NOTE: Middle East Eye today published my piece on the 50th anniversary of the 1967 War. I took a decidedly more contrarian-critical approach than the typical liberal Zionist ‘shooting and crying’ report you’ll find in most world media. Please read and share via social media.
גורם ביטחוני ישראלי: השב”כ פועל בשטח ירדן ושירות הביטחון הירדני פועל בשטח ישראל, בסמכות ורשות
NRG (an Adelson paper) reporter Netael Bendel decided to take a quick trip to a forbidden place: Qatar. Almost all Arab countries are forbidden to Israelis both because they have no diplomatic relations and because they are considered enemy states as a result of the 1948 War.
But that hasn’t stopped Israeli-Palestinian citizens and some reporters from visiting places like Lebanon and Syria. Usually to their regret, when the intelligence services or settler nationalists begin clamoring for their arrest. Generally, the journalists get off with a warning while the Arabs get prison terms. So it goes in the Land of Milk and Apartheid.
Bendel decided to take a 24-hour visit to Qatar’s capital, Doha. Possibly because he had no foreign passport, he could only use his Israeli one. That left him open to being stopped, detained and sent home. But it also created an interesting dilemma for authorities in Doha when he arrived at the airport. Immigration officials, after considerable questioning and confusion about his purpose in visiting, permitted him to remain in Qatar as long as he promised to remain in his hotel the entire visit. Being a dutiful reporter he lied and agreed to the terms. Once he arrived at his hotel, he promptly defied his orders and took a taxi to see the town, which impressed him considerably.
Aside from some Israeli pablum about Qatar being a haven for terrorism, which Bendel probably picked up from another Adelson paper, Israel HaYom, Bendel was suitably impressed by Qatar’s sights. Though he seemed to have done little preparation for his visit in terms of reading about the country and its culture (he was, for example, astonished not to see any women on the streets).

What was most newsworthy about his trip was his return to Israel. He flew from Doha to Jordan. When he arrived he was met by security officers who’d been alerted by Qatari intelligence about his presence there. They approached him speaking English, but once they determined he was Israeli they immediately switched to Hebrew. At that point he realized they were Shabak agents. Here Bendel buries the lede by not recognizing this is the most newsworthy part of his trip. Until now, no one in Israel knew that the Shabak maintained an official (though covert) presence in Jordan. No Israeli has ever revealed being questioned by Shabak agents in Jordan. In fact, it seems a rather foolish thing to do if you wish to maintain your cover in a country which isn’t the most welcoming to Israelis.
The Israeli agents detained him and proceeded to question him in minute detail about the reasons for his visit, what he visited and when. It would appear that they wanted to account for every minute he spent in Qatar (which they could do thanks to its extensive CCTV surveillance system), possibly to confirm he was not engaging in freelance terrorism, diplomacy, or commercial enterprises on anyone’s behalf. After a warning about not traveling to countries forbidden to Israelis, he was released and returned home.
After questioning a well-informed Israeli security source, he reluctantly confirmed the story and added another blockbuster fact: Jordanian intelligence (GID) maintains its own formal presence in Israel as well. Thus both countries maintain intelligence presences on each other’s soil. I already knew and reported that the two intelligence services maintained exceedingly close ties regarding the Dirar Abu Sisi case, in which the Gazan was detained by Jordanian intelligence at the behest of the Shabak, who later kidnapped him in the Ukraine.
These ties were also reaffirmed by the Al Jazeera report that the source of the ISIS intelligence offered by Donald Trump to his Russian friends in their White House meeting originated not from Israeli intelligence, but from the Jordanians, who relayed it to the Israelis. The vast majority of news outlets have misreported that Israel was the original source of this information.
Given the extensive efforts by Israel’s far-right political leadership to forge alliances with Sunni dictatorships like those in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and elsewhere, it’s not surprising that Israeli intelligence would be forging new bonds with these Arab security services. In fact, Israeli security consultants have massive contracts to provide surveillance and security equipment to autocratic regimes of the Gulf States. But until now, no one knew an Arab state had a permanent intelligence presence inside Israel and vice versa. That’s news.
The upshot is: if you’re Israeli and seeking to visit a hostile country don’t travel via Jordan.
I have been told by various sources that the king’s bodyguards are Israeli but I cannot confirm this.
However it has always been a given that Jordan’s stability is important to the Israelis even though lately the king has been critical about certain Israeli this e.g. the temple mount etc. I assume sometimes he must show some strength in the eyes of his own country.
@ shaul: You mean he sometimes must pretend that he is not an Israeli stooge just like Abbas (who performs the job much more poorly)?
Well – it is not a huge secret….. See for instance this from 2015 – http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/israel-gave-jordan-16-cobra-attack-helicopters-to-repel-1720159544 – handing over old attack helicopters to Jordan.
@ lepxii: Selling old helicopters to a country is a world away from housing Jordanian intelligence inside Israel & sharing the most closely guarded intelligence secrets.
[Comment deleted: off topic]
Funny, Iraeli’s always talk about unrealized Arab ‘plans’, but ignore their own actual deeds, which have caused far more death and destruction.
[Commrnt deleted: off topic– restrict your comments to the specific topic of my post.]
I am always amazed at your incredulity about Israel’s security services doing (pretty much) what every other country’s security service does (either overtly or clandestinely).
@ Gefulla s#$t: so you’re claiming that the Russians have an official FSB presence in the U.S. & the CIA has an official Presence in Moscow? Or that the same holds true of Chinese intelligence? Because Jordan, in case you hadn’t noticed is an Arab country which fought 2 wars against Israel.
So no, what Israel has done with Jordan is unlike what other nations with ostensibly hostile relations do.
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The evidence is hearsay. When I traversed the globe in my younger days in certain employs, I would be met in certain airports by certain people who technically shouldn’t have been there (but that’s anecdotal too), I think the fact is that governments give tacit nods and approval and it is naïve to base conclusions on (or of) policy cooperations between governments.
That being said, it’s not beyond the possibility that Israel and Jordan might have that agreement, but they certainly wouldn’t be the first (or the last) and your above comment forgets the Peace agreement that exists (whether you like it or not).
@ Gufulla s(&t: My evidence is a well-informed Israeli security source. Not hearsay. What’s yours?
Actually, it’s quite deft to be a hasbaranik &, like Putin’s quasi official hackers, plant doubt in the comment threads here. Truth is it’s quite valid to draw conclusions from Israeli-Jordanian intelligence collaboration.
About that peace agreement, it’s so vibrant and robust that Israel refuses to do a thing in East Jerusalem or the Temple Mount without consulting Jordan, right? What’s that you say? No? But if they’re such friends & allies why does Israel ignore Jordanian input regarding territory it nominally controls?
Don’t bother replying. You’re done in this thread.