New Book Tells Almost All About Israeli Intelligence

By John Ostapkovich

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Hardly a day goes by without some mention of Israel or Iran in the news, and a veteran reporter has co-authored a new book on how Israeli intelligence tries to keep one step ahead.

Spies Against Armageddon is the work of CBS correspondent Dan Raviv and Israeli intelligence journalist Yossi Melman, a follow-up to their Every Spy a Prince, 22 years ago.

Since then, Raviv says Israel's spy agency, called Mossad, has turned away from the Palestinians as a source of worry and toward Iran with its overt hostility and nuclear ambitions.

"Basically we're trying to sketch out what it's like to be an Israeli in the Middle East where you feel that you're endangered all the time, surrounded by enemies. You feel you have to have the best military and the best espionage, and the Israelis think that they actually do have it," explains Raviv.

He says writing such a tell-almost-all book requires discretion, to reveal much of what has been going on to protect the Jewish State, without compromising those still in the field.