Daily Briefing June 11 – Inside Iran-linked Diaspora terror attacks: A suspect speaks

Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

US reporter Luke Tress joins host Jessica Steinberg for today’s episode.

WATCH the full episode here:

Following the arrest of Mohammad Al-Saadi, who allegedly orchestrated a string of attacks on Jewish targets in Europe and the US on behalf of Iran, Tress tracks the details shared by the suspect, who spoke freely with investigators, highlighting his use of social media to recruit operatives and noting that all Iranian proxies are related to one another.

Marking one year since the firebombing attack at a Colorado rally for Israeli hostages that killed an elderly woman, Tress explores patterns of support among anti-Israel groups for perpetrators of violent hate crimes.

After a bogus Miss Israel appeared at the Israel Day Parade in New York, Tress discovers that the Miss Universe franchise is now privately owned by a Florida enterprise, and has little relation to Israel or Israeli culture.

Check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing liveblog for more updates.

For further reading:

NY case sheds light on alleged Iran-linked terror campaign targeting Diaspora Jews

US anti-Zionist groups keep backing activists who are incarcerated for violence

Miss Israel says this year’s contest will be bogus, sparking break with organizers

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Ari Schlacht.

Check out yesterday’s episode here:

Today’s Transcript:

Jessica Steinberg: Hi, Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing. It’s Thursday, June 11. I’m Jessica Steinberg here in New York with New York correspondent Luke Tress. Hi, Luke. How are you doing?

Luke Tress: Hey, good. Good to see you in person.

Steinberg: It’s very good to see you in person. We are speaking about various issues having to do with what’s happening specifically in the US, actually — sort of broader on this particular Daily Briefing podcast. We’re going to talk about a New York case of an alleged Iran-linked terror campaign targeting diaspora Jews, both in the US and Europe, about anti-Zionist groups in the US that continue to back activists who are currently incarcerated for violence, and about a very interesting rabbit hole that Luke traveled down looking into Miss Israel. Stay with us.

Let’s first talk, Luke, about this New York case of an alleged Iran-linked terror campaign. You started tracking this alleged terrorist — he was Iranian-Iraqi, I believe — in late February, right as the US-Israel-Iran war was beginning. And there’s now a case against him that he was carrying out terror attacks against diaspora Jewish communities, first in Europe, correct? Then in the US. Tell us what you started looking into. Tell us what we’re looking at right now, and then we’ll look into how it all got started for you.

Alleged Iran-linked terror campaign in Jewish diaspora

Tress: So this started right after the war with Iran broke out. Not this suspect individually, but we started seeing these attacks against Jewish targets in Europe, a couple in Canada. This happened in March. This suspect has been connected to at least 18 attacks in Europe and Canada.

Steinberg: Could you name some of them, some of the attacks we’re talking about?

Tress: There was a firebombing of a Jewish school in Amsterdam. There was a stabbing in London against two Jewish people, and the bombing of ambulances in London.

Steinberg: All very recent.

Tress: A car blew up in a Jewish neighborhood in Belgium, I believe. So it was these kinds of scattered terror attacks that were happening all over Europe in March.

Steinberg: In March.

Tress: It started in March. It continued into April.

Steinberg: And the US, when did you start seeing them spread to the US?

Tress: So there were concerns right after the war started that there would be attacks here by Iranian operatives. There was the attack on the synagogue in Michigan. But he seemed more like a lone wolf who was inspired by the war instead of being directed somewhere.

Steinberg: Or part of this, you’re saying?

Tress: And what?

Steinberg: And he wasn’t necessarily part of this?

Tress: No, he wasn’t linked to this suspect. But there were concerns that Iranian agents would start striking Jewish targets. And so the first time we heard about this was mid-May when the arrest of this suspect, Muhammad [Baqer Saad Dawood] Al-Saadi, was announced. And that’s when we found out that he was plotting terrorist attacks against Jewish targets in New York, Arizona, and Los Angeles. So that’s when we first knew that there were Iran-linked operatives targeting Jewish sites in the US.

