Shin Bet now ‘targeting Jews spying for Iran’

Alameen Templeton

The discovery of almost 30 Jewish citizens who spied for Iran in nine underground cells has alarmed Israelis, allegedly uncovering Tehran’s biggest effort in decades to infiltrate its arch foe.
Others say the leaks from the intelligence sector suggest Israel’s war hawks now see sincere Jews as a threat to the country’s national security because they don’t want to serve in the military. They fear the Zionist state is now targeting the ultra-orthodox community, much like it does Muslims and Arabs.
Shin Bet never leaks anything without a lie woven into it and the subtext of its latest revelations indicate orthodox Jews are being targeted for surveillance.
Reuters, the wire service with close links to Britain’s MI6, reports its espionage sources claim the spy cells were tasked with the assassination of an Israeli nuclear scientist and former military officials, while one group gathered information on military bases and air defences.
Last week, Shin Bet and Israel’s police said a father-and-son team had passed on details of Israeli army movements in the Golan Heights where they lived.
“There is a large phenomenon here,” said Shalom Ben Hanan, a former top Shin Bet official, describing “the surprising number of Jewish citizens who knowingly agreed to work for Iran” with intelligence gathering or planning sabotage and attacks.
At least two suspects were ultra-Orthodox Jews who are outraged that they’re now being called up for military service, sources said.
But are they isolated outliers or part of a new phenomenon? It may be Tel Aviv is talking up its book, metastasising spray-can protests against Benjamin Netanyahu’s hostage policy into treason with Iran in a ploy to pull the orthodox community into line.
The new alleged spies were largely people drawn from the fringes of Israeli society, including recent immigrants, an army deserter and a convicted sex offender, conversations with sources, court records and official statements show.
Much of their activity was limited to spraying anti-Netanyahu or anti-government graffiti on walls and damaging cars, Shin Bet has said. Some sources have suggested the intelligence officials may be targeting the ultra-Orthodox community which they see as a growing threat to Israeli army recruitment needs.
The scale of the arrests and involvement of so many Jewish Israelis has shocked the Nazi state.
Shin Bet claims the espionage activities were “among the most severe the state of Israel has known.”
Many are suspicious about the unusual decision to provide public details of the alleged plots.
Israeli authorities have said publicly some of the Jewish suspects were originally from Caucasus countries.
One Israeli suspect, Vladislav Victorsson, 30, was arrested on October 14 with his 18-year-old girlfriend in the Israeli city of Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv. He had been jailed in 2015 for sex with minors as young as 14.
An acquaintance told Reuters Victorsson communicated with the Iranians using the Telegram messaging app. According to the investigation, Victorsson agreed to carry out an assassination of an Israeli personality, throw a grenade into a house and also try to obtain a sniper rifle, pistols and fragmentation grenades.
He recruited his girlfriend, who was tasked with recruiting homeless people to photograph demonstrations, the security services said.

So, you’re targeting a deeply religious community and the best example you can come up with is a failed sex offender and his girlfriend? Well, it is Israel, after all.