After revelation of the Pegasus spying project that targeted Arab and Western leaders last year, some expected the Israelis to scale down their spying activities, but a year after the scandal of the spying software, the Israelis continue their spying adventures in other countries. In a latest development, a new network of spies of Mossad working massively in Turkey and Greece was discovered.
On Wednesday, the Turkish intelligence announced the discovery of a network of 44 people suspected of spying for Israeli intelligence in this country. The arrested individuals are accused of monitoring Palestinian expats and their affiliated NGOs and providing the information to Mossad.
The arrest of Israeli spies in Turkey is not new, and in late October, the Turkish government announced the identification and arrest of members of a group of 15 people spying for Mossad. The members of group have been spying on Arabs and Palestinians living in Turkey and other countries for at least a year. The arrest of dozens of Mossad agents in Turkey comes while this country has recently normalized its relations with the Israeli regime and therefore Ankara officials and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have not taken any official position on the issue, lest their newly normalized relations take damage. This time, too, it seems that Ankara’s leaders will not react seriously to the spying activities of the Israelis on their soil because Erdogan knows that if he escalates tensions with the Israelis afresh, his position in the region will be jeopardized and it may cost him his post as the presidential elections draw closer. This is giving him a reason to close his eyes to espionage activities by the Israelis.
Scandal in Greece
The Israeli spying activities in recent years have shown that even the closest friends of Tel Aviv are not immune to its espionage and if it sees a need, it would not hesitate to spy on the friends. Along with discovery of Mossad network in Turkey, a scandal also struck the Israelis in Greece.
Following wiretapping scandal in Greece, the police raided the offices of an Israeli company that sells spyware. According to Greek media reports, the Israeli company, Intelxa, is behind the Predator spyware. In addition to the Athens office, the houses of the company’s directors were also raided by the police. The offices of Krikel, a provider of electronic security systems, and four other companies were also raided.
The Greece government has been rocked by scandals related to spyware embedded in the phones of prominent journalists, opposition party leaders, dozens of ministers, military officers, and businesspeople. Earlier, the Israeli regime was found tapping phones of European and American leaders. This time, Greece is hit by the scandal wave.
The Israeli intelligence is spying on Greece while Tel Aviv has good relations with this country and has developed cooperation in all fields in recent years. The Israeli military has even held exercises in the Mediterranean Sea with Athens, upgrading their relations, according to the Israeli security officials, close to strategic levels.
The simultaneous discovery of Mossad spies in Greece and Turkey strengthens the hypothesis that the Israeli regime, amid the tensions between Ankara and Athens, is trying to obtain information about the military programs of these countries so that in the event of a war, it can provide intelligence assistance to one or both sides and win their leaders’ favor.
Targeted espionage on Arab countries
After the normalization, Persian Gulf Arab states have become a new and almost uncharted espionage target. Meanwhile, the Mossad is using new and creative spying methods. While the Israelis in the US and Europe spy on political and military leaders using the institutions under their control, namely using spywares like Pegasus, in the Arab countries, they act organizationally and purposefully. Having in mind that a majority of Arab countries have no diplomatic relations with the Israeli regime and it is hard for the Israelis to penetrate these countries, the spying is conducted more professionally and sophisticatedly. In past decades, there have been many revelations of documents showing how Arab citizens and officials knowingly or unknowingly spied for the Israelis.
In 2019, The Times of Israel newspaper revealed in a report that in one of the Arab countries, a senior official was spying for Tel Aviv without even knowing that he was providing valuable information. With the disclosure of many documents of Mossad espionage in the regional countries, it can be said that the goal behind normalization with the Arab is to obtain detailed information about various activities of these countries. One of the reasons behind insistence on security pacts with the Arab countries is that the Israelis seek a deeper penetration of their security layers for easier intelligence collection.
Given the fact that the Arab rulers leave the Israeli hand open for running rampant in their countries, everything is ready for activation of spying networks. Sometimes, Mossad agents work so professionally and smart that penetrate the highest security and political layers.
Obtaining information from Arab countries is so important to Tel Aviv officials that they are even willing to engage in sexual relationships with Arab leaders. Former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni a few years ago engaged in such a relationship with Emir of Qatar. Their relationship was disclosed shortly later.
Individuals serving as military attachés in the Israeli embassies in the Arab countries are among the top Mossad officers and agents. After the normalization deals between the Israeli regime and the UAE and Bahrain in September 2020, a new branch was established in the international cooperation unit of the Israeli military intelligence with the aim of expanding intelligence and operational cooperation in the Middle East to obtain information from the Arabs.
The revelation of the Israeli espionage in the Arab countries comas as Tel Aviv engaged in relations with them under the cover of normalization but since the beginning, it sought its secret goals which include watching closely the moves and plans of the governments.
In places where there is no official loopholes for espionage, the Israelis use simple and less costly tactics, and these methods are mostly implemented in countries of the Axis of Resistance, a regional coalition led by Iran and covering Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, and Palestine. As after the arrest of Mossad agents in Lebanon in recent months, some of these people stressed that they had no idea that they were providing their country’s information to the Israelis. These people provided information in various fields to the enemies online and in return for small payments. This issue shows that the Israelis have precise plans to infiltrate the Arab countries.
Ultimate goal of destabilizing the region
One of the main reasons driving the Israeli influence in the Arab countries and Caucasus is to counter Iran. Well entrenched in the UAE and Bahrain after normalization, the Israeli regime tries to tighten the noose on Iran by strengthening security ties to these countries. After signing security agreements with the Arab rulers in the Persian Gulf, the Israeli regime wants to obtain information from inside Iran by selling its defense systems and deploying drones in the region and implementing the ‘death by a thousand cuts’ project. The Israelis claim that normalization targets Iran’s growing regional power while, by the way, one of their aims is to divide the ranks of regional states, including the Arab countries themselves.
The Israeli regime is pursuing this scenario in Azerbaijan and has put destructive measures on its agenda to create hot spots near Iran’s borders. According to the documents published by the US State Department a few years ago, Tel Aviv signed contracts for military cooperation and construction of small-size drones with the essential aim of obtaining intelligence from inside Iran through neighboring Azerbaijan.
In recent months, Tel Aviv further boosted its relations with Baku and is trying to make Iran’s northwestern borders insecure. Assisting separatist moves by some groups inside Iran and outside it is one of the main programs that the Israelis are focusing on. The Israelis have taken roots in the Azerbaijani society by establishing the Jewish community in Baku and sending more Jews as missionaries and economic activists in order to strengthen their presence on Iran’s borders as much as possible. Two months ago, during the visit of Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz to Baku, it was agreed that the Israeli regime would establish camps for the settlement of Jews who are going to migrate from Russia to the occupied Palestinian territories. The increase in the number of Jews on the northern borders of Iran is a serious threat because some of these Jews are used by Tel Aviv to damage Iran’s interests.
Negative effects of spying on Israeli-Arab relations
Continuation of the Israeli espionage can negatively impact the relations between the Israeli regime and the Arab states. Given the fact that the Arab public have no positive view of the normalization with the Israeli occupation, ongoing spying activities can provoke them to force sharp reactions from their leaders. Also, espionage can make some Arab countries in queue for normalization review their plans to avoid a certain humiliation.
What it certain is that the intensification of the Israeli
activities in the region can create instability and engage the regional
states into internal challenges and tensions with the neighbors. The
consequences and threats of such activities are not limited to enemies
of Tel Aviv but also damage the security interests of the states
normalizing with the Israelis.
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