Steinberg: Okay. So tell us who we’re talking about here. What are we talking about? What is this case? Then we’ll talk about what this actually just means, or largely in terms of the Iranian proxy. But who is the suspect? What’s the story here?

Tress: So his name’s Mohammed al-Saadi. He’s in his early 30s. He was born in Iran but lived most of his life in Iraq, and he’s been involved with the Iranian regime for a long time. He was very close to Qasem Soleimani, who was the head of the Quds Force, which is the IRGC’s [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] expeditionary force. So he was very high up. He’s also been close to Soleimani’s successor. He met with the Iranian Supreme Leader a few days before he was killed. So he’s very closely connected to the Iranian regime and military. And then he’s also a commander in Kata’ib Hezbollah, which is an Iraqi proxy group. And he has connections to these other groups. So the Iranian regime has these proxies: Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen. Hamas is a little more complicated, but they’re also connected. But what Al-Sadi, the suspect, told investigators after he was arrested, he said, Kata’ib Hezbollah, Hezbollah, the Houthis, the Iranian regime, it’s all one thing. He said there’s no real distinction between these groups.

Steinberg: It’s interesting that he’s speaking to them so freely.

Tress: Yeah, it was interesting. Also, according to the court documents, he waived his Miranda rights and just told them everything, which I don’t know why he did. But, we’re getting a lot of information, and you always kind of assume these groups were coordinating and not that separated. But he told investigators, “Yeah, there’s no real distinction.”

Steinberg: They’re all one and the same.

Tress: Yeah. And you see it in the documents, like he’s from Kata’ib Hezbollah and he’s going to Tehran, and photographs of him with Soleimani and in these Iranian intelligence centers. So he kind of confirmed that, it’s all one thing, more or less.

Steinberg: Do you have any information about how he was actually captured?

Tress: We don’t know exactly. He was traveling to Turkey. He was arrested in Turkey and then extradited here. But I don’t know. His lawyer said that much, but I don’t have more specific information.

Steinberg: So basically, this now gives a lot of information about how he was the point man for these attacks. But of course, he could have many operatives working all over the place.

Tress: Yeah, he seems like he was a central figure. So this is all allegedly still; there’s a lot of information and evidence in the files, but he hasn’t been convicted. But right after the war started, he put out calls on Telegram and social media saying, “The time is now for jihad,” these kinds of things. “Anyone who supports America and Israel, kill them all.” And they had these weird codes, like number letters followed by numbers. So it seemed like some kind of code was going out. And then he was coordinating the attacks in these different groups; he was telling them what to do. Sometimes he was on FaceTime calls with people while they were firebombing synagogues, so he was actively directing them while it happened. And then he would put out the propaganda after. When he was communicating with these people, the propaganda was really important. He was telling them, “This needs to be filmed, this needs to be recorded.” The purpose is to strike terror, so the propaganda is crucial, and he was doing that. So he was really a linchpin figure in this big campaign, according to the evidence presented in this case.

Steinberg: I’m wondering how much this is related to your next article that we’re going to talk about, which is about these anti-Zionist groups that support activists who were incarcerated for carrying out violent acts. I’m thinking about Colorado and the firebombing, which killed an elderly woman, and the Washington DC Israeli embassy shooting. And then you have these splinter and larger groups, it seems to be from your piece, who are supporting violent activists or those who carried out violent acts in the name of anti-Israel and antisemitism. So, before we get to any possible relation to the Iranian proxy, which I don’t know if there is, what are we really talking about here? Are they saying we support violence or we support the person who carried out the violent act?

Pattern of anti-Zionist groups supporting violent activists

Tress: And they’re not saying we support just violence, but they portray the violence as political, and they’re saying these people who are incarcerated are political prisoners, so we will support them for that. In some cases, they are explicitly supporting violent acts, but they’re portraying it as political struggle or something, or something righteous.

Steinberg: Something righteous. Okay. So what led you to start looking at this again?

