Here are two names of Israelis that will forever be stained in the public opinion of the country: Nahum Manbar and Gonen Segev.

Why? Why did they work for the Iranians against their own people? asks the Jerusalem Post.

In the 1990s, Manbar – an Israeli from a kibbutz with a dark past – set up shop in Europe and began selling weapons to Iran, including components, equipment and know-how to make chemical weapons.

In 1998 he was sentenced to 16 years in prison for collaborating and providing information to the enemy. He served 14.5 years.

Segev, a former minister in Yitzhak Rabin’s cabinet turned drug smuggler (arrested for trying to smuggle thousands of ecstasy tablets into Israel from Amsterdam), was recruited abroad by Iranian intelligence in 2012.

In 2019, Segev – whose vote was crucial to the passage of the 1995 Oslo II accords in the Knesset – pleaded guilty to espionage and providing information to the enemy and was sentenced to 11 years in prison, which he is still serving.

In both of these cases the headlines in Israel were perfunctory: Israeli Jews working for the enemy. The Wikipedia entry on Manbar includes this sentence: “Manbar’s activities, some of which were conducted in Britain, attracted the attention of MI6, who could not believe that an Israeli could be working so closely with Iran and concluded that Manbar was a Mossad agent trying to infiltrate Iran’s defense establishment.”

In other words, Britain’s famous intelligence service thought it was so…far-fetched that an Israeli would work so closely with the Iranians that they thought it must be a ruse. that Manbar must be a double agent.

These cases were once stunning exceptions that dominated the headlines, branding espionage as an aberration. Not anymore.

Over the past year Israel’s Shin Bet Security Service has arrested dozens of Israelis working for – and being paid by – Iran or Hezbollah with the express purpose of spying on Israel or sowing discord in the country.

Espionage for the enemy

Cases of espionage for the enemy coming to light are now so common that Sunday’s announcement that the Shin Bet arrested two East Jerusalem Arabs for passing information to Hezbollah barely stood out in the steady stream of news.

It is true that the two arrested were not Jews – but Arabs – but this too would have garnered much more attention in previous years. Now, the cases of Israelis –
Jews or Arabs – accused of espionage or aiding the enemy during the war are so commonplace that they hardly provoke outrage.

Why? What changed? Why are there currently so many cases of Israelis spying for the enemy?

The Shin Bet has uncovered about a dozen separate espionage cases involving dozens of Israelis in the last year alone. The large number of these cases suggests that Iran is stepping up its intelligence efforts and changing its methods and targets.

Consider this: On December 17, it was revealed that Erdler Amoyal, a 23-year-old Jewish man from Jerusalem, was arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran and allegedly suggested setting fire to a police station and causing a power outage on the city’s tramway.

On December 9, the Shin Bet announced that Artyom Zolotarev, a 33-year-old from Nof Hagalil, was arrested after being recruited by Iran to carry out a series of subversive actions inside Israel aimed at promoting internal divisions, including anti-government graffiti and arson.

In October alone, some 20 people were arrested for everything from surveillance of military installations to assassination attempts, including recent immigrants from Azerbaijan and East Jerusalem Arabs.

Israelis working for Iran

Several reasons have been given for this surge in incidents of Israelis working for Iran.

The first has to do with Iran significantly intensifying its espionage and disruption efforts inside Israel.

This stems from operational considerations – remember that Iran has directly attacked Israel on two occasions this year, and photos of military installations have helped them target their targets – and also an increased incentive to infiltrate Israel after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniya in July at a supposedly safe location in Tehran.

The escalation of the conflict and Iran’s readiness to strike Israel directly has led to an increase in Iran’s intelligence gathering efforts.

Second, the Islamic Republic has cast a wide net, targeting individuals across the Israeli spectrum. While the popular perception may be that Israeli Arabs are the most likely to spy for Iran due to an ideological affinity with the regime’s goals, this is not the case. Instead, they target Haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews), young immigrants, people with criminal backgrounds and ordinary citizens, often those with financial difficulties motivated by the prospect of making a quick buck. Iran offers significant sums of money for missions such as graffiti or taking photos of sensitive targets.

The targeting of new immigrants – some of those arrested are from the former Soviet Union – can also have an unfortunate side effect beyond a threat to Israel’s security: suspicion and stigmatization of certain demographic groups in public opinion.

In addition, Iran has been able to create a wider network largely thanks to social media, which is being leveraged to recruit people. The digital approach to recruitment allows Tehran to reach segments of the population that it would not have been able to access before the emergence of platforms like Telegram.

As Iran casts a wider net, more actively trying to recruit spies and reaching out to wider demographic groups, the likelihood of detection by the Shin Bet also increases. The more you engage in this type of activity, the greater the risk of being discovered.
Indeed, Iran’s increased activity has sparked an escalation of Israeli counterintelligence efforts.

The Sin Bet has invested heavily in technology and surveillance tools to detect espionage networks, leading to a higher rate of arrests and crackdowns
businesses, but also in reducing the organization’s resources. And as Iran’s efforts multiply, the detection challenges will become more complex.

The rise in espionage by Israelis is a product of the conflict between Iran’s intensifying ambitions and Israel’s determination to protect itself. The cases of Manbar and Segev were once sensational. Today, they are part of a larger plan.