BREAKING: the Secret the Shin Bet Wants No Israeli to Know

Recently, the Shin Bet telephoned Offir Gutelzon, an Israeli-American leader of the anti-government movement, UnXceptable.  The agent, calling himself Gavri, said he worked for the agency’s Jewish terror unit. This is the department tasked with preventing Jewish (i.e. settler) terrorism.

Yair Netanyahu, who is living in a Miami beach suburb, was claiming that Gutelzon had directed people to stalk him, and even paid their hotel bills. Though the media have widely reported  the whereabouts of Yair Netanyahu, Gavri said Gutelzon’s activities posed a grave threat to the safety of the prime minister’s son during “this sensitive period.”  This was a reference to the world-wide hatred Israel faces during its Gaza genocide. Gutelzon denies that he did so.

It’s ironic that an agent responsible for preventing Jewish terrorism would in effect treat a US citizen as if were a terror suspect.

The Daily Mail has reported Netanyahu lives in Hallandale Beach.  In reviewing Google images of various Hallandale Beach condos, the Slate Hallandale Beach, a 250-unit 26-story “luxury rental community,” appears to match the Times of Israel photo (featured at left).  It is located at 101 Diplomat Parkway.  It opened in 2022, which is when Netanyahu arrived in Florida. I’ve confirmed independently that Netanyahu lives there.

UPDATE: I wasn’t aware till I published this post that Uri Misgav had posted the name of Netanyahu’s building on Facebook in 2023.  He also noted that the condo unit in which Bibi Jr. lives is owned by the Falic family.  They are the billionaire owners of an airport concessions empire, who are also the largest donor to Netanyahu’s political campaigns. The new information I published is the unit’s street address.

Netanyahu has hired a lawyer to sue Misgav for publishing the name of his condo residence, claiming falsely that anyone with Shin Bet protection has an absolute right to privacy. Not to mention that Misgav published his post (and a related Haaretz article) in July 2023. It’s taken nearly a year for Netanyahu to decide this warrants a lawsuit. Was his safety not endangered then? And why has it been compromised now when it wasn’t then? If he was guarding his privacy, why has he not sued the photographers who’ve published scores of images of him enjoying the high life in Miami Beach?

I want to emphasize that nothing I originally reported here came from Misgav’s reporting. Identifying Netanyahu’s Florida residence, it’s name and address, was relatively easy and could have been by anyone who knows how to search Google.

It’s odd that the Shin Bet would target Gutelzon considering that the Daily Mail published a series of paparazzi photos of Netanyahu standing on the balcony of his condo. The building’s Hallandale Beach location has also been reported.  What secret could Gutelzon know, that wasn’t already widely known?

Yair Netanyahu had already sought an Israeli restraining order against Gutelzon in an Israeli court, claiming he was being stalked by anti- government activists. On the face of it, the accusation is absurd. But paranoia strikes deep in the Netanyahu family.

Netanyahu appeared to believe that he could use the Israeli justice system to restrain conduct of a US citizen on US soil.  This is characteristic of  his obnoxious entitled attitude. After Gutelzon’s lawyer pointed out that no Israeli court has jurisdiction outside the country, Yair withdrew the application.

It’s likely that either Netanyahu pere or fil pressured the Shin Bet to warn Gutelzon.  In which case, the agency was serving the personal, and not official interests of the prime minister’s family.

While IDF fights in Gaza, Netanyahu enjoys the high-life in a $5,000 a month Miami Beach condo. His Shin Bet protection unit also costs the Israeli taxpayer $250,000 for seven of the months he lived abroad.

Yair performed army service briefly in the IDF press office.  He never faced combat, unlike his father and uncle (who died in the Entebbe raid). He is subject to call-up as a reservist, but neither the IDF nor the prime minister appear to want him back.  He even had the chutzpah to post criticism of the IAF in this social media post.

He lives here in the US after being sent into exile by his father, for inciting anti-government Israelis with his inflammatory views. Yair is an example of the bulldog unleashed to protect its master, who turns around and bites him.

When the Shin Bet first attempted to contact Gutelzon, he thought it was a prank.  In order to prove his bona fides, the agent listed the activist’s family members along with their national IDs, as proof he was an agent.  He warned Gutzelson that he ought to be careful what he says in the future.  The clear implication was that his family members faced danger if he didn’t follow the agent’s “advice.”

He told Haaretz:

“A law-abiding Israeli American living in the United States receiving a warning call from the Shin Bet is a disturbing attempt to frighten and to infringe on freedom of expression and the right to protest that should set off a warning bell for all of us,” Gutelzon said.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on @bar_peleg and @JoshBreiner report on Shin Bet and Offir Gutelzon: “I’ve seen the reports. We’ve not talked to the individual in question. We don’t have the ability — or have not as of yet — verified the underlying allegations. As… pic.twitter.com/SN1vVc5pFx

— UnXeptable (@UnxeptableD) March 25, 2024

During a State Department briefing, a reporter asked Matt Miller about the case. The press officer clearly didn’t want to wade in on the issue. But he did make clear that the civil and privacy rights of US citizens were considered sacrosanct.  This was a none too subtle warning to the spy agency to back off.

Nevertheless, it’s astonishing that a foreign intelligence service would threaten a US citizen living on US soil.  This breaches every possible protocol protecting national sovereignty.  The only sovereignty Israel recognizes is its own. Other nations–not so much. Imagine an FBI agent called a French citizen living in France and warning him that if he wanted his family in the US to remain safe, he ought to stop his “anti-American” political activism.

I am aware that countries like North Korea, Iran, India and China have kidnapped or even assassinated their own citizens on foreign soil.  There has also been an attempt to murder an Iranian-American in the US.  But unlike that case, Israel is an ally, not an enemy.