The Jews' Paper YidNet Puts The Final Nail In The Coffin Of The CIA/Mossad Narrative Around Iranian Protests.
“David Barnea was appointed head of the Mossad in 2021. Iran had been the organization’s main arena of operations for years. Barnea ordered a dramatic change in an area that had been marginal until then – driving influence within the general Iranian public. Under him, this area became central to the campaign against Iran”, the investigation noted.
“A regime can be overthrown from above, by relying on senior officials, or it can be overthrown from below, by cultivating mass protest and armed resistance by minorities. Israel has chosen both options at the same time: it will both chop off the chicken’s head and cook its own legs,” The Jews added.
It added that the Mossad laid a “poison machine” within Iran designed to spur riots, writing, “The sterile term ‘influence’ does not express the scope of the effort and sophistication. Faced with a regime that is all poison, Israel has set up its own poison machine. The organization began four years ago and reached operational maturity two and a half years ago. This is a weapons system that, if activated at full power, could be deadly far beyond the boundaries of the social network”.
This “poison machine” was used by the Mossad to spark the riots that took place in Iran this January. The investigation wrote, “In January of this year, tens of thousands of Iranians took to the streets, at their own pace. The enormous work that Israel had put in was behind the demonstrations”.
The Mossad astroturfed riots, allowed Israel to convince the Trump administration to join the war on Iran, according to the investigation.
Previously, the Israeli “plan was for war in June 2026,” but after the Mossad astroturfed riots in January, “Netanyahu instructed the IDF and the Mossad to bring forward the timing of the operation.”
It added that “On February 11, Netanyahu arrives at the White House. In a meeting held in the Situation Room, Mossad chief Barnea appears on the encrypted conference call monitor, speaking from Israel. Barnea presents the plan to the president in all its parts. The atmosphere is positive … Netanyahu returns home with the feeling that Trump and he are broadcasting on the same wavelength – there is no crack between them. The plan has the green light for all its components.”
The New York Times previously reported that :
As the United States and Israel prepared to go to war with Iran, the head of Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service, went to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a plan.
Within days of the war’s beginning, said David Barnea, the Mossad chief, his service would likely be able to galvanize the Iranian opposition — igniting riots and other acts of rebellion that could even lead to the collapse of Iran’s government. Mr. Barnea also presented the proposal to senior Trump administration officials during a visit to Washington in mid-January.
Mr. Netanyahu adopted the plan. Despite doubts about its viability among senior American officials and some officials in other Israeli intelligence agencies, both he and President Trump seemed to embrace an optimistic outlook. Killing Iran’s leaders at the outset of the conflict, followed by a series of intelligence operations intended to encourage regime change, they thought, could lead to a mass uprising that might bring about a swift end to the war.
While this heavily implied that Mossad was behind the January riots, the New York Times fell short of explicitly confirming it.
The Ynet investigation, however, explicitly admits that “The enormous work that Israel had put in was behind the demonstrations,” confirming once and for all that the Mossad was behind the violent riots that took place in Iran this January.
The Ynet article, auto-translated from Hebrew:
This is how the operation to overthrow the Iranian regime was torpedoed (for now)
At
the end of 40 days of fighting, the operation that was supposed to
decide the war with Iran did not take place. Everyone involved in it in
Israel lives with a sense of loss. The question of why it did not
happen, whether because our American partners did not believe in the
operation in the first place, whether because US President Donald Trump
changed his mind, whether because Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
picked up the phone to the president, or because the entire idea was a
fantasy with a slim chance of coming true, is open to debate.
The
operation to overthrow the regime in Iran is the great trigger for the
war and the absolute victory that never was. A great story,
intelligence, military and political. The details published here have
been approved for publication by the military censor
in the Mossad.
Thoughts about overthrowing the regime in Iran emerged as early as the
Meir Dagan era, under the Olmert government. The idea was to eliminate
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
and install in his place a figure from within the regime who would be
secretly recruited. Opposition arose at the top of the intelligence
community and the idea was dropped. He turned on Benjamin Netanyahu.
When he returned to the Prime Minister’s Office, in 2023, he asked again
and again whether there were plans on the shelf to overthrow the
regime.
