Unit
8200: In the Beginning
By Amir Kidon
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IDF
Photo
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(IDF) “After
the Six Day War, we built a post in Jerusalem, near of Mount
Scopus. In order to disguise the unit, we hung a large sign on
the outer gate marked Army Radio.” One morning, during
of the Army Radio program ‘Greetings from the Field’, a woman
rang the bell at the entrance and asked us to send her love to
her son. We were in shock. Immediately, we made a few phone calls
and we managed to connect with the Army Radio station. We tracked
down the radio program’s supervisor and asked him to send that
soldier his mother’s greeting. Our secret identity was
successfully kept.” The unit we are speaking of is 8200,
the Central Intelligence Gathering Unit of the Intelligence
Corps and this anecdote is recounted by Maj. (res.) Arieh Surkis.
For
over 50 years, Maj. (res.) Arieh Surkis is counted among the
founders of this extraordinary Intelligence Corps unit.
Stories
of this nature are typical realities for Surkis, who as a
young soldier got used to answering the question, “So,
where do you serve?” by saying, “I sell waffles
in the Shekem.” In honor of the most guarded Corps’
60th anniversary we asked him to dredge up some memorable
details. An Intelligence Corps veteran like Surkis does not
give in easily – but here gives us a few stories that
describe the first days of one of the IDF’s leading
units.
In October
of 1952, Private Surkis stood at the Intelligence Corps Chief
Officer’s Headquarters in Jaffa, where the military courts
are located today. After a three month long trial period
he joined the 2nd Intelligence Service Unit as a laboratory
technician. “We hand just a handful of people,” explained
Arieh. “Shortly thereafter, the unit’s name changes
the 2nd Intelligence Service Unit to the 515th Intelligence
Service Unit. In our day, the joke was that the name changed
because there were 500 Iraqis and 15 Ashkenazim.”
“The
equipment we had then was very primitive. It was surplus
American military equipment that we had purchased; it was
amateur equipment.” Arieh recalled that he was responsible
for the listening equipment in those days. “You must
realize that neither the Intelligence Corps nor Unit 8200
controlled the conditions under which we served which were
very difficult in those days. The State of Israel was placed
in a difficult position from a topographical point of view
and it was for this reason that we received the order that
8200 would station a trial observation post on every hill
across the country.”
“In
1954, the unit moved from Jaffa to the area of Glilot interchange.
Glilot was much quieter, in contrast to Jaffa that was very
noisy and where there was no room to expand. I was proud
to be the first soldier from the unit to move from Jaffa
to Glilot, and there we slowly established the unit and the
base that exists today.”
Unlike
other military units, Unit 8200 created and planed within
itself many of its capabilities. “Today, the high-tech,
in its entirety, exists thanks to Unit 8200; where ever you
are you, we’re there. The development actually began
after the Six Day War. It was then that many means and acquisitions
were gained and the unit expanded greatly thanks to the Head
of the Intelligence Corps, who was then Maj. Gen. Aharon
Yariv (z”l),” explained Arieh.
“Today’s
generation is a very sharp generation. We were very naive,
but had extraordinary motivation. We got a boost of motivation
every week during a squadron and department meeting when
we would converse with one another about what occurred that
week. The only thing that I think there isn’t today
is investment in our heritage. The sentence that epitomizes
the feeling we had toward our work was: ‘If this isn’t
ready on time all will be lost’. If we don’t
mange to deliver the necessary information on time, God forbid,
it will be disastrous. We carried out our tasks with love
and with great capabilities."