Former Shin Bet security agency officers were stunned by Monday's revelations that former minister Gonen Segev is suspected of spying on Israel for Iran, but they hailed the agency's counterintelligence branch for apprehending him.
Speaking with Israel Hayom, the former agents stressed that even now the working assumption in the agency is that other spies are operating in the shadows, undetected.
"There are assessments going around that he [Segev] did it for money, but who knows," said Yitzhak Ilan, who served as deputy Shin Bet director until 2010.
"Gonen Segev was screwed up enough to commit serious crimes," Ilan said, likely referring to Segev's stint in prison for smuggling illicit drugs into Israel in 2004 and a long list of other offenses.
"While greed would explain a lot, there are also other possibilities. He said that Israelis don't accept him. He apparently harbored strong feelings of revenge toward Israel," said Ilan.
Current Israel Antiquities Authority CEO Yisrael Hasson, another former deputy Shin Bet director and former MK, described the case as extremely grave.
"Once a scumbag, always a scumbag. He [Segev] was always more a criminal than an elected official," Hasson said.
"It's important to remember that it is extremely complicated to identify and ascertain this kind of espionage and intercept it. An MK and a minister is not a man who is under day-to-day scrutiny. The Knesset is the last place where you would look for spies.
"He managed to maintain this espionage activity for several years and, according to the reports, with some degree of intensity. The Shin Bet will study the case and draw the necessary conclusions."
Menachem Landau, a former Shin Bet section chief and current chairman of the Ammunition Hill Memorial Site in Jerusalem, said, "The moment Segev started to slip up, there was no stopping the deterioration. A doctor and a member of a right-wing party who ended up betraying his country, it's terrible."
Referring to Gonen's term as energy minister in 1995 and 1996, Landau said, "As a minister, it is safe to assume that he had access to things that ordinary citizens don't see. There are things that even time doesn't erase. There are capabilities and facilities that remain the same. Exposing him was an extraordinary success, because he was probably given a cover story and his tracks were covered.
"There is no way that a case like this is discovered right off the bat. Obviously, it's better to find out at an early stage, before any damage is done. But it doesn't usually work that way. There has to be a working assumption that there are more spies still at large and that the Iranians are making every effort all the time – and this is apparently mutual. You take the worst-case scenario and you dig. That's how you find things. My hope is that they are less successful [and will not find more cases like this]."