It
is understandable why the idea worked a charm on Dagan, Netanyahu, and
the top brass of the Mossad today: in a brilliant, secret operation, it
was possible, ostensibly, to solve all the threats posed by Khomeiniist
Iran at once: nuclear weapons, missiles, and proxies. Netanyahu pushed;
the Mossad was enthusiastic; the Intelligence Agency had reservations.
Israel
has been involved over the years in attempts to influence regimes in
the Middle East and beyond. The Mossad was usually the central factor.
The most important attempt was the election of Bashir Gemayel as
president of Lebanon, under Prime Minister Menachem Begin. It ended in a
crushing defeat, which was preserved as a kind of warning and lesson in
the Israeli security establishment. It is very dangerous to try to
change history by means of a secret organization.
Following
that experience, the following saying became common in Lebanon: If you
want to know exactly where every terrorist in Beirut lives, ask the
Mossad; if you want to know where Lebanon is going, ask others. The
saying is probably also true of Iran.
Dadi
Barnea was appointed head of the Mossad in 2021. Iran has been the
organization’s main arena of operations for years. Barnea ordered a
dramatic change in an area that had been marginal until then – driving
influence within the general Iranian public. Under him, this area is
becoming central to the campaign against Iran.
A
regime can be overthrown from above, by relying on senior officials, or
it can be overthrown from below, by cultivating mass protest and armed
resistance by minorities. Israel has chosen both options at the same
time: it will both chop off the chicken’s head and cook its own legs.
The
sterile term “influence” does not express the scope of the effort and
sophistication. Faced with a regime that is all poison, Israel has set
up its own poison machine. The organization began four years ago and
reached operational maturity two and a half years ago. This is a weapons
system that, if activated at full power, could be deadly far beyond the
boundaries of the social network.
If
such an arrangement can provoke protests that will overthrow a
government, one must also take into account the protesters who will be
massacred by then by the machine guns of his comrades, especially if it
is not certain that he will fall.
Operation
Northern Arrows, in September 2024, and Operation Kalavi, in June 2025,
were significant milestones in the decision-making process. Both the
political echelon – the Prime Minister – and the senior security
officials were freed from execution anxiety.
Someone
who knows how to blow up thousands of beepers in one fell swoop feels
like he can do anything. Israeli security also relies on the feeling
that the Americans are completely with us: for years they have sought
revenge from Hezbollah for the murder of hundreds of Americans,
soldiers, and CIA agents. The elimination of Nasrallah and other senior
Hezbollah officials closed a bloody circle for them. Operation Kalavi
provided them with an opportunity to see the performance of the Military
Intelligence, the Air Force, and the Mossad up close, as full partners.
Enthusiasm for Israel’s performance was there, at all levels of the
American government. Was there also agreement with all parts of the
Israeli plan? The test will come later.
At
the end of Operation Kalavi, Trump and Netanyahu declared that the two
existential threats to Israel, nuclear and missile, had been removed for
generations. The reality was less bright, and the Israeli security
forces understood and internalized it and began preparing for the next
round. Bombing Iranian infrastructure from the air would not do the job,
the professionals warned. Even if it were a miraculous success, it
would inevitably drag us into another round and another, a pit that we
swore not to fall into after October 7. The only move that would get us
out of the vicious circle is to overthrow the government.
The
plan was for war in June 2026. By June, preparations would be complete
and conditions would be ripe. But then, in January of this year, tens of
thousands of Iranians took to the streets, at their own pace. The
enormous work that Israel had put in was behind the demonstrations. The
protests did not bring down the Iranian regime, some say, have not yet
brought it down, but they had a decisive influence far away, at
Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s estate in Florida.
The
Iranian regime responded with violence that surprised the intelligence
community and horrified the world. An educated estimate says 7,000-8,000
civilians were murdered. Trump declared that “help is on the way,”
thereby creating a far-reaching commitment. The Iranians took note. So
did the Israelis.
Trump
orders CENTCOM, the United States Central Command, to send forces to
the Gulf. Netanyahu instructs the IDF and the Mossad to bring forward
the timing of the operation. Defense Minister Israel Katz spoke about
this during a visit to the IDF Intelligence Division in early March. “An
operation was planned for the middle of the year,” he said, “but due to
developments and circumstances – what happened inside Iran and the
position of the President of the United States – the need arose to bring
it forward to February.” Bringing forward the timing came at a price.
