Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett revealed details of an operational plan he devised while in office that was aimed at toppling the Iranian regime, in an interview with Israeli Army Radio.
According to Bennett, the plan included a complex technological and logistical component intended to neutralize one of Tehran's principal tools of repression: blocking internet access.
"One element of the plan was to ensure uninterrupted internet access in Iran during protests," Bennett said. "Every few years, there is a major protest in Iran, and then what does the regime do? It shuts down the internet. We could have smuggled Starlink terminals into the country ahead of time and ensured that when they shut the internet down, we would switch it back on. But they didn't do it, just like everything else."
Bennett's remarks come in regards to the mass protest wave that swept Iran only a few months ago. The latest demonstrations erupted amid a worsening economic crisis and stricter enforcement by the country's so-called morality police, bringing hundreds of thousands of people into the streets of major cities.
As in previous waves of unrest, including the 2022 protests over Iran's compulsory hijab rules, the regime's immediate response to the latest demonstrations was to impose a near-total internet blackout or severely disrupt internet and cellular communications across the country.
Starlink, which is operated by Elon Musk's SpaceX, relies on thousands of small satellites in low Earth orbit. It provides high-speed internet access through independent receiver dishes without relying on the terrestrial communications infrastructure of the country in which it is used.
According to Bennett, Israel planned to use the technology in an unprecedented operation by secretly smuggling terminals into Iran and distributing them among protest activists, creating an alternative communications network that would be resistant to government shutdowns.
