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of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel. The purpose of the surveillance was to provide information to the leadership of the Yishuv, in any way possible, as comprehensive as possible, on the happenings within the Committee and most importantly the leanings of each of the representatives of the 11 nations that comprised the Committee.
Listening in on the members of the Committee was supposed to provide important information. The Shai was already trained in such work, and was already conducting regular surveillance of the British offices in the Land of Israel. Most of the surveillance was, in any case, being conducted in Jerusalem and the Committee, like previous international committees, operated mostly in Jerusalem. The 25 senior representatives were accompanied by dozens of secretariat employees, who were skilled in various administrative areas. They brought with them highly important archival reference materials concerning the problem of the Land of Israel throughout the generations, and they operated in scattered buildings and hotels. The Committee and its mechanisms were centered in the YMCA Building.
Herzog's headquarters was established in an apartment in a residential building not far from the Shai Headquarters, and was managed by Tamar Eshel, who later became a member of Knesset. The surveillance system operated from telephones in private apartments and the listeners were local student volunteers, as well as some who were foreign exchange students. This system was tied into the city's telephone exchange, which was also under surveillance.
This surveillance was also carried out in person, monitoring the various functionaries. When they conducted tours throughout the Land of Israel or met with various personages, the agents of the Shai young generation would "attach themselves" to them with various excuses. They would meet with Tamar Eshel every day and bring her their "catch" – diverse information, including documents they gathered from waste baskets that was intended for incineration.
Every morning at eight o'clock, Eshel would report to Herzog's office in the National Institutions Building, provide a background review and deliver her reports. Herzog himself held a daily work meeting with the Head of the Political Department Moshe Shertok (if he was in Jerusalem) or with his substitute Golda Meyerson, and with the liaison officers with the Committee – Abba Eban, David Horowitz and Moshé Tov, who collated and interpreted the information revealed. This activity generally yielded a large amount of information regarding the activity of the Committee's members, and from this they assembled a perfect or near-perfect puzzle of the UNSCOP's deliberations, the various opinions therein and the directions of its decision.
Herzog analyzed the findings, drew conclusions, reported to his superiors and summarized situation assessments. The broad knowledge he acquired during his military service as a Combat Intelligence Officer for the British Army during World War II had obviously been greatly helpful. "I instituted an accepted intelligence practice [...] and eventually wrote a summary that included an assessment as to the Committee's future recommendations. No measure was unacceptable to us.
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