On June 23, Benny Gantz, leader of Israel’s opposition and former Prime Minister, made a startling confession at a public event in Jerusalem. He admitted that during his tenure from 2021 to 2022, his government secretly procured tens of thousands of Starlink terminals and smuggled them into Iran. The goal? To empower anti-government protesters and destabilize the Iranian regime. Although the current government led by Benjamin Netanyahu did not push this initiative further, the revelation highlights the shadowy lengths Israel has gone to.
Starlink, operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, provides satellite internet services globally. It has already played a significant role in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, used extensively for reconnaissance, and carries risks of being exploited by cybercriminals.
On June 12, SpaceX went public on NASDAQ at an offering price of $135. Driven by initial market enthusiasm, its stock surged quickly, briefly reaching a market capitalization of $2.66 trillion.
According to reports from CCTV, Iran had previously accused Israel and the US of smuggling such devices into the country to undermine its national security. While Starlink is not officially licensed in Iran, Musk has stated that service is available within Iranian borders.
Gantz leads a right-wing party and is one of several opposition figures vying to replace Netanyahu ahead of Israel’s next election, which must be held by October 2026. Gantz stated that if he returns to power, he would focus on weakening and ultimately toppling the Iranian regime through methods that include economic sabotage and industrial disruption, rather than direct military strikes.
In a joint poll released on June 21, Netanyahu’s support rating has dropped significantly from 40.5% in early March to 29.4%. Netanyahu admitted that the ultimate goals of dismantling Iran’s nuclear and missile capabilities and overthrowing its regime remain far from achieved.
Since its founding, Israel has operated under a constant sense of existential threat, establishing three major intelligence agencies.
Among them, Mossad, established in 1951, reports directly to the Prime Minister’s Office. It handles overseas intelligence gathering, covert operations, and targeted assassinations, such as the precise killing of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh and the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei Sr.
Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Israel and the Pahlavi dynasty of Iran enjoyed friendly relations, cooperating to counter Arab states. During this period, Mossad established an extensive intelligence network in Tehran.
Most of these agents had international experience. Within Iran, intellectuals, the technical elite, and even dissenters within the system have often been targets of recruitment by the US and Israel.
On the other hand, Israel has long used technological means to hack into surveillance and traffic cameras found in stores, homes, and streets across Iran. With the aid of artificial intelligence, this data is cross-verified with satellite imagery and human intelligence from the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to build a comprehensive picture.
The Lebanon Hezbollah pager incident is another classic example. In April 2026, Mossad infiltrated the supply chain of thousands of pagers purchased by Hezbollah, implanting微型 explosive devices. This caused casualties among several mid-level commanders and severely disrupted their command structure.
In mid-April this year, a large number of US-manufactured core communication devices in Iran suddenly went offline en masse. This forced Iranian authorities to frequently implement comprehensive international network isolation.
Over several months starting from late 2025, Israeli and US intelligence agencies, combining internal infiltration with advanced technology, pinpointed the exact whereabouts of Khamenei. Despite maintaining vigilance against apparent US negotiation offers, Khamenei surprisingly leaked his location this time.
On the morning of February 28, during peak hours and as US-Iran nuclear talks proceeded on the surface, Israeli and US warships dropped over 30 bombs on Khamenei’s workplace. Subsequently, Trump attempted to incite opposition groups within Iran to overthrow the current regime.
Early this year, a similar strategy against Venezuela led to high confidence within the White House. However, this time the US government clearly underestimated the unity within Iran and misjudged the willingness and execution capability of the pro-Western faction in Iran. Trump’s planned “blitzkrieg” was dragged into a war of attrition.