Tress: So this is a pattern I’ve been seeing for a while. I really noticed in the case of Tarek Bazrouk, who was an anti-Israel protester who was arrested here for hate crimes because he assaulted Jewish people at anti-Israel protests in three separate incidents. So he was convicted. He pleaded guilty, was convicted, and imprisoned here. And there was a huge amount of support for him.

Steinberg: Who is the actor as a person?

Tress: He’s from a Palestinian family, but he was born and raised in New York. He was about 20 years old at the time. So he was young. He had kind of a shady background. He was working at illegal or semi-illegal cannabis stores. They found weapons and something like $700,000 in cash in his apartment. So he was like a young, kind of shady guy, but he was going to these protests, and he assaulted Jewish people at several of them. And I was covering this, and there was just a huge amount of support for him among anti-Israel activists. And this includes leading groups like National Students for Justice in Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement, and Within Our Lifetime. These are some of the biggest groups. And it was happening in real life, too. This wasn’t just statements or something on social media. I went to his sentencing, and there were maybe 200 or more people there who came to support him. And this takes most of the day, and it’s during a weekday. It’s a lot more people than I expected came to support him, not just family but other people.

People have donated more than $11,000 for his prison commissary. I’ve seen flyers on the streets, people talking about it at protests. So it’s happening in real life. So that’s when I was really noticing this trend. And then the most recent thing was, the one-year anniversary of the Colorado firebombing, a branch of Students for Justice in Palestine in Colorado said, “We support the firebomber,” to mark the anniversary. They said something like, “This is anti-Zionism and decolonialism, and we support this attack on these genocidal people.” And it was a hostage rally.

So, I get this question from Israel. I’ll report about a pro-Hamas thing happening here on the streets, right? People are like, “Why isn’t the police doing something?” Well, in New York, in the US, you can do that.

Steinberg: Free speech.

Tress: Yeah, you can walk around Times Square with a Hamas flag saying I love Hamas, and it’s totally fine.

Steinberg: And no one’s going to stop you.

Tress: It’s completely legal.

Steinberg: Got it. So in this situation, therefore, these groups can say whatever they want.

Tress: Yeah, they can say whatever they want. There can be repercussions. Like a student group says something, they can get de-recognized by their university. There have been lawsuits against some of these groups, particularly because they have nonprofit status. Some of them have nonprofit status, or they have sponsors who are nonprofits. So there can be repercussions, but it can’t be prosecuted as a criminal act. The threats need to be very direct and explicit, and make someone fear for their safety in order for it to be criminal. So you can’t call a synagogue and say, “I’m going to bomb you.” That’s not freedom of speech. But if you’re outside a synagogue saying, “I support Hamas,” that is protected. That’s fine in the US.

Steinberg: And that’s what we’re seeing here. Okay, let’s go to a break. When we’re back, we’re going to talk about this rabbit hole that you traveled down about Miss Israel. Stay with us.

Okay, so the Miss Israel story is interesting because Luke and I were involved in this together at the very start, although he traveled down the rabbit hole. Basically, at the recent Israel Day Parade here in New York, in addition to Israeli politicians and New York politicians who were marching, there was a woman who identified herself as Miss Israel. And we were told that she was not actually Miss Israel. And I sent this to Luke, and he said, “Hmm, interesting. Let me look into it.” So, tell us what you found. Was she Miss Israel? And that isn’t even actually the story here, correct?

Miss Israel controversy

Tress: Yeah. So I got into the Wild West of beauty pageants after this tip you sent me, which I did not expect. So the Miss Israel who was at the parade essentially is not the real Miss Israel. When we say Miss Israel, we assume it to mean Israel’s representative at the Miss Universe contest, which is the world’s biggest beauty pageant. But what I found out is that there are all these other beauty pageants. Some are very minor, some you essentially just pay a fee and go to get recognized. So there’s like a contest called Miss World International. You go there, you pay them some amount of money. I couldn’t find exactly how much, but it’s probably in the thousands. And, you say, “I’m entering as Miss Israel,” and they say, “Okay, you’re Miss Israel.” So it gives a little bit of legitimacy for people to go out and say: Miss Israel.

