To me it seems that it's sort of a confirmation of subtext from the book "The Secret History of the Mossad".
The thesis is that the Mossad is being seriously damaged by involvement of politics. Mossad requires time to do things properly (getting the job done, covering the trails, not leaving a trail to either operatives, Israel or Mossad itself), but politicians, especially Benjamin Netanjahu required (in 90's) that Mossad perform more operations faster, or so to say "on demand" whenever he needed a PR boost. Thus leading to a couple of spectacular failures that left Mossad operatives demoralized and even got them to start talking publicly about the ways of Mossad.
Fast forward 10 years. Bibi is in charge again and Mossad blew it again. Hmm???
If this is Mossad this is a terrible failure - revealing identity of 25 agents is horrible price to pay. Just imagine what kind of tow this will be on morale of other operatives. Mossad operatives work(ed) so good because they know that the organization will take care of them, that they will be protected and that they are being appreciated (in hacker terms think MS, Google,...).
Kinda reminds me of how in IT when PHB type MBA's come around "demanding results NOW!!!11one!", engineers loose morale, start leaving and everything goes down the drain.
> Just imagine what kind of tow this will be on morale of other operatives.
Oh poor Mossad, how will it ever manage now...
They just assassinated a person in another country, in cold blood, using passports from countries they are supposedly allies with. The main problem with that, is of course, the "morale" of the Mossad agents. Just like the the morale of a suspect charged with first degree murder should be the biggest concern of everyone involved.
Just imagine what kind of tow this will be on morale of other operatives.
Inquiries for employment on the Mossad website have reached levels never before seen. Lots of young Israeli people evidently think that now is a great time to become a Mossad operative.
I believe that there are quite some parallels between world of "spycraft" and high technology.
I believe that personality traits and skill set for a successful spy are very similar to those of a top-notch hacker.
Both require an excellent all rounder with a creative spirit and strong sense for duty and loyalty. These are the kind of people, that can be relied upon to carry out their job without micromanagement.
People like that are few and far in between. And more significantly, when you start to displace them with mass produced "drones", they are the first who get the cue and they start leaving (Elves have left middle earth).
So for a final parallel - there have never been more people sought after in high-tech and the good ones have never been treated with more disrespect. Incidentally there has never been a bigger supply of crappy code/tech than today.
The difference is that business world can take such failures more easily - companies turn over and that's it.
In world of Intelligence - like the assassination attempt on Khaled Mashal - this is a failure of such magnitude that it will cost waaaay more than what was gained. Both in money and in credibility and prestige.
The thesis is that the Mossad is being seriously damaged by involvement of politics. Mossad requires time to do things properly (getting the job done, covering the trails, not leaving a trail to either operatives, Israel or Mossad itself), but politicians, especially Benjamin Netanjahu required (in 90's) that Mossad perform more operations faster, or so to say "on demand" whenever he needed a PR boost. Thus leading to a couple of spectacular failures that left Mossad operatives demoralized and even got them to start talking publicly about the ways of Mossad.
Fast forward 10 years. Bibi is in charge again and Mossad blew it again. Hmm???
If this is Mossad this is a terrible failure - revealing identity of 25 agents is horrible price to pay. Just imagine what kind of tow this will be on morale of other operatives. Mossad operatives work(ed) so good because they know that the organization will take care of them, that they will be protected and that they are being appreciated (in hacker terms think MS, Google,...).
Kinda reminds me of how in IT when PHB type MBA's come around "demanding results NOW!!!11one!", engineers loose morale, start leaving and everything goes down the drain.
Edit: http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/d/ContentDetails/i/9279/p... - describing the previous Netanyahues debacles.