And while Israel's intelligence operations in Europe have grown to compare to all three, they have done so with virtually no consequences.
Part of why Israel's behaviour passes under the radar is that it is hard to pin down. Israel leverages influence through non-state actors: NSO Group's Pegasus, a military-grade spyware that can infiltrate any smartphone without a click, and Black Cube, a private intelligence firm that deploys operatives under false identities to lure targets into recorded meetings for political leverage.
Pegasus was used to hack the phones of EU staff, MEPs, journalists, and lawyers across multiple member states. Black Cube deployed undercover operatives to run covert sting operations designed to take down political opponents and manipulate elections. Both of which are illegal in Europe.
Take the Slovenian case. Before the country's March 2026 election, secretly filmed videos of officials linked to prime minister Robert Golob appeared on an anonymous website. The videos show coalition-linked officials discussing how to accelerate procurement and secure contracts. Targets said they were lured by a fictitious British investment fund – a documented Black Cube method.
Using flight data, Slovenian journalist Borut Mekina traced a private jet from Tel Aviv to Ljubljana on 22 December 2025, carrying Black Cube CEO Dan Zorella and retired Israeli Major General Giora Eiland directly to opposition leader Janez Janša's party headquarters. In his Mladina investigation, Mekina directly linked the December meeting to the secretly filmed footage that emerged weeks before the election.
Black Cube told us it operates as a firm that “uncovers fraud, corruption and asset dissipation” and said it operates legally in all jurisdictions. They did not comment on their activities in Europe.
Macron was the only European leader to address the events. He called it “clear-cut interference” by third countries.
“Slovenia was in the past a big critic of Israel's behaviour. We also recognised Palestine. And Israel was losing Orbán, Israel's representative in the EU, who could use its veto to Israel’s benefit,” Mekina told us. “There was a direct interest of Israel to influence the elections, in favour of the opposition leader Janša, who could be their informal representative in the EU.”
Israel is in need of such representation. The EU finally sanctioned violent Israeli settlers on May 12. Only possible due to the new Magyar government in Budapest, as Orbán had blocked the sanctions for years as Netanyahu's closest EU ally.
The privatisation of Mossad
“BlackCube is the privatisation of a spy company,” Mekina argued. His investigation estimates the Slovenia operation cost around €1 million – far more than Russia's typical disinformation campaigns, which tend to flood the zone cheaply with bot farms and fake accounts. For him, Israel's operations function at “a level higher.”
Both NSO and Black Cube are also staffed by former Mossad and IDF officials. Black Cube's board has included two former Mossad directors; NSO was founded by veterans of Unit 8200, the intelligence core of the IDF. Meanwhile, Black Cube employees met with government officials and according to Haaretz, were stationed at IDF bases.
“If you've been head of the Mossad and then you retire, and you set up your own company, are you ever really fully ex-Mossad? Is Putin really ex-KGB? Can you dissociate that? I don't think so,” Sophie in 't Veld, the former MEP who led the European Parliament's investigation into Pegasus, told us.
Black Cube is so effective that former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak referred sex offender Harvey Weinstein to them to suppress his accusers.
Europe refuses to act better
Sophie in 't Veld found Pegasus to be just as close to the government. “NSO can only market and sell or export its products if it gets a license from the government. There's a very close link between the two,” she said.
The European Parliament’s PEGA committee found Pegasus was deployed for political purposes in Poland, Hungary, Greece, and Spain. “Israel would, in a way, have the power to cut national authorities off of the use of spyware,” she said.
“It's high time the EU looks into Israel's foreign interference, similar to how Russia is being treated by Europe,” Ana Bojinović Fenko, an international relations professor at the University of Ljubljana, told us. “We need to understand that a government that appeases doesn't work.”
But Europe has refused to act so far. The Parliament adopted the PEGA committee's recommendations 424 to 108 in 2023, but today, none of it has been implemented. In Slovenia, prosecutors received the evidence provided by Slovenia's intelligence agency, and as of today