Steinberg: There’s no contest, there’s no process.

Tress: Yeah, they can say whatever country they want. And I spoke to the actual Miss Israel, Miss Universe Israel. Miss Israel 2025, the representative at the Miss Universe pageant last year, and she confirmed this was happening. But also, I found out how this contest works and some things that are happening this year for Miss Israel that were very strange, and I did not expect. So, I had always assumed the Miss Israel organization and the contestant, it was kind of like Eurovision, where it’s like an organized thing, and they’re sending an Israeli representative to this big global platform.

And everything Israel-related is so sensitive now, it matters who is representing Israel in these big global events. But it turns out, it’s a lot weirder and more complicated. So there had been a Miss Israel pageant in Israel from the 1950s until 2022.

Steinberg: Recent.

Tress: Yeah, I think they shut it down in 2022. The most recent pageant, I believe, was in 2021. It was seen as objectifying women and out of touch with the times, so they shut it down. So the Miss Universe organization gives franchises to each country.

Steinberg: Okay, anyone could buy the franchise?

Tress: So the Miss Israel in Israel shut down, so the franchise was available, and it was bought by people in Florida.

Steinberg: Israeli?

Tress: It appears one of the managers is Israeli, but the production company handling everything is called Edgar Entertainment. It’s led by just some non-Jewish, non-Israeli guys. So, actually, a production company that’s not Israeli and not Jewish in Florida controls Miss Israel now.

Steinberg: And is it meant to be something that is pro-Israel, that is sending some kind of Israel message out? What’s the point of it at this moment?

Tress: I mean, they presented as pro-Israel, but they’re private companies like the Miss Israel organization and the Miss Universe organization; they’re companies, and it’s for profit. Okay. So that’s their essential goal. Although the contestants are pro-Israel—

Steinberg: Are they Israeli, the contestants?

Tress: So, last 2025 Miss Universe Israel, she’s Israeli. Melanie Shiraz. There have been contestants, including last year, who were Jewish but not Israeli. The production company said, “We’re opening it up to diaspora Jews who are not Israeli,” and they presented it as a positive way to open it up. But Shiraz and some other people have said, “It should be about Israel.”

Steinberg: Why does she do it?

Tress: Because it was an actual contest last year when she did it, and she told me this was confirmed by someone else, but it gives you a big platform and recognition. Global platform.  Gives you a platform in Jewish spaces and pro-Israel spaces.

Steinberg: You say, “I am Miss Israel.”

Tress: Yeah, it’s a big deal.

Steinberg: So, where did this leave you? At the end of the rabbit hole, what’s your final conclusion about the whole process, about the whole event?

Tress: They have been planning to appoint Miss Israel 2026 without a contest while presenting it as a contest. And there’s video of them discussing this, like they were just going to appoint who they wanted and pretend it was a pageant, and the winner wouldn’t actually know. Shiraz has also made allegations of financial pressure and intimidation. Edgar Entertainment has denied this. They say it’s all according to contract, and they said the winner this year will be Israeli, but there are also questions about whether they could just get Israeli citizenship for the contest. So it’s very complicated, and a lot of it’s kind of shady. A lot of it’s very opaque. It’s not like this national contest that’s in the open.

Steinberg: That there are contestants who are putting themselves out there to try and win.

Tress: I couldn’t find any information about the contest this year. There’s no public information. It’s kind of like an opaque business.

Steinberg: Well, I’m glad that you’re the one who ended up covering that and not me. How about that? It’s an unusual way to be able to end our podcast these days. But at this point, I’m saying thanks, Luke, for being on The Daily Briefing. Good to be with you in person.

Thanks to you for listening to Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s installment. This episode was produced by Ari Schlacht. As always, feel free to recommend us to other listeners and rate us wherever you find your podcasts. Until next time, take care. Be well. Bye.