The Spy Who is Being Left in the Cold.
New developments from September 13, 2024
[This is a follow-up to the original post found here:]
I have to admit at the start, that I am not an intrepid reporter. This story has been background noise for Israelis since soon after October 7. It is just that of late, whenever the story is mentioned on the news, everyone in the studio, and in on-line forums, hints that even though there is a court order not to reveal the name of the spy, everyone in Israel knows who it is, and if you do not, then a quick internet search will reveal the name. They have been saying this for months now, and I, the diligent student, would search the internet and…not find anything conclusive. In truth, as minor details about the case continued to trickle out, I lost all interest in the identity of the traitor, though I would still do a quick internet search every time the story popped up. What concerned most Israelis was:
Who sent him? Who was he working for?
How did he have the precise knowledge of what to look for and where to find it?
What explains the efficient and almost immediate transfer of this top-secret intelligence to a rarefied list of unauthorized senior military reserve officers (including two retired Generals, it is said)?
There are two main characters behind the efforts to put some sunlight on this scandal. The first is member of Knesset Almog Cohen, a bulldog of a man—an ox of a man—who is determined to break through the legal stonewall hiding the details of this affair. The other is a retired high-ranking police officer named Avi Weiss. He has been appearing on right-wing TV channels. Both have been saying for almost a year now that when we, the Israeli public, finally hear the details of the affair, we will be stunned.
Last night Avi Weiss announced that he has succeeded in proving the identity of the spy without violating the court order, and explained how he did it so that anyone could do it. By cross-referencing two voluntarily-signed lists of protest groups against the court reforms that were being put forward by the government until the war broke out, Weiss was able to point out a single name that appeared on both lists, and (convincingly, I believe) label this individual as the spy. Within minutes the lists were supplied to the forum (Rotter Scoops), and the name became revealed without being named, and as such, without violating the court order.
It turns out, if Weiss is correct, that the spy was a highly regarded figure in the Israeli high-tech world, as well as being an active-reserve fighter pilot.
Therein lies the rub, for of all the founding myths out of which the heart of Israeli culture beats, none is more sacred than the myth of the heroic Israeli Air Force. The normative Israeli now stands with his actual heart broken in the face of two Earth-shattering facts: The mighty Israeli Air Force failed to appear in the battle for over 10 hours, and that one of the air force’s best and brightest spent the day gathering and dispersing mission-critical intelligence that ensured that no abductees could be rescued while the recuing was good during the initial phase of the battle.
Who sent the spy?
It seems clear that the interest of whoever sent him was to prevent any immediate actions by Israeli commando teams. This party could have two reasons for desiring this outcome.
The party wanted to make sure that Hamas would succeed in holding on to the hostages.
The party had human assets embedded with Hamas and did not want them to be compromised or endangered.
That second point is less nefarious, but no-less damaging to the cause of rescuing the hostages.
How did the spy know what to look for and where to find it?
This is simple. Only a state actor could have this type of top-secret intelligence, and only a state actor would have a ready-to-go contingency plan to foil the Israeli military at the precise moment they were preparing to engage the enemy.
What explains the efficient and almost immediate transfer of this top-secret intelligence?
This too is simple. It’s a full-blown conspiracy. Many are involved. An earthquake is coming.
Now that the identity of the traitor-spy is known, other details will begin to come to light. In that event, the court-order will probably be cancelled. Stay tuned.
Here is the latest appearance of Avi Weiss, who to his credit took to the air in order to clear the name of a wrongly-identified individual. Change your closed-caption settings to English:
Good day to you, Ehud.
Perhaps I will give up my comfortable place as a professional reader, a layman, and express my opinion.
I will say right away that I usually follow the development of events for a long time, consider different sources with opposing opinions, before speaking out. Therefore, what I will say now is based more on indirect information, assumptions and logical conclusions, because I do not have facts, like many who are trying to analyze this situation.
Firstly, you described the event (let's call it this way for now, so as not to give it a more precise definition) as I imagine it. Even now it is possible to determine the range from "simple espionage in favor of an interested party" to "anti-state conspiracy".
It seems to me that the identity of the spy is not connected either with Hamas or with the fact that he is an Air Force officer. This is more likely due to the fact that he is an activist of a leftist or anarchist organization like "Achim le Nezek" (this is a deliberate mistake), who are most easily recruited for such work based on hatred of Netanyahu and hatred of the right-wing government. I have seen many cases where they harmed the country, the citizens, without thinking that they are causing irreparable harm with their actions, in the confidence that hatred of the government justifies their actions.
Now let's think about who he and those who supervise him might be working for. I don't think it is Hamas or another terrorist organization, and not Iran.
Most likely, these are circles in the American administration (possibly intelligence agencies), which do not have full influence on the actions of the Israeli government and who want to be sure that the Israeli government, army and political system will not present surprises and will act as the administration needs. For this, they need sensitive information, and not only at the level of the General Staff, but also at lower levels. The far worse option is to work for some international organizations that also want to have influence in order to contain, accuse and discredit Israel. The motives, reasons and methods of recruitment are the same.
Of course, these interested parties can share this information with Israel's enemies to achieve their goals. Therefore, even if this spy believed that his actions were justified by his twisted ideology and aimed at the good of the country, this is real espionage.
These are all my assumptions, which are based on unconfirmed information.
In addition, Avi Weiss's presentation is very weak, from the point of view of investigative journalism, and I foresee that a campaign will soon begin to ridicule his investigation, accusing him of incompetence and lies. This will also be a marker of hitting the target.
We will continue to follow what is happening, because it does not matter what we assume now and how interesting this story is, it is much more important to know exactly what really happened.
I'm confused. To whom did the spy "disperse mission-critical intelligence"?
To Hamas? the Americans?
I have a theory about all this but I won't say it until I get that cleared up. Thanks!