures which had a decisive impact on the course of Israeli and

regional history Historical regions (or historical areas) are geographical regions which at some point in time had a culture, cultural, ethnic group, ethnic, linguistics, linguistic or politics, political basis, regardless of latterday borders. They are used as de ...

. Above all others, the failure to warn that the

Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Eg ...

was imminent, remains the Research Department's greatest blunder. The

Agranat Commission The Agranat Commission (Hebrew: ועדת אגרנט) was a National Commission of Inquiry set up to investigate failings in the Israel Defense Forces in the prelude to the Yom Kippur War, when Israel was found unprepared for the Egyptian attack ag ...

, which investigated the failures of the war, very severely criticized Research in particular and the Intelligence Community, in general. A host of high-ranking intelligence officers were dismissed, most notably Aman Director,

Aluf ''Aluf'' ( he, אלוף, lit=champion or "First\leader of a group" in Biblical Hebrew; ) is a senior military rank in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) for officers who in other countries would have the rank of general, air marshal, or admira ...

Eli Zeira Eli Zeira ( he, אלי זעירא) (born 1928) is a former major general in the Israel Defense Forces. He was director of Aman, Israel's military intelligence, during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. He is most remembered for his ill-conceived prewar a ...

, and head of Research, Brigadier-General Aryeh Shalev.

History

Further reading