Diskin, Yuval

(1956- )

   Director of the Shin Bet (Shabak)/General Security Service since May 2005. He began his service in the Shin Bet as a coordinator in the Tul Karm sector of the northern West Bank. His rise through the ranks was meteoric. Among the positions he held were deputy head of the Jerusalem district, which also oversees the West Bank, head of the Arab department; head of the Jerusalem district in the years following the signing of the Oslo Accords; and deputy head of the Shin Bet from 2000 to 2003. In the summer of 2003, he temporarily left the Shin Bet to study, and during this period, he served as special adviser to Mossad chief Meir Dagan, helping him promote and implement a number of reforms in that organization.