How Tehran is preparing to influence Israel’s elections
Iran’s influence operations pose a clear and immediate danger to Israel’s democratic process.It is evident that they have already begun, as Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) Director David Zini told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s Intelligence Subcommittee during a classified briefing last week.The problem is that Israel is unprepared. A State Comptroller’s Report found that nine years after the threat was first identified, Israel still has no national policy on the issue and no government body leading the response. The country’s political and security instability, the comptroller found, constitutes “fertile ground that enables domestic and foreign actors to exploit social divisions and undermine public trust in democratic institutions.”From Tehran’s perspective, Israel’s election campaign presents a unique, perhaps unprecedented, opportunity to deepen the divisions within Israeli society while it is engaged in a military confrontation with Iran.As it routinely does, Tehran is operating a broad network of fictitious entities…
Iranian influence operations are actively targeting Israel's upcoming elections, aiming to deepen societal divisions rather than support a specific political side, according to Israeli security officials. Shin Bet Director David Zini informed the Knesset that these operations have already commenced. A State Comptroller’s Report highlighted Israel's lack of a national policy and a leading government body to address this threat, nine years after its identification. Tehran utilizes a broad network of fictitious social media entities and dedicated Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps units to spread disinformation, leveraging its understanding of Israeli society to refine its tactics. The campaign involves three stages: influencing the pre-election political landscape, spreading fake news on Election Day, and casting doubt on results post-election. Beyond social media, Iran is also recruiting individuals within Israel for physical activities like organizing demonstrations. A new concern is the use of artificial intelligence to enhance credibility and manipulate influencers, alongside cyber operations to flood the internet with hacked information. Security agencies are tasked with uncovering these increasingly sophisticated Iranian assets, with civil society organizations also playing a crucial role in detecting foreign interference. This campaign is independent of military escalations, and its potential consequences are considered more dangerous than a missile attack.
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