Occupied Jerusalem – After the Israeli security services announced that they had arrested an Israeli citizen recruited by the Iranian security services to carry out security operations and gather information, Tehran’s efforts to recruit agents and spies inside Israel have returned to the forefront.
The General Security Service (Shabak) announced that during the war on the Gaza Strip, Tehran succeeded in recruiting Israeli businessman Moti Maiman (72 years old) from the town of Ashkelon to cooperate with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and its intelligence, which reflects the efforts of Iranian intelligence to penetrate Israeli society and create groups of potential candidates for recruitment.
Iranian intelligence efforts
The cases of Israelis spying for Iranian intelligence are causing concern for the Israeli security establishment, because there are Jews who are willing to work on secret missions in exchange for money for an enemy state, which is a shock to Israeli society amid the state of polarization and divisions that are tearing it apart, according to a reading by Yossi Melman, an intelligence and strategic analyst in the newspaper Haaretz.
Melman believes that the Iranian intelligence efforts that have been ongoing for many years and have escalated over the past year reflect Tehran’s desire to expand the circle of its network of agents and espionage inside Israel, saying that “Tehran’s previous suggestion to an Iranian recruit to establish a club for Israelis is a classic example, where quantity can turn into quality.”
“It is true that the counter-capabilities of the Shin Bet, along with the operations of the military intelligence and the Mossad, indicate that Israeli intelligence has the upper hand, and that it has penetrated much deeper into Iran than it has penetrated into Israel, but the failures do not deter Iranian intelligence, which operates without stopping and should not be underestimated,” Melman says.
The intelligence and strategic analyst explained that the attempts of the Iranian intelligence services to recruit agents for activity inside Israel should not be underestimated, especially when the bulk of its activity and interests are the Jews living in Iran.
He said that the Israeli security establishment does not underestimate this Iranian activity, as the activity and cadres of the dedicated unit that deals with monitoring Iranian intelligence and Hezbollah, which operates within the Counter-Espionage and External Entities Division, have been expanded.
Latest spy case
The indictment filed by the Israeli Public Prosecution indicates that Israeli businessman Moti Maiman, who is accused of committing serious security crimes and spent long periods in Turkey, was smuggled back and forth four times in a truck at the border crossing between Turkey and Iran, where he held meetings with leaders of the intelligence services in Tehran and the Revolutionary Guard.
Israeli investigations revealed that Iranian intelligence agents suggested that Maiman carry out security missions, assassinations, and gather intelligence information inside Israel. The Public Prosecution charged him with contacting a foreign agent during the war and entering an enemy country without a permit. The Public Prosecution seeks to detain him until the end of legal proceedings against him.
According to Israeli allegations, the tasks that Miman was asked to carry included transporting money or pistols and weapons to specific locations, photographing densely populated areas in Israeli cities and sending them to Iranian authorities, and threatening other Israeli citizens who were recruited as agents for the Iranian regime inside Israel, but did not carry out the tasks required of them.
The investigation with Meiman revealed that he agreed last April to meet with an Iranian businessman in order to promote commercial activities for this purpose, and that he also met inside Iranian territory with an Iranian businessman and another person who was introduced as an official in the security services in Tehran.
Iranian efforts
The Israeli Public Prosecution claimed that Iranian intelligence services recruited Maiman, who was arrested last August, to carry out assassinations targeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Galant, and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, in response to the assassination of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh on Iranian soil last July.
Investigations by Israeli security services revealed that Maiman, who had requested a $1 million advance from Tehran to carry out the assassination mission, informed Iranian intelligence that the requested assassinations could not be carried out due to the tight security measures. Tehran then asked him to assassinate former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, or to recruit a “double agent” from Mossad. However, the plan did not bear fruit due to the failure to provide the advance.
The activity of the Iranian intelligence services and the Revolutionary Guards was not limited to recruiting agents and spies, but Tehran expanded the war on the cyber front against Israel since the start of the “Al-Aqsa Flood” battle on October 7, 2023, according to an investigation by the “Zaman Yisrael” website.
According to an investigation by journalist David Demolita, the Islamic Republic has set a new standard for its cyber strategy, which extends beyond the battlefield to include influence operations and intelligence gathering, as Iranian hackers and groups linked to the Iranian regime have escalated cyber attacks on government infrastructure and the private sector in Israel.
During the Israeli war on Gaza, Israel’s Channel 12 revealed a special campaign launched by Iranian intelligence services to recruit agents for them inside Israel, using fake websites and Israeli symbols to lure Israeli, Iranian, Syrian and Lebanese citizens suspected of working with foreign intelligence services. Investigators revealed the use of dozens of fake websites and pages on social networks, as well as Israeli phone numbers.
Previous recruitment attempts
During the war on Gaza last August, the Israeli Attorney General’s Office unveiled an indictment in a “serious” espionage case, alleging that Iran had tried to promote a “military coup” in Israel.
The Shin Bet investigation revealed that Iranian agents were able to recruit the young Israeli, Aden Davis (30 years old), a resident of Ramat Gan, in order to promote Iranian goals in Israel. The indictment filed against him indicates that Iran is trying to use the protests to dismantle Israeli society.
Iran’s efforts to recruit spies inside Israel were not limited to the war on Gaza. In July, the Shin Bet and the National Unit for International Investigations announced the arrest of three Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jews on suspicion of carrying out security activities under the direction of Iranian intelligence officials. Israel is concerned that Tehran is seeking to recruit ultra-Orthodox Jews, who are less aware of the risks, have weak loyalty, and are greedy for money.
In December 2023, the Israeli security establishment revealed the existence of an Iranian spy network that recruits agents in Israel via the Internet in exchange for money. The Shin Bet said that “Iranian security officials contacted Israelis via a number of platforms, pretending to be real estate brokers, or interested in marketing drones, or online dating, or searching for private investigators, and courier services.”
In 2022, a complex case was uncovered involving an Iranian attempt to recruit spies from Iranian expatriates in Israel through a fake Facebook account in the name of Rambod Namdar, who pretended to be an Iranian Jew interested in immigrating to Israel, and contacted dozens of people, mostly Jewish women from Iran, and gained their trust through long conversations.
Gradually, they were asked to carry out various tasks such as photographing vital and strategic sites and facilities in Israel and transferring money, and 5 suspects were later arrested in November 2021 and tried in the Central Court in Jerusalem, which shocked the Persian community in Israel.
The case that most stunned the Israeli public occurred in 2018, when former Energy Minister Gonen Segev was arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran. He was recruited by the Iranian embassy in Nigeria, and was convicted of “serious espionage and providing information to the enemy” after providing information about strategic installations, security institutions and Israeli officials. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison as part of a plea deal.
In 1997, Israeli businessman Nahum Manber was arrested on suspicion of having ties to Iran, selling Iranians the secrets to producing nerve gas and mustard gas, and supplying them with the equipment needed to produce chemical weapons. He claimed that he acted only for commercial reasons, but the court deemed his actions to be a threat to state security, convicted him of “aiding the enemy” and sentenced him to 16 years in prison.