The Case of October 7 Israeli Spy

There is a lot of smoke. Is there fire, too?

There is a serious spy case in Israel that the prosecution and courts are keeping under wraps. 

On Saturday October 7 a former IDF intelligence officer made his way to the intelligence base of Israel’s southern command in Beer Sheva and was able to stay for a week, masquerading as a higher ranking officer then he was and copied and forwarded military plans including, allegedly, the plans for a ground attack in Gaza.   There was a quick story when it was discovered but it was attributed to someone who was mentally unstable.

A few weeks later the story broke via Member of Knesset (MK) Almog Cohen.   He said he knows the details of the case and the identities of the people involved but the courts have instituted a gag order.   Awhile later the judge allowed certain details to be made public but not the identities of those involved.   Also, due to his continuous pressure he put on the prosecution he was called in by Government Prosecutors and interrogated for a case that happened 11 years earlier when he was on the police force.  This interrogation of a sitting MK is against the law and the statute of limitations expired yet no one in the justice system seemed to mind.   It was a clear case of intimidation. The case was when Cohen was a police officer.   A prisoner was allegedly roughed up and he was involved in the case.  It was investigated then and dismissed – without even interviewing then police officer Almog Cohen.  Only now when he started investigating the spy case did they decide to further investigate the matter.

Cohen’s lawyer, Efraim Damari went to the Supreme Court to get them to release the names of the alleged spy and those he was working for, but the Court ruled against him on security grounds after IDF, Mossad and Shabach officers testified that it would hurt Israeli security.  Cohen’s attorney has gone on television and stated that the Israeli citizens who received the information are known individuals in Israel.  There has been a request for the Supreme Court to review it again and to release the information.

This seems to be a clear case of the establishment protecting its own.   The name of the accused has been bandied about on the internet but the names of those who received the information – which is illegal, too, - seems more important.

The accused has been moved to a psychiatric institution – even though he refused at the start and was deemed sane.   The suggestion is that he was moved so as to avoid a trial that would be embarrassing.

Is this a case that will in fact embarrass the establishment and point fingers at those who have been working overtime for over a year to bring down the government by any means necessary or is this just a complicated case?  Is this a case of a foreign government (perhaps the US) trying to see what the IDF’s plans were?

Faith in government institutions is at an all time low in Israel, as can be expected.  This is as true of the security establishment as it is true of the political class and the judiciary.  It is up to the Supreme Court to come down on the side of free speech at the risk of embarrassing those in power.  For the past year the battle cry of the opposition has been that the Supreme Court is the goal keeper for freedom and democracy.    This is their main test.

No Israeli journalist can publish information – even if they know the details – since the Court ruled that they can’t.   That of course does not prevent an enterprising foreign journalist from doing a little research.

I am not a conspiracy theory guy and would be happy to see that there is more smoke than fire – but my trust level is very low amongst the entire range of Israeli leadership and a bit more transparency would go a long way.