Iran's Expanding Campaign Against Jewish Targets Outside Israel
One disturbing aspect of the surge in antisemitic violence since October 7 has received relatively little attention: Western governments say that Iran and Iranian-backed organizations have been behind a series of plots and attacks against Jewish and Israeli targets across Europe, North America and Australia.
The phenomenon became impossible to dismiss as a collection of unrelated incidents in June. Twenty-four governments, including the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, Germany and Sweden, jointly condemned "lethal plotting and other malign actions" by Iran's IRGC Intelligence Organization, Quds Force and Ministry of Intelligence. They specifically identified "Jewish and Israeli communities and interests" among Iran's targets and noted the Iranian security services' longstanding relationship with international and local criminal groups.
That last point is important. Iran increasingly appears to be outsourcing attacks to criminals and other intermediaries, making Tehran's responsibility harder to detect.
Sweden provides an early example. In January 2024, a live grenade was discovered at the Israeli embassy in Stockholm. That May, Sweden's security service announced that Iran was using Swedish criminal networks to commit violent acts, including against Jewish and Israeli targets. The United States subsequently sanctioned Sweden's notorious Foxtrot criminal network for allegedly carrying out the embassy attack on Iran's behalf.
The story has continued. This week Sweden expelled an Iranian diplomat and summoned Iran's ambassador over evidence of Iranian efforts to threaten Jewish and Israeli interests, as well as Iranian dissidents, in Sweden.
Iran's actions in Australia have been even more dramatic. A kosher restaurant in Sydney, Lewis' Continental Kitchen, was set on fire in October 2024. Two months later, Melbourne's Adass Israel Synagogue was firebombed.
After an extensive investigation, Australia's domestic intelligence agency, ASIO, concluded that the Iranian government had directed both attacks and likely additional attacks as well. Australia expelled Iran's ambassador, and subsequently designated the IRGC a state sponsor of terrorism.
According to Australian authorities, Iran deliberately used intermediaries to conceal its involvement. The objective was not merely to damage Jewish institutions, but also to frighten Australian Jews and exacerbate divisions within Australian society.
The United States has uncovered its own plots. Federal prosecutors alleged in 2024 that an IRGC asset, Farhad Shakeri, had been instructed to surveil two Jewish Americans in New York, with $500,000 offered for the murder of either.
Then came an even more remarkable case this year. Prosecutors allege that Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, an Iraqi national associated with the Iranian-backed Kata'ib Hezbollah and the IRGC, supplied an undercover operative with photographs and locations of a prominent New York synagogue and Jewish institutions in Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Arizona. He allegedly discussed whether the New York synagogue should be bombed or set on fire. The attacks were never carried out.
Germany and Britain have confronted similar activity. German authorities uncovered alleged Iranian surveillance of the German-Israeli Society and the office of Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. Another suspect allegedly sought weapons for attacks on Jewish targets.
British authorities, meanwhile, uncovered hostile surveillance of such targets as the Israeli Embassy, Bevis Marks Synagogue, the JW3 Jewish community center and the Community Security Trust.
Then, in 2026, Britain experienced a succession of actual attacks claimed by an obscure organization called Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI), or the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right. Targets included four Jewish-community Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green, synagogues and other Jewish institutions. In April, two Jewish men were seriously wounded in a stabbing.
Britain eventually sanctioned HAYI as an Iran-linked organization, noting that it had claimed responsibility for seven attacks against British locations associated with Jewish and Israeli communities and Persian-language media.
HAYI's activities extended well beyond Britain. It claimed attacks against Jewish targets elsewhere in Europe, while U.S. prosecutors allege that Al-Saadi participated in its activities on behalf of Kata'ib Hezbollah and the IRGC. Among the incidents described by the Justice Department was the April 2026 burning of a synagogue in Skopje, North Macedonia. Prosecutors say Al-Saadi subsequently distributed HAYI video of the burning.
Canada presents a somewhat murkier picture. Canadian intelligence has warned that Iran uses organized-crime proxies and has disrupted Iranian plots. A Canadian intelligence assessment reported by Global News reportedly concluded that Iranian intelligence may be using Canadian criminal organizations to target Jews. U.S. authorities also allege that Al-Saadi's network planned attacks in Canada.
Thus, amid the much broader increase in antisemitic violence since October 7, Western authorities have identified something more specific: a multinational Iranian and Iranian-proxy campaign targeting Jews and Jewish institutions, often using local criminals and other intermediaries to obscure who is ultimately responsible.
One disturbing aspect is that the target countries' response has been relatively restrained: an expelled diplomat here, a sanctioned entity there. Should the Iranian government's attempt to murder these countries' citizens demand a stronger response?