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“It’s never as simple as it seems,” explained Mr. Ross, who said it would be “disingenuous” of him to say Mossad was not at least partially responsible for Wednesday’s killing.

“Months and months and months of planning and cooperation would have gone into something like this.”

If Mossad operatives were behind the killing of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, it would be the latest chapter in a long history of covert action — one shaped by what Mr. Ross calls an unparalleled sense of urgency and a unique set of challenges.

“There’s definitely a real sense of purpose at Mossad,” he said.

“Israel’s history, with the Holocaust and the persecution of the Jewish people over time, has instilled a [survival] mentality. Your basic CIA officer isn’t concerned with the survivability of his country or an existential threat to America … At the end of the day, I don’t think he has the same core belief in what he’s doing that Mossad people do.”

When Mr. Ross was recruited from Israel’s military to become a spy, he was sequestered and trained one-on-one in a safe-house for 18 months, never visiting the Mossad headquarters north of Tel Aviv nor learning the true identities of those who operated there.

Over the next 14 years, the Canadian-Israeli assumed six different identities — one cover lasted a full seven years — and led a life wildly different from the one his family believed true so he could gather intelligence and seduce defectors.

“It’s basically the same as other services, but because Israel perceives itself — rightly or wrongly — to be threatened by its neighbours and constantly under attack, there is a greater sense of urgency,” said Yossi Melman, an Israeli journalist, best-selling writer and co-author of Every Spy A Prince: The Complete History of Israel’s Intelligence Community.