(Adnkronos) – In recent months, an “unprecedented number” of Israeli citizens have started spying for Iran. This is according to Maor Goren, supervisor of counterintelligence for the Israeli police, contacted by CNN to explain an increasingly widespread phenomenon for which over 30 people have already been arrested in the last year alone. The charges range from taking sensitive images to plots to assassinate important Tel Aviv officials. “If we look back over the last few years – the last few decades – we can count on the fingers of one hand how many people had been arrested for this,” Goren said.
In the decades-long espionage war with Iran, Israel has always maintained an important strategic advantage, with capabilities that have allowed it over the years to carry out major attacks inside Iran. However, after the Hamas attack on October 7, Tehran appears to have significantly stepped up its efforts, CNN reports. The arrests have caused a stir in Israel in recent months. Beyond the numbers, most of those arrested are Israeli Jews, a shock in a country where Jewish citizens are imbued with a deep sense of patriotism and national pride.
“I wasn’t surprised, I was shocked. It was like a bolt from the blue,” said Leonid Gorbachovsky, the neighbor of Azis Nisanov, head of the Haifa spy ring busted last October: “There was nothing special about him, nothing that would lead me or anyone in our home to suspect he was connected to anything illegal. He was an ordinary man.” Like most of the other Israelis arrested on charges of spying for Iran, Nisanov had immigrated to Israel. But Gorbachovsky, who arrived 25 years ago from Belarus, doesn’t believe that foreign origin can be a factor. “How can a person come to a foreign country from a different state and hate it? – he asks – If it was for money, then this is a rotten person. How can you sell your homeland for money, even if it is large sums? This is your state. How can it be?”.
Israeli police claim that Nisanov, an Azerbaijani immigrant, began working for Iran more than two years before his arrest, after being contacted by another Azerbaijani citizen working for Tehran. According to the prosecution, the agent allegedly instructed Nisanov to photograph military bases subsequently hit by missile attacks by Iran and its proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah. Nisanov’s lawyer, Maher Talhami, did not deny that his client photographed Israeli military bases, but assured CNN that Nisanov “did not know he was dealing with Iranians.” “He needed a lot of money. He owed money to a loan shark and he had really serious financial problems – said Talhami – He never thought he was doing something that could damage the security of the State of Israel”.
Although most of the suspected Iranian spies were only tasked with photographing or filming strategic sites, some have been accused of plotting to kill important officials. In August, Israeli police arrested Moti Maman, a 73-year-old from Ashkelon, on charges of plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar. According to the prosecution, Maman allegedly traveled clandestinely twice, meeting with Iranian intelligence agents and receiving money to carry out missions.
Oded Ailam, former head of counterterrorism at the Mossad, calls it “the large numbers theory.” The Iranians “are not deterred by failure – says Ailam – And above all they don’t care what happens to their ‘assets’ afterwards… they say: “Okay, if we fail, we move on to the next one”. And they don’t really care about the result”. According to Goren, the Shin Bet has been adept at uncovering many of the Iranian spy networks, through a combination of digital surveillance and undercover operations.
Israeli authorities have revealed that many Iranian spies have been approached via social media, especially on Telegram, and the Shin Bet showed CNN some messages for “interesting and exciting jobs” that pay “a very high salary” from Iran. One message read: “I have various missions in the cities of Israel that not everyone is able to do. My missions have rewards from 100 to 100,000 dollars”. Another said: “We only need brave men. Are you brave? For a lot of money?”.
Goren said the Iranian recruiters often started by asking their targets to carry out small “test missions” for easy money, progressively increasing the difficulty of the missions and further compromising their targets. Goren revealed that a test mission could involve snapping a photo of a building or spray-painting graffiti on a wall. “They want money fast – Goren said of the spies – They don’t care about the country, they don’t care about their people, they just want money”. Ailam explained that those who fall into the vast net cast by Iran are often “desperate people who come from a section of society that is usually overlooked”. Many of those arrested are also immigrants, who Ailam says may not have “the same affiliation and attitude towards Israel” as others.
