The IDF and Israel in the public sphere are doing all they can to stay out of the current Iran protests crisis to avoid being caught in Tehran’s crosshairs with ballistic-missile fire. But what about the Mossad in the shadows?
First of all, the Mossad is less in the shadows in the Islamic Republic than it used to be.
Last June, the Mossad had hundreds of agents involved in Israel’s 12-day war that set back Iran’s nuclear-weapons program, ballistic-missiles program, air-defense systems, and killed dozens of its top military and intelligence officers.
Following the war, Mossad Director David Barnea released a rare and shocking statement, foreshadowing the spy agency’s activities in Tehran. Israel “will [continue to] be there, like we have been there,” he told the Mossad and the general public.
On December 29, what is dubbed the Mossad X/Twitter account in Farsi encouraged Iranians to protest against the Iranian regime, telling them that it is literally physically with them at the demonstrations.
“Go out together into the streets. The time has come,” the Mossad wrote. “We are with you,” it added. “Not only from a distance and verbally. We are with you in the field.”
Although Mossad sources have denied any formal connection to the account, it is well known that the Mossad, the CIA, and other agencies often use fronts, which are not formally connected to them, to carry out covert operations or psychological warfare.
For example, after the July 2020 explosions and destruction of Iran’s nuclear facility at Natanz, an unknown and later revealed to be fictitious group took credit for the attack.
The whole world, including Iran, attributed this attack to the Mossad. Former Mossad director Yossi Cohen in not-so-veiled hints in his recent book The Sword of Freedom all but confirmed it, describing the sabotage in intricate detail.
Foreign actors had armed Iranians to help them fight against the regime’s forces being used to crack down on and oppress protesters, Channel 14’s Tamir Morag reported Tuesday. Iran’s foreign minister retweeted the report for his own agenda.
Mossad sources again distanced themselves from Morag’s report and any explicit acknowledgment of their involvement in the protests. But this is not a time period when Israel can publicly acknowledge its role without damaging the real primary narrative of Iranians trying to free themselves from an authoritarian regime.
But the Twitter statements two weeks ago were issued as the protests escalated over the collapse of Iran’s rial currency and a spike in fuel prices, as well as the recent crisis over the nationwide water supply.
Bennett: Iranian water supply in Iran leaves people 'very frustrated with IRGC'
REGARDING THE water supply, in an outgoing interview in 2022 in the book Target Tehran, former prime minister Naftali Bennett said an extensive policy review he undertook when he became prime minister had taught him that the regime was “profoundly corrupt and fairly incompetent right now. Large swaths of land don’t get water. You turn on the faucets and you get mud. You have all these demonstrations and people are very frustrated with the IRGC.”
There were opportunities, he felt, to take advantage of the regime’s weaknesses. But according to one account, he also impressed on Barnea that the Mossad needed to be more creative and aggressive.
Bennett wanted to make his mark on the new office and would encourage Barnea’s aggressive instincts.
Bennett also conveyed his view’s about bringing down Iran’s regime in a “death by a thousand cuts” strategy parallel to the US’s Cold War strategy against the USSR, which went far beyond classical military conflict.
According to a parallel narrative, those instincts were not only well developed, but it was Barnea who pressed Bennett to be even more daring and alter the rules of the game with Iran more in Israel’s favor.
In fact, Barnea gave Bennett a book by Peter Schweitzer, called Victory: The Reagan Administration’s Secret Strategy That Hastened the Collapse of the Soviet Union, a descriptions of dozens of nonmilitary techniques designed by the US to take advantage of the inherent weaknesses of an authoritarian regime to get the USSR to fall over time.
Besides all of the above, it is well known that Israel knows how to get weapons in the hands of third parties it has an interest in helping.
Israel has helped various Palestinian militant groups fight Hamas in Gaza, with the leader of Abu Shabab even publicly being rushed to an Israeli hospital to try to save his life after an incident.
According to public Ukrainian statements reported by both Israeli and foreign media, Jerusalem has found ways to get dozens of patriot missiles to Ukraine using indirect channels, and it facilitated the transport via US aircraft of massive amounts of Russian-made Hezbollah weapons (which Israel seized during the 2024 Lebanon invasion) to Ukraine.
Over the decades, Israel and the Mossad have also found ways to militarily support other groups, including in Lebanon from the 1970s until 2000, and many other places.
Likewise, Iran has accused Kurdish Iranians and other large Iranian minorities of working with the Mossad over the years.
Only after the air is clear will the full story of the Mossad’s involvement likely be cleared to be told.
But when it comes to the Mossad and Iran, there is always far more than meets the eye.