Toppling a regime is an art, not a science, security sources have told The Jerusalem Post exclusively, as the debate continues about whether and when the Iranian regime might fall.
After assuming his position in mid-2021, Mossad Director David Barnea started to build new structures and alter old ones to make whole new divisions and enact reforms. He focused on areas where the Mossad could most fully utilize its comparative advantages.
Artificial intelligence (AI) was a major focus of a new, revolutionary, huge, and special Mossad department, which was highly effective with influence operations, security sources said.
The department dealt with different fields, including widely publicizing various issues.
Mossad expands AI, agent network to pressure Iran’s regime
There was a very large plan that it believed could eventually “open the gates and help the Iranian people get to the streets on a large scale,” although only at some more amorphous and distant time period beyond the end of the war, people familiar with the matter said.
This time period could take several months or even a year, as Barnea predicted to the cabinet on the eve of the war, the security sources said.
Foreign sources have reported that Iranian dissidents on the ground have been helping Israel locate and track top Iranian officials, as well as local Basij militia checkpoints used to block protests.
The Mossad has publicly used an X/Twitter account to request that Iranian dissidents provide it with such sensitive information, including how successful Israeli airstrikes on certain regime targets have been.
Under Barnea, the Mossad has made mega headlines for its lead role in the massive beeper sabotage operation in the fall of 2024, which eventually paved the way for the downfall of much of Hezbollah’s power.
But the Mossad and Israel seized supremacy in rivalries not only against Hezbollah, but also against the head of the snake – Iran.
In September 2025, the Post revealed that early in his term in mid-2021, Barnea had realized that joining technological and operational supremacy was needed for the Mossad to reach new levels.
In 2021, and even in later years, no one knew when the Mossad would finally carry out major operations in Iran, and certainly no one knew far in advance that it would be June 13, 2025, and then again this February 28.
But Barnea’s concept was to get the Mossad to be always ready for massive simultaneous operations throughout Iran with an unprecedented large number of agents.
Barnea sent hundreds of Mossad agents, or their operatives, into operations in Iran simultaneously. All of the varying groups of staff were highly coordinated.
There were set orders and processes to create new efficiencies and a ton of capabilities. Barnea managed a project leading to a diverse spectrum of all of the different kinds of agents and backgrounds of those agents one could imagine.
Mossad reaches new heights in training Iranian dissidents
Besides actual Israeli Mossad agents, the spy service has reached new highs in recruiting and training local dissident Iranian agents to act against the ayatollahs’ regime.
There were clearly defined mission sets for each subgroup.
The agency also carried out an elevated level of intelligence collection and surveillance for three years regarding Iran.
There were many special covert actions that were running, which dated back two years or longer.
A huge volume of new technologies were used to follow very specific items and specific people, the Post understands.
Before Barnea’s era, the Mossad had a limited number of large active attack operations – as opposed to classic patient and more passive surveillance – it could run at once, the Post has learned.
It was not built to do more and did not always have enough human spies to do more who were also plugged directly into and highly trained with the latest technologies – unlike Mossad scientists giving Mossad covert attackers specific disposable gadgets to use once or twice in the field without much training.
The Mossad could do one to one-and-half large-scale attack operations at the same time, but maybe not even two.
Hundreds of Mossad agents and officials were working on dozens of attack and intelligence operations inside and outside Iran all at the same time, the Post has learned.
Barnea created the option within the organization to deploy these dozens of big attack operations simultaneously.
There was a much greater capacity to draft more new agents in Iran faster. There are new possibilities offered using AI and cyber technologies. Also, there are new ways to build their capabilities and train them from a distance, until they are capable of far more, the Post has learned.
Barnea ran Tsomet, recruiting spies for the Mossad, and then was the deputy director, running day-to-day operations. By the time he became director, he knew what was needed to take the Mossad to the next level.
The Mossad could not have dozens upon dozens of active attack agents all at once in prior eras.
Collectively, the Mossad agents in Iran in June 2025 first targeted many radar platforms, then ballistic missiles, and also provided targeting information to the IAF for a wide variety of other Iranian targets.
Due to the effectiveness of the Mossad’s opening series of attacks, stunningly, Iran was only able to attack Israel at all on the second day of the 12 Day War.
Next, the damage to the ballistic-missile program was very substantial, leading to aspects of it needing to be rebuilt from the start.
The Post understood that as of last September, Iran’s nuclear program basically needed to be rebuilt from the start.
The full extent of the Mossad’s current operations in Iran cannot yet be revealed.
In recent days, there have been not-so-veiled attacks on Barnea by nameless sources, seemingly accusing him of misleading both the Israeli and US governments about the likelihood of regime change in Iran.
All three offices have been fielding constant questions daily about why they have not yet succeeded – even slightly – in generating regime change.
These anonymous leaks obscure Barnea’s highly complex position on the issue and seem intent on tarring him and the Mossad, with the growing likelihood that efforts to topple the regime will fail or take a very long time, the Post has learned.
Some of the sources behind the Channel 12 Uvda and The New York Times reports on the issue may be Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s or US President Donald Trump’s entourages, and some may even be from the IDF, in an attempt to shift any blame.
In fact, anyone familiar with Barnea and his major calls during the last few years of war would know that he consistently presents predictions with many qualifications and almost never talks about a sea-change event being inevitable, the Post understands.
Furthermore, while Barnea is a creative thinker, he is also a company man who prepares policies and presentations under Netanyahu’s order and doesn’t seek to push the prime minister into any more aggressive approach to war than Netanyahu himself would want.
Moreover, any presentation that Barnea would have made to Trump administration officials during his widely reported trip to the US in mid-January or during other conversations would also have been tightly controlled by Netanyahu and not some kind of independent crusade.
In fact, during earlier years of Barnea’s term, there were significant points where, in theory, Netanyahu might have wanted the Mossad to undertake some kind of operation, but Barnea explained that it was unrealistic, despite pressure on him to approve, the Post has learned.
When Uvda reported that on the eve of war, Barnea had told Netanyahu he believed toppling the Iranian regime was possible, it only later in the article detailed some of the conditions that Barnea would have put on such a prediction.
Foreign reports also have made it clear that Trump had blocked Israeli attempts, despite a personal request by Netanyahu, to publicly push for Iranians to come out on the streets in mid-March after Israel assassinated senior Iranian official Ali Larijani.
But time will tell after the war about whether the Mossad will eventually be able to add a new star to its wall of clandestine accomplishments.