The
plan to overthrow the regime was a central component of the overall war
plan, the heart of the plan. At the height of the protests and
massacre, on January 16, Mossad head Barnea leaves for the United
States. He presents the plan to his American interlocutors, in and out
of uniform. According to a source familiar with the details, the plan is
presented in its entirety, including the overthrow of the regime. The
American Central Command learns about the plan from its IDF
counterparts. The Chief of Staff travels to Washington. The
administration prepares for war. It is unclear whether it is committed
to all its stages.
On
January 3, 2026, in a quick commando operation, without casualties on
the American side, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife
Flores were kidnapped from their palace. Within a night, the country had
new control, operated by the CIA. The success of the operation
strengthened the president’s popularity and his confidence in his power.
Trump is convinced that there is no limit to the capabilities of the
military system at his command. Trump’s euphoria meets Netanyahu’s
ambition. Toppling the regime in Iran is his life’s mission, the
fulfillment of his dream. His crushing answer to the October 7 debacle.
On
February 11, Netanyahu arrives at the White House. In a meeting held in
the Situation Room, Mossad chief Barnea appears on the encrypted
conference call monitor, speaking from Israel. Barnea presents the plan
to the president in all its parts. The atmosphere is positive. Trump can
imagine what Venezuela did in Tehran. He doesn’t know that Venezuela is
like no other. Netanyahu returns home with the feeling that Trump and
he are broadcasting on the same wavelength – there is no crack between
them. The plan has the green light for all its components.
The
next day, in a meeting in the same room, with the president but without
the Israelis, senior administration officials discuss the details of
the plan to overthrow the regime. The atmosphere is different. The
content of the discussion was revealed in a book by Maggie Haberman and
Jonathan Swan, a chapter of which was published in The New York Times.
The
plan to overthrow the government is complex. It begins with the
assassination of the Supreme Leader and the top brass of the government
in targeted bombings by the Israeli Air Force. For the first time in the
history of the State of Israel, a decision is made to assassinate a
head of state. Trump is in a different situation. American law limits
the president’s power to assassinate foreign leaders. As long as Israel
is the one executing the assassination, Trump is exempt from
responsibility. He welcomes the assassination.
After
100 hours of air activity, the second phase on the road to overthrowing
the regime is set to begin. The move is based on three legs. The first,
a ground invasion from Iraq by a Kurdish militia. Foreign journalists
who arrived in the Kurdish region of Iraq interviewed commanders and
fighters who joined the invasion force in recent weeks. They said that
they intended to reach the Kurdish region in Iran first and then, when
Iranian Kurds would join them, on a mass march to the capital, Tehran.
What happened in Syria at the end of 2024, when the jihadist militia
crushed Bashar al-Assad’s army within days, will happen in Iran.
There
are not many secrets in the mass, multi-tribal and multi-party
mobilization of Kurds, Baluchis and Ahwazis in Kurdish Iraq. According
to several sources, Iranian intelligence hears about the planned
invasion in advance and shares it with Turkish intelligence. Turkish
intelligence shares it with President Erdogan, who calls his friend
Trump. Erdogan will make sure that the mouse gives birth to a mountain.
The
second leg is for the Iranian people to take to the streets. Trump
should call on them to do so. At the same time, the mechanisms of
influence built in Israel will stimulate the demonstrations. The Basij
forces, the regime’s security police, will be hit from the air and
paralyzed.
The
war starts on the right foot. The Iranian leadership is eliminated or
disappears, for fear of elimination. The command and control system
suffers a fatal blow – at least that’s how things appear from the
outside at that time. Trump, on an evening of euphoria, calls on
Iranians to take to the streets. Netanyahu joins the call. They don’t
come out, and it’s easy to understand why: the streets are being bombed
from above; the Revolutionary Guards are making sure from below that
anyone who comes out will be considered a spy and shot on the spot. At a
critical point in the war, the fear of death triumphed over hatred of
the regime. The masses chose to stay home. The calls from America and
Israel to take to the streets cease suddenly, with the declared
intention of renewing them later.
