THE MOSSAD FILES with Dan Raviv

Dan spotlights some intriguing statements surrounding the third anniversary of October 7: Did intelligence agencies ignore warnings of a Hamas plan to massacre and kidnap Israelis?  Brett McGurk, longtime nonpartisan U.S. official who was President Biden's Middle East envoy confirms there really was near-agreement with Saudi Arabia to establish open, cooperative relations with Israel -- just...

Dan sheds light on the Israeli political fallout, and other angles of the terrorist co-pilot trying to destroy a FlyDubai airliner headed for Tel Aviv. Will the incident help Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel's Oct. 27 election? (Probably.) Dan then turns to Fred Burton, who was a senior counterterrorism official with the U.S. State Department's Diplomatic Security Service. He worked at Strat...

How Israel conducted the war in Gaza: Dan Raviv explores more reaction to the NAZA (documentary by two Israelis) charging their country didn't care about killings of Palestinian civilians.   Dan then interviews Yonah Jeremy Bob, military reporter for The Jerusalem Post -- co-author of the new book, "In the War Room: The Inside Story of Israel's Fight Against Hamas and the Iranian Ax...

A documentary film has sparked a sensation: Two Israelis made "Naza" [the Hebrew acronym for "collateral damage"], and their work was hailed by a record-long standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival. Critics of Israel especially enjoy it when Israelis are condemning their own country. The Mossad Files asked Michael Oren -- a former Israeli ambassador to the United States --...

Dan offers a review, with comments, of the news report that says Prime Minister Netanyahu had prior warning of a major Hamas attack -- before October 7, 2023 -- and did nothing about it. Netanyahu calls it "fake news." The United Arab Emirates neither confirms nor denies... Dan then interviews Marc Schulman -- founder of HistoryCentral.com -- who has written a new book: "Between Hop...

Dan reviews some espionage-related angles in the latest Middle East news -- and then turns to Danny Citrinowicz, a 25-year veteran of the Israeli military's intelligence directorate (Aman) where he was head of the Iran analysis team. The regime hasn't been toppled. The nuclear potential still exists. Iran's missiles can hit Israel. Trump held back Israel from pursuing its goals in I...

Dan highlights the highly produced video from U.S. Central Command, claiming the Strait of Hormuz has been opened for oil shipments from America's Arab allies -- despite Iran's claims. Then he discusses, with Jonathan Schanzer, Turkey's aggressive ambitions in the wide Middle East -- including the recent, surprising defense pact grouping Turkey with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Schanz...

Dan starts by assessing President Trump's declaration of economic war against Iran -- rather than ordering massive airstrikes.  For now. Then we turn to Gaza, almost a year since the deal that freed the surviving Israeli hostages and started a flawed ceasefire. Jared Kushner leading America's negotiations with Hamas, the terrorist rulers of a much-reduced section of the Gaza Strip -- Tha...

On this 80th weekly episode of The Mossad Files with Dan Raviv, Beni Sabti -- a top expert on Iran's culture and politics, during years of service in the Israeli military intelligence agency Aman -- insists that Iran's Islamic regime has been greatly weakened this year. Sabti also says millions of Iranians would be happy to work for the Mossad, against their country's Islamic govern...

The director of the Mossad, General Roman Gofman -- two months after taking over the spy agency -- has followed-up his firing of the deputy director with two new ousters: a man and a woman who were very senior in spying on Iran and interpreting all the data from there. Dan's longtime co-author (on 6 books), Yossi Melman, helps us interpret the firings within the Mossad. Dan's guest, Nath...

In an action-packed audio half-hour, Dan analyzes Donald Trump's claim of a breakthrough on Gaza -- and we hear a Palestinian-American who claims to know Hamas well say that the group really is willing to disarm, to stop Israel's targeted assassinations! Also -- various angles on the Trump-Netanyahu summit at the White House, where the men didn't appear together, but perhaps they we...

Longtime Israeli official and diplomat Nimrod Novik -- a senior advisor to the late prime minister Shimon Peres -- tells Dan he sees major changes ahead in Israel, if any combination of the five political party leaders running against Benjamin Netanyahu are successful.  Israel's election will be held October 27. Novik believes steps would be taken toward creative diplomacy -- rather than the...

