Secret Service Started Fighting Counterfeiters, Not Assassins

With Israel's election next week and America's midterms next month, the political calendar is driving more than just tension in polling stations and television studios. Security levels, alert status and intelligence vigilance are spiking at the most sensitive sites, as candidates appear at mass rallies across Israel and abroad.

Behind today's skilled protection details and their stringent protocols stands a surprising history: the United States Secret Service (U.S.S.S.), the body responsible for the safety of presidents and senior government officials, was established in 1865 by President Abraham Lincoln with a single, narrow mission, to fight currency counterfeiting.

Only in 1901, after the assassination of President William McKinley (the third president murdered in just 36 years), did Congress formally and permanently assign the agency the task of protecting the president. Today, to be accepted as a "special agent" in the organization, candidates must meet punishing screening requirements: U.S. citizenship, ages 21–37, a university degree with a high grade-point average and experience in law enforcement, passage of rigorous fitness tests, polygraph examinations, "top secret" security clearance, and an absolute ban on visible tattoos or body markings.

White House security detail / Photo: Sari Breeze/Shutterstock ((צילום: סרי בריז/שאטרסטוק)

An Independent Federal Arm

In the United States, the Secret Service operates under a unique model in which personal protection is managed by an independent federal arm, entirely separate from other intelligence agencies (such as the CIA) and from police forces.

The advantage of this structure is total focus on the unit's physical and operational mission, with dedicated and fixed authorities defined in federal law. Secret Service special agents are trained to respond immediately to extreme scenarios and to manage perimeter security rings around the president, his family and other protected individuals, relying on complex coordination systems with local and federal law enforcement bodies at every point in the world.

Prime Minister Netanyahu with bodyguard, and British PM Burnham / Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90; Fred Duval/Shutterstock (יונתן זינדל/ פלאש 90/פרד דובאל/שאטרסטוק)

The Israeli-British Hybrid

In contrast to the independent American model, Israel and Britain use what is known as the "integrated model," subordinating personal protection directly to the internal intelligence arms or to the national police.

In Israel, the Personal Protection Unit operates as an inseparable part of the General Security Service (Shin Bet), a structure that grants complete integration with intelligence, so that bodyguards receive real-time threat information directly from the agency that produces it, without the need for cumbersome inter-agency coordination.

In Britain, protection of the prime minister and the royal family (Royalty and Specialist Protection) is entrusted to a special unit of the London Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard), which operates in close and integrated cooperation with the internal intelligence agency MI5.

The bodyguard as superhero / Photo: Shutterstock (צילום: שאטרסטוק)

Between Culture and Reality

Over the years, personal protection agents have become symbols of honor and excellence, praised for their willingness to give their lives for the important figure whose safety and security is their primary mission at all times. Bodyguards have often been portrayed in books and films as "superheroes" who set aside their own lives for another person, in the belief that their duty is to protect him even at the cost of their own lives. In reality, bodyguards today want to finish a shift without unusual incidents and return home safely to normal life.