The
Kurdish invasion also runs aground. Back on February 12, in a White
House briefing, Trump hears from Vice President Vance, Secretary of
State Rubio, and CIA Director Ratcliffe expressing strong opposition to
the regime change plan. Rubio called the plan “bullshit” and Ratcliffe called it “a farce.”
Ideas
for regime change arouse instinctive resistance in Trump. He fears
creating chaos. As he demonstrated in Venezuela, he does not want to
change a regime; he wants to subjugate a regime. The opposition that
lives in exile does not interest him. He refuses to meet with the Shah’s
son.
Then
came the phone call from Ankara. Erdogan has his own scores with the
Kurds, with Israel, with NATO and with the United States. It is
important to him to prevent the Kurds from appearing as the victors of
the war. This will rekindle demands for their own state, taking
territory from Turkey, Iraq and Iran; he is competing with Netanyahu for
Trump’s heart; and perhaps most importantly, he wants to end the war
with Iran with Turkey in the status of a regional power, the door
through which every superpower must pass. Israel, with its pretensions,
with its military power and status in the White House, is the
competitor, the adversary. Netanyahu said on March 12 that Israel is now
“a regional power and in certain areas a world power.” Erdogan wrote
before him.
On
April 17, Erdogan held an international conference called the “Antalya
Diplomatic Forum.” 5,000 participants, including ministers and heads of
state, arrived, scattered in the all-inclusive hotels that were so
beloved by Israelis. Erdogan’s message was clear: Trump is being
influenced; he is not trusted. The United States is essential to us, but
it imposes its will and is unpredictable.
Erdogan
was joined during the war by another player, whose importance grew as
American distress grew. His name is Asim Munir. The rank he gave himself
is Field Marshal. He is the commander of the Pakistani army and the
most powerful man in the country. And he is a favorite of Trump: in
recent months he has been to Trump, in personal meetings, twice, maybe
more. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made an appointment.
Erdogan’s
phone call convinced Trump. He ordered the invasion to be halted hours
before the Kurdish force was about to cross the border and after the air
force began clearing, by bombing, a corridor for the invaders inside
Iran.
Israel
complied. In preparing the plan for the operation, it was dominant; in
the skies over Tehran, it was an equal partner; in the White House, on
the fourth day of the war, faced with the first leadership decision
since the beginning of the campaign, Israel remained on the sidelines.
From that moment on, Israeli influence on the decision-making process is
reduced. This is happening in direct proportion to the growing
criticism within the MAGA movement about the war, and the disappointment
that the regime is not collapsing. Vance, who did not want the war in
the first place, and Rubio, who thought of a quick operation, are
looking for a way out that will distance them from responsibility for
the failure. Naturally, they fall for Israel. Netanyahu is presented as
someone who took Trump and the United States for a ride; the plan to
overthrow the regime is presented as a fantasy with punishment on its
side.
Despite
the veto in Washington, despite the fact that the protest did not take
to the streets and the invasion force did not cross the border, the
airstrikes on the Basij roadblocks continue. The discrepancy in
targeting is high on the agenda in operational discussions in Israel.
Some claim that the attacks forced the Air Force to postpone bombing
more important targets, such as facilities related to the nuclear
project and missile depots. Prioritizing targets (the military term is
DAP – daily attack plan) was a subject of daily debate within the
Israeli system. When a dispute arose, the Chief of Staff was the final
arbiter.
The
United States and Israel entered the campaign without correctly
assessing the regime’s ability to survive. The leader’s assassination
shook the walls of the house but failed to prevent an orderly change of
government, in accordance with the will that Khamenei left behind. The
bombings also did not prevent the restoration of the command and control
structure. Worse still, the regime discovered the power of the Strait
of Hormuz to change the face of the war. The Americans were not prepared
for the move and its enormous economic consequences. Every intelligence
assessment before the war mentioned the possibility that Egypt would be
shut down. Why were the Americans surprised? One possible answer is
that Trump was certain that the regime would collapse within days. At
the beginning of the war, Trump speaks with British Prime Minister Keir
Starmer. He asks that Britain join the war. Starmer says he will come
back and discuss the issue with him next week. Trump replies: “Next week
is not good! The war is going to be over in three days.”
