Israeli Jews spied for Iran in biggest infiltration in decades

Iran recruits via social media, offering money for intelligence, Israel says; high number of Jewish Israelis recruited surprises security experts.

TEL AVIV (Reuters): Israel’s arrest of almost 30 mostly Jewish citizens who allegedly spied for Iran in nine covert cells has caused alarm in the country and points to Tehran’s biggest effort in decades to infiltrate its arch foe, four Israeli security sources said.

Among the unfulfilled goals of the alleged cells was the assassination of an Israeli nuclear scientist and former military officials, while one group gathered information on military bases and air defences, security service Shin Bet has said. Last week, the agency and Israel’s police said a father and son team had passed on details of Israeli force movements including in the Golan Heights where they lived.

The arrests follow repeated efforts by Iranian intelligence operatives over the past two years to recruit ordinary Israelis to gather intelligence and carry out attacks in exchange for money, the four serving and former military and security officials said.

The sources asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

“There is a large phenomenon here,” said Shalom Ben Hanan, a former top Shin Bet official, referring to what he called the surprising number of Jewish citizens who knowingly agreed to work for Iran against the state with intelligence gathering or planning sabotage and attacks.

Shin Bet and the police did not respond to requests for comment. Iran’s foreign ministry did not respond to questions.

In a statement sent to media after the wave of arrests, Iran’s U.N. mission did not confirm or deny seeking to recruit Israelis and said that “from a logical standpoint” any such efforts by Iranian intelligence services would focus on non-Iranian and non-Muslim individuals to lessen suspicion.

At least two suspects were from Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community, police and the Shin Bet have said.

Unlike Iranian espionage operations in previous decades that recruited a high-profile businessman and a former cabinet minister, the new alleged spies were largely people on the fringes of Israeli society, including recent immigrants, an army deserter and a convicted sex offender, conversations with the sources, court records and official statements show.

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