Bennett Says Israel Smuggled Starlink Receivers into Iran
Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said Israel smuggled Starlink internet receivers into Iran to help anti-government protesters, but claimed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government failed to follow through on the plan.
Bennett, who served as prime minister from 2021 to 2022, told the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem that he had initiated “a process of acquiring and smuggling into Iran tens of thousands of Starlink receptors that would allow continuity of the internet and social networks”.
Starlink, owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, provides satellite internet connections. Iran has previously accused Israel and the US of smuggling the devices into the country to undermine its security. Starlink is not licensed to operate in Iran, although Musk has previously said the service is active there.
Bennett said the devices were intended to help protesters coordinate and ultimately topple the Iranian government.
“Unfortunately, the current incompetent Israeli government stopped doing that”, he said. “And when the protest happened, that infrastructure was not there.”
Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to questions about Bennett’s remarks, while SpaceX was not available for comment outside US business hours.
Iranian authorities have shut down public internet access during periods of unrest, including during deadly nationwide protests in January and throughout the US and Israeli war with Iran, which began at the end of February. Reuters has previously reported that some Iranians turned to Starlink during internet blackouts.
Bennett, the leader of a right-wing party and one of several opposition politicians seeking to replace Netanyahu in an election due by October, said Israel and other Middle Eastern states needed to “join forces to repel and ultimately topple” Iran’s government.
“It is a rotten, old, disconnected, incompetent regime, and it will fall like the Soviet Union fell”, he said, to applause.
(Reuters, bak)