While the following story is fictional, the strategic question is serious.

At 2:07 a.m., the Mossad Director was summoned to the Prime Minister’s Office.

He arrived expecting Iran, an arms shipment or a terrorist cell.

Instead, the Prime Minister pushed a red folder across the desk.

“I have a new operation for you.”

The director opened it.

A pharmaceutical-development executive in Basel.

A deep-tech CEO in Boston.

A senior Core AI specialist in Toronto.

An Israeli technology executive who had spent twenty years in Palo Alto.

The director looked up.

“What have they done?”

“Then why are you showing me their photographs?”

“I asked the government’s economic and innovation teams which capabilities Israel needs more of but cannot build quickly at home.”

“They gave me the gaps.”

The Prime Minister tapped the folder.

The director looked at the photographs again.

“What do you want the Mossad to do?”

“Persuade them to move to Israel.”

“You called me at two in the morning to recruit executives?”

“I called you to bring strategic capabilities to Israel.”

“That sounds remarkably similar.”

“I’m calling it Operation Precision Aliyah.”

The director frowned.

“Aliyah already exists.”

“Of course. Nothing changes. Anyone eligible under the Law of Return can make aliyah, regardless of profession, education or résumé.”

“Then what is precision about it?”

“The operation. For someone already eligible, aliyah is the existing legal pathway if we persuade that person to move to Israel. Your targets have already been identified. Your job is persuasion.”

The director nodded toward the Palo Alto photograph.

“Consider it the easy file.”

The director looked at the four photographs.

“You may be underestimating the paperwork.”

And so began Operation Precision Aliyah.

The first target had spent twenty-five years inside global pharmaceutical R&D.

An operative approached him after a conference in Basel.

“I’d like to talk to you about moving to Israel.”

“That is unusually direct.”

“We have a limited budget for coffee.”

The executive smiled.

“Because Israel has outstanding biomedical scientists, hospitals and biotech startups. What it has fewer of are people who have spent decades doing what happens after promising science becomes a development program.”

“You have led global clinical development. You have worked through........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)