Intelligence Sharing Arrangement with Israel Likely Lead to the Accusations Against Iran

Following Australian PM Anthony Albanese’s decision to expel the Iranian ambassador and list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as terrorists, in light of ASIO conclusions that the Islamic Republic coordinated two local antisemitic attacks, the Israeli English-language broadsheet the Jerusalem Post has questioned whether Mossad, Israel’s chief spying agency, was behind the intel indicating this.

The Post suggests that while Israel would not take responsibility right now, current Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu had confirmed in 2018, that Mossad was behind 2017 information that thwarted an Islamic State plot to blow up a plane from Sydney heading to Abu Dhabi with a bomb hidden inside a meat grinder, and the then Australian home affairs minister confirmed this.

Following the Tuesday 26 August 2025 announcement that ASIO had “gathered enough credible intelligence” to conclude Iran was behind two antisemitic attacks “and likely more”, Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer implied that Albanese expelled Iran’s diplomat, due to Netanyahu having chastised him as “weak”, so our PM is now moving to protect Jewish Australians.

After thousands of locals over here mobilised in support of the Palestinians of Gaza and to call for an end to the two-year-long genocide that Israel is perpetrating against them, on the Sydney Harbour Bridge on 3 August and then again three weeks later continentwide, Albanese instead of turfing the Israeli diplomat, expelled Iran’s, and now the Israeli commentariat is hailing Mossad the true hero.

But while Mossad suggesting “Iranian involvement” to ASIO appears somewhat dubious after Tel Aviv just warred on Tehran, as well as that Israel has been repeatedly scolding our nation’s inadequacy in addressing a series of antisemitic crimes that local law enforcement identified as being staged by organised crime overseas, the understanding is that intel during the genocide is flowing both ways.

The pot calling the kettle

The Post recalled this week that two Lebanese Australian brothers were prevented from blowing up an Etihad plane bound for Abu Dhabi in 2017, when one was prevented from boarding a flight with a bomb in Sydney. The BBC reported Netanyahu claiming Israeli intelligence was behind this in February 2018, with then Australian minister Peter Dutton confirming Israel was “directly” involved.

“The Etihad flight was almost blown out of the sky and would have resulted in hundreds of people losing their lives, so we are very grateful for the assistance Israel provided in that matter,” the then home affairs minister told 2GB Radio, as Netanyahu claimed credit. Although the intel back then pointed to the Islamic State group plotting the attempted terror attack via local soil, not the IRGC.

Interestingly, a hyperlink in the Jerusalem Post article cited at the point of Netanyahu’s 2018 announcement takes the reader to a 25 July 2025 article that describes how Mossad operatives were behind 9 of 13 targeted assassinations in Iran in June this year, and it also brags about its agents on the ground there and raises a series of events in Iran involving “mysterious explosions and fires”.

According to the Post, Netanyahu went on to clarify that his country’s intelligence services, Mossad and the Israeli Defence Force’s Unit 8200, had broken the case via the use of cyber tools.

“If in that 2017 terror plot, Israel waited until 2018 and 2019 to reveal aspects of its involvement, it may take time for Jerusalem to confirm any involvement in this specific case,” Israeli journalist Yonah Jeremy Bob explained.

“In fact, revealing such Israeli assistance at this moment – just after Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese and Netanyahu have had a spike in their public fighting over Israel’s handling of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and over antisemitism against Australian Jews – could be explosive,” he added, in referencing the Israeli PM having called ours “weak” in terms of protecting Jewish people.

Long-term partners in intel

Expelling the Iranian ambassador after the nation was implicated in acts of sabotage is not an extreme response. Yet, great swathes of Australian civil society had been calling on the PM to sanction Israel over its mass murder of likely more than 115,000 people in Gaza, in an attempt to exterminate that population. So, relying on Israeli intel could be considered extreme at this point.

But to suggest that Australian intelligence agencies take a dubious approach to intelligence supplied by Israeli spying organisations would be to ignore the understanding that the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap, a US-run surveillance operation in this country, which has been collecting global intel since 1970, continues to be supplying the Israeli state with intelligence on Gaza gathered via its satellites.

Speculation about Pine Gap involvement in providing Gaza intel was rife in the early days of the Gaza genocide, however Nautilus Institute Professor Richard Tanter cleared this up in April 2024, when he explained that it is known that in October 1973, Pine Gap-derived satellite intelligence was passed on to Israel to assist in the Yom Kippur War, which allowed it to break through Egyptian lines.

Tanter further told Sydney Criminal Lawyers at the time that three of Pine Gap’s four satellites cover the Gaza Strip, and that a trespass case mid-last decade led to the discovery that Pine Gap is “deeply involved in supplying usable data for actual military operations”, so basically the US NSA (National Security Agency) is gathering data on the Strip and passing it on to Mossad right now.

Tehran cut-out links to an Australian bridge

“ASIO assesses it is likely Iran directed further attacks as well,” said Albanese, during the 26 August 2025 presser regarding Iranian foreign interference, while ASIO director general Mike Burgess added that, “ASIO now assesses the Iranian government directed at least two and likely more attacks on Jewish interests in Australia.”

In light of the recent Twelve Day Iran-Israel War, which saw the US join in to illegally bomb Tehran, these revelations are disturbing, as regardless of the source of the intel that has led to the turfing of the Iranian ambassador and the listing of the IRGC as a terrorist organisation, the revelation has cemented our military engagement on the US-Israel side if and when this conflict flares up again.

The curious aspect to the two antisemitic attacks on Jewish Australians that Iran is said to have directed, via “a layer cake of cut-outs” or intermediaries, involved an October 2024 Sydney arson attack on a Bondi Jewish restaurant, which accidentally targeted a brewery earlier, while the car used in the December 2024 attack on a Melbourne synagogue was too used in other nonrelated crimes.

The first hint at Iranian involvement in any local antisemitic attack came after an incident of arson involving a synagogue on Wurundjeri land in East Melbourne on 4 July, which allegedly involved 34-year-old Angelo Loras, who identified himself as a “single, Iranian forklift driver” and “music lover” on social media platform X. Loras was allegedly caught in vicinity of the act via CCTV cameras.

The same question asked in July 2025 after the East Melbourne attack is now being asked anew: why would Iran want to conduct terrorist acts against Jewish-owned properties in Australia?

Israeli government spokesperson Mencer suggested following the revelations on Tuesday that the IRGC was keen on attacking Jewish people in Australia, which too sounds unlikely to many, and it tends to involve the purposeful Zionist identification of all Jewish people as being one monolithic force in support of the Israeli state and its domestic and foreign policies.

Indeed, not only is it suggested that the IRGC hired crooks who couldn’t target the right property in Bondi last October but if its “cut-outs” were too behind the East Melbourne synagogue attack, then it hired Loras when he was living under a bridge and he’s since told police that he perpetrated the arson crime whilst under the belief that the synagogue was actually a house.

Loras has been charged with placing people in danger of death or serious injury and causing property damage of $5,000. He is yet to enter a plea and was denied bail when appearing in court last Friday. The suspected arsonist further told the police on arrest that he had been carrying a small amount of alcohol on him, which he no longer wanted, so he doused the synagogue doors and set them alight.

So, if IRGC cut-outs really are behind the Bondi burning down of a brewery accidentally prior to hitting the correct Jewish restaurant, then Iranian spooks may very well have bumped into Loras under a bridge at some point over the past year and obtained his services, and the takeaway is that when Tehran does do foreign interference, it can be extremely loose with its hiring.