Beyond
the question of overthrowing the government, the Mossad and the IDF
presented extremely impressive tactical achievements during the war. The
Harry Roar round, like its predecessor in the series, with Kalavi, is
embedded with countless proofs of the powerful connection between
mega-quality intelligence from within the target, from deep within the
ayatollahs’ rule, provided by the Intelligence Directorate in general
and Unit 8200 in particular, and the Air Force’s ability to translate
this information in real time to targets and destroy them.
Hundreds
of Mossad agents helped close circles for the Air Force to hit vehicles
related to the missile array, to hit senior regime officials, and to
attack dozens of Basij and internal security force checkpoints, after
agents on the ground identified and photographed the checkpoints and
vehicles. After several nights of attacks, the Basij operatives no
longer wanted to stand against them.
On
the fourth day of the war, when the miracle did not happen, a campaign
began within the security establishment on the question of why the
miracle did not happen and whether it will ever happen. The campaign is
multinational and multi-national. It reaches from the mountains of
Kurdistan to the military commanders in Israel and the situation rooms
in Washington. As the 40-day war dragged on and its relative results
became clear, the debate grew. It is part of a broader debate about the
Thousand Days War, the war that began 930 days ago, on October 7, 2023,
and has not yet ended on all its fronts.
The
final chord of every war is the narrative. Did we win or lose? Who
excelled and who is to blame? Who drowned in the concept and who shone
with the vision? At the beginning of the war, Netanyahu wholeheartedly
embraced regime change as one of the three goals of the war, alongside
nuclear weapons and missiles. This was the main goal promoted by the
Mossad: overthrowing the regime. The IDF phrased it differently: the
goal is to create the conditions that will allow for a change of
government. This is not a game of words. Since the beginning of the war
in Gaza, the IDF has been careful to formulate everything regarding the
goals of the war with caution. It has avoided presenting absolute goals.
Netanyahu moves between formulations, according to the convenience of
the moment, according to the chances of success.
IDF
spokesman Brigadier General Efi Dufferin said on March 15: “We are
deepening the damage to the regime’s structures. As an army, we do not
have a goal to overthrow the regime, but we are creating the conditions
over time for the Iranian people to take over the country. What the
Iranian people do is up to them.
From
the fifth day of the war, Netanyahu prioritizes the army’s formulation
over the Mossad’s formulation. The ultimate goal of overthrowing the
regime becomes a welcome possibility. The responsibility for its
realization lies with others. This is important because, assuming that
the opportunity to overthrow a regime in the way Israel prepared has
been more or less exhausted, the question arises: what did we do? Some
will blame Trump, who stopped the Kurdish invasion, and some will blame
the Mossad’s pretensions.
The
debate is currently focused on the timeline. Both sides are telling the
truth. One side says, where is the collapse we expected to get after a
hundred hours. The other side says, the collapse was only supposed to
happen in the next phase, the third phase of the war to overthrow the
regime. Trump stopped us in the second phase, and then the ceasefire
stopped us. Everything is ready now for the third phase. Only the order
is missing.
We
may be missing the main point here: Was there and still is a practical
chance for an Israeli plan to overthrow a regime in a country of 90
million people, with an entrenched, cruel and unrestrained rule? Have we
invested enormous resources in an unborn egg?
There
are also lessons for the future. Those who place their trust in Israel
on overthrowing the regime view with a heavy heart the American effort
to reach an agreement with Iran. In the best case, the agreement will
close the nuclear project. It will not deal with missiles and regional
terrorism. Worse still, say the agreement’s detractors, it will grant
the regime a life of stability and immunity. Because of the lifting of
sanctions, it will direct tens of billions of dollars to the Iranian
regime, some of which will calm the protests among the population, some
will be invested in missiles, and some in rehabilitating the proxies,
Hezbollah and Hamas, the Houthis and the militias in Iraq. A war
intended to help the Iranian people change the government ends in
consolidating the government and shedding the blood of its domestic
opponents.
What
began as a far-reaching, imaginative Israeli move, final in its
solution, ends in disappointment. The promoters of the plan in Israel
have no choice but to hope for a renewal of the fire
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