Nadav Argaman has taken out many high-value targets in his career. As the head of the Shin Bet’s operational unit he was responsible for the assassination of one of the top Gaza targets, ‘the Engineer’ Yahya Ayyash, and as the deputy director, he led the operation to assassinate Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari. This is how the former kibbutz member from the Beit She’an Valley made his way to the top of the secret agency’s pyramid.

On the wall of the deputy Shin Bet head’s office there’s one picture: An enlarged ID card with the photo of an elderly man, sporting a white beard. What does this man have to do with Nadav Argaman, who will take on the role of the head of the Shin Bet in May? The answer is known to only a handful of confidants in the organization. The elegant old man and Nadav Argaman are one and the same. This is the same man, in one of his many lives as an operative in the Shin Bet’s Operations Division, undercover, many years ago.

Very little can be written about Argaman’s operational career. He did most of his service in what might not be the biggest division, but is the most prestigious: The Operations Division. From his first day in the Shin Bet, he served in the division’s operations unit, the one that produces the fighters, the field troops, the ones dubbed in professional lingo: “The Operators.”

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