Dan examines new information on the Mossad's efforts to recruit a hostile former Iranian president -- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- as an agent for Israel.  Mossad veterans have said they make the "impossible" possible.  But really? A former head of research in the Mossad, Sima Shine, speaks about the Ahmadinejad caper -- a brief excerpt from The Telegraph's video podcast hosted by Ro...

After President Trump chose to return to war against Iran -- although not completely forcefully -- Iran's oil sales were again banned by U.S. sanctions. Can harsh sanctions bring down the radical regime in Tehran? When the Memorandum of Understanding that Trump's negotiators created with Iran permitted oil sales for 60 days -- and pronounced a ceasefire that hasn't totally held -- h...

Dan's joined by his co-author on six books about Israel -- journalist and filmmaker Yossi Melman -- who's been writing about a serious rift in relations between Israel and the United States.  The reason?  Donald Trump is wooing Iran. Also heard in this episode of The Mossad Files: former Israeli ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren; and former U.S. officials on a Carnegie Connects onli...

Dan's guest is Joel Rubin, author of "Saving Democratic Foreign Policy: How Democrats Can Earn the American People's Trust to Lead the World Once Again." Rubin was a State Department official in the Obama Administration and has a Substack, "The Briefing Book." He argues that Israel could be doing a much better job of explaining its policy goals -- its vision of how th...

Dan examines the widely held belief that President Trump's deal with Iran -- the Memorandum of Understanding -- was bad for Israel, and therefore the country's spy agency, the Mossad, will surely go back to covert war inside Iran.  This time, the Israelis expect to be alone. Clearly the U.S. and Israel did not achieve their goals in the war that they launched on February 28.  Yossi Melma...

The war against Iran may be entering a new phase -- and some may call it peace. But many serious analysts in the United States and Israel call it a failure, or even "a disaster" for Israeli interests. Dennis Ross, longtime Middle East mediator for American presidents, offers hope that pressure will build for positive change in Tehran -- but, as author of "Statecraft 2.0" he sug...

Dan's guest is Yaakov Katz -- author of books on Israeli defense including "While Israel Slept" (on the failures of Oct. 7, 2023) and former editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post.  They discuss the new director of the Mossad spy agency, General Roman Gofman -- controversial in part for alleged failure to support a young Israeli operative in a secret operation. Gofman is a Benjamin N...

Dan gets an assist from his longtime writing partner, Yossi Melman, in analyzing the reported plot by the Mossad -- apparently with U.S. participation -- to free Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from house arrest in Tehran, and help him take power in Iran. That coup, toppling the current Islamic Republic of Iran regime, would be headed by a former president who publicly hated Israel and the U.S. and denied the...

Dan's guest is Professor Eitan Shamir -- who had senior roles in Israel's Defense Ministry and Strategic Affairs Ministry. He is now head of the BESA Center at Bar-Ilan University. Shamir says, about Israel having to accept Donald Trump's decisions and timetable: "When you have a senior partner, there's a cost!" Is it reasonable to believe that Benjamin Netanyahu forc...

Dan's guest is Jonathan Tobin, the prolific Editor-in-Chief of JNS -- Jewish News Syndicate. In American politics, there's no doubt that Tobin is on the Right side of the spectrum. His analysis is clear and strong, as it increasingly emerges that Israel has a problem: a sharp decline in popularity and support in the United States. Tobin argues, as many do, that the unpopularity is mostly...

Who's in charge in Iran? Who's left, after U.S. and Israeli air strikes killed top leaders?  Is there really a chance that the Islamic Republic regime will fall? Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at FDD (Foundation for the Defense of Deocracies) and senior director of that think tank's Iran Program, answers Dan's questions -- and sheds light on how Iran's hardline regime...

Dan plays audio clips from the annual Ceremony of Commendations at Mossad headquarters near Tel Aviv, where spymaster David "Dedi" Barnea -- whose 5-year term as Director of the Mossad ends next month -- delivered hint after hint of what the spy agency has been doing in Iran and Lebanon. We then hear Elliott Abrams, longtime U.S. official in Republican administrations, analyzing the myst...

As Israel celebrated its 78th birthday, Independence Day was preceded -- as every year -- by a somber Memorial Day in tribute to IDF soldiers killed in action and to victims of terrorism. Among the many speeches -- heard, in part, on this Mossad Files episode -- were strong statements by Mossad director David (Dedi) Barnea and his predecessor at the spy agency, Yossi Cohen.   Israel's spymast...