---
category: "Intelligence & Government"
tags:
  - Person
  - Israel
  - Soviet
  - Military
summary: "Colonel Reuben Yirador was a department commander in Unit 8200, an Israeli Signals Intelligence (Sigint) unit."
updated: 2026-10-12
---

According to [[Ari Ben-Menashe]], Colonel [[Reuben Yirador]] was a department commander in [[Unit 8200]], an [[Israel|Israeli]] Signals Intelligence (Sigint) unit. Ben-Menashe wrote that he was later replaced by [[Sasson Yishaek|Lt. Col. Sasson Yishaek]] as commander of the department, but remained in [[Mossad]].[^1]

Ari Ben-Menashe wrote that in 1972 Yirador made a significant discovery when he decoded a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] intercept, which the account names VENONA, that revealed the Soviets were bugging the office of [[Golda Meir]], then Prime Minister of Israel. Ben-Menashe wrote that this discovery, along with Meir's meeting with [[Leonid Brezhnev]] and her rejection of a peace settlement, informed [[Anwar Sadat]] and may have prompted the 1973 war.[^1]

### Footnotes
[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. Sheridan Square Press, 1992 (TrineDay reprint, 2015).