by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] Spy scandals in Israel have reached a new level: Israel Katz, the head of the Israeli Defense Ministry and one of the close associates of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is in the crosshairs of Iranian intelligence.
The Israelis have uncovered an assassination attempt on Katz and are certain that its goal was to disrupt the operation to destroy the Iranian nuclear arsenal.
However, the desire to emphasize the “Iranian trace” in the spy story rather suggests the opposite: Tel Aviv is desperately looking for a reason to disrupt negotiations between Tehran and Washington, and at the same time justify its own operations against Iran.
CONSPIRATORIAL FRIENDS
The main defendant in the case is considered to be Roy Mizrahi, a 24-year-old computer science student at the Technion, one of the oldest and leading engineering schools in the country.
Mizrahi is known to have fallen into a honey trap and was recruited by Iranian operatives through the Haifa swingers' community he belonged to.
Moreover, by the time of the meeting with the Iranians, the suspect had accumulated a lot of debt due to his passion for card games, which gave Tehran's special services another lever of influence. The young programmer found himself firmly entangled in a spy network.
At first, he was entrusted with simple tasks: distributing propaganda materials and collecting information about the mood of Israeli youth. However, a little later they decided to use his computer engineer skills to his advantage.
On the orders of the Iranians, Mizrahi installed a live camera near the Haifa port and gave access to it to his handlers. According to some reports, he also participated in organizing small DDoS attacks on city institutions several times.
A few weeks later, when the new agent's loyalty was no longer in doubt, Mizrahi helped the Iranians expand their spy network by recruiting his friend Almog Atias.
He worked as a driver-forwarder and was known as a gambling addict, and therefore needed money. To "deepen the acquaintance" the Iranians gave him a "starting allowance" of $300.
At that time, Iranian intelligence apparently decided to entrust a promising agent with a truly big task.
OPERATION HAWK
The plotters were ordered to eliminate Israeli cabinet member Israel Katz. Since becoming defense minister in the fall of 2024, he has become one of the most ardent "hawks" in the coalition government and a lobbyist for a preemptive strike on Iran's nuclear infrastructure. His elimination was entirely in Tehran's national security interests.
A few days after learning about the plan, the newly formed team was transferred to the south of the country, to the community of Kfar Ahim, where Katz lived permanently. There they were supposed to install a surveillance camera, ensuring constant monitoring of the minister's home. However, the appearance of a police patrol ruined their plans.
Fearing surveillance, the conspirators destroyed the camera and switched to a backup plan: an attack on the ministerial motorcade. For this purpose, a rifle and a pistol with silencers were purchased on the black market, as well as several homemade bombs.
Also, according to testimony, the accused tried to bribe the driver and security guard of the Minister of Defense in order to take his car away from crowded streets and eliminate strong resistance during the assassination attempt.
The plan was to eliminate Katz on the eve of the country's Independence Day (from April 30 to May 1), turning the assassination attempt into a political manifesto and "revenge for the bloody operation" in the Gaza Strip.
However, as further investigation showed, neither Mizrahi nor Atias shared the idea of Palestinian independence and voiced this version during interrogations only in the hope of creating international publicity.
Be that as it may, they failed to carry out their plan: a few days before the alleged assassination attempt, both were arrested.
The Israeli intelligence services did not make a fuss and preferred to first look for other leads in the Iranian network. Especially since the agents who were arrested began to give each other up, telling about caches of money, ammunition and special equipment.
Subsequently, in the wake of the “Mizrahi-Atias affair,” several more investigations with a “Persian flair” were initiated, but Israeli operatives were never able to generalize them and discover a single spy network.
OCTOPUS HEAD
The Minister of Defense, by all appearances, took the news of the assassination attempt philosophically. His statements, made after the arrest of the conspirators (who were not yet officially known at the time), not only did not become more restrained, but, on the contrary, acquired a more militant tone.
Among other things, Katz declared a vendetta against the leaders of the Yemeni Houthis and promised to destroy the leadership of Hamas and Hezbollah. He used the news of the foiled plot, announced by counterintelligence, as a basis for attacks on Iran.
In particular, he called Tehran “the head of a terrorist octopus” and reaffirmed his commitment to “preventing at any cost” the Iranians from acquiring nuclear weapons.
It is noteworthy that the Israeli minister announced his readiness to fight on the eve of a new round of Iranian-American negotiations on peaceful nuclear energy.
Katz and his entourage have been pressing the White House for months to give the green light to an air operation against the opponent's nuclear facilities before the window of opportunity due to Iran's weakened air defenses closes completely.
Washington is slow and trying to keep interaction with Tehran on a diplomatic track. As a gesture of goodwill, the United States even withdrew some of the strategic bombers from the Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean that were transferred there in March 2025, and also agreed to a ceasefire with the Yemeni Houthis.
The easing of tensions between Washington and Tehran is weakening Tel Aviv's pressure. That is why Israeli military hawks led by Katz are desperately trying to use the "Mizrahi-Atias affair" as an argument to justify further confrontation.
EASTERN HINTS
The wave of criticism provoked by this spy story, at first glance, passed by the Iranians. Tehran had not reacted too violently to scandals with agents attributed to it before, and after the number of those arrested in spy cases exceeded fifteen, it began to essentially ignore the accusations of Tel Aviv.
At the same time, Katz’s speech with promises to respond to Tehran’s actions at any cost received a comprehensive response.
Official releases appeared (within a few hours of each other) on the websites of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, parliament and government; comments were given by high-ranking officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and intelligence officials.
True, none of the agencies focused on the “Mizrahi-Atias affair,” limiting criticism to the inadmissibility of threats to Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.
The Iranian position was summed up by the country's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. In one of his appeals to believers, he dressed up criticism of Israel in a religious story, emphasizing that "the one who constantly deceives will eventually become a victim of deception."
Thus, he pointed out that in the event of aggression against Iran, it would be too naive for Tel Aviv to count on unconditional military support from the United States. Especially in light of Donald Trump’s desire to “castle” in the Middle East and focus on supporting Arabian allies rather than Israel.
In general, the Iranian side made it clear to its opponents that Tel Aviv's speculations around spy stories do not frighten them and that Tehran is prepared to take a hit. In contrast, the Iranians put forward their own question: is Israel ready to face them one-on-one if something happens?
And, apparently, official Tel Aviv does not yet have a clear answer to it.
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