Black Cube and the Israeli Government

The Israeli private intelligence company Black Cube has been in the news a lot in recent years following revelations that it was paid to meddle in both the 2016 US Presidential Elections (1) and those of Hungary in 2018. (2) It would appear that ‘private intelligence’ companies are a cover by which Israeli intelligence – the famous Mossad – meddles with the internal affairs of other countries.

A good example of this fact is found in the testimony of Ben Rhodes – the Obama Administration’s Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications – who when writing in his memoirs of the controversial Iran deal said of Black Cube that:

‘All I know is that I would be very surprised if a group of former Mossad agents are somehow operating without the knowledge of the Israeli government in some fashion. I know how intelligence operates — and again it’s hard for me to fathom a scenario where … the Israeli government didn’t know it was going on.’ (3)

This was confirmed by a source questioned by NBC and quoted in the Times of Israel who wrote that:

‘Black Cube, a shadowy Israeli intelligence company, was hired to slander Obama administration officials involved with the Iran nuclear deal as part of a covert effort to discredit the multinational accord, NBC news said Saturday, reinforcing previous reports the Mossad-linked firm had meddled in US politics.

“They would never work against Israeli interests,” a source familiar with Black Cube’s work on the Iran deal told NBC, which said the agency was an “almost privatized wing of Mossad.”

The source added that there was “little chance” the Israeli government was unaware of Black Cube’s efforts.’ (4)

So if we are to believe these two insider sources. The US government regards Black Cube – correctly in my opinion – as an adjunct of the Mossad and a tool of Israeli foreign policy rather than being a truly private contractor (in the same way that the Wagner Group was – until is forced dissolution in 2023 – considered a tool of Russian foreign policy). Add to this the fact that Black Cube are now openly meddling in elections – while similar ‘private intelligence’ companies like ‘Israel Cyber Shield’ are working for the Israel Lobby – (5) and we can begin to see that Europe and the United States really have a problem with the Mossad trying to topple their governments and replace them with ones more favourable to Israel’s interests.

References

(1) https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/cambridge-analytica-whistleblower-discloses-ties-toisrael-s-black-cube-1.5955200

(2) https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-did-spy-firm-black-cube-meddle-in-hungary-election-a-general-explains-1.6267538

(3) https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2018/06/10/israeli-dirty-ops-firms-colluded-on-trumps-behalf-perhaps-directed-by-israeli-government/

(4) https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-likely-knew-of-black-cubes-efforts-to-discredit-iran-deal-report/

(5) https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-firm-gathered-intel-to-discredit-activist-sarsour-report/