Tsafrir later served as an intelligence officer in the Sinai Campaign in 1956 and the Six Day War in 1967. He joined the Shin Bet in the early 1950s, serving for 12 years, including as coordinator for Arab villages in the Jerusalem area. In 1962, he was recruited to the Mossad, then still a relatively young organization. Much of Tsafrir’s career revolved around two pillars of early Israeli strategy: the “periphery doctrine,” which sought alliances with non-Arab states such as Turkey, and Ethiopia; and the “strategy of minorities,” which aimed to build ties with non-Arab communities across the Middle East.
Appointed head of the Mossad station in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1974, Tsafrir oversaw Israel’s clandestine assistance to Kurdish forces fighting Baghdad, an operation logistically dependent on close cooperation with pre-revolutionary and its intelligence service, SAVAK. That mission ended abruptly in March 1975, following the Algiers Agreement between and Iraq, which resolved their dispute over the Shatt al-Arab waterway. Withdrew support for the Kurds overnight, leaving Tsafrir and a small Mossad team exposed as Iraqi forces advanced. They were evacuated via shortly before Iraqi troops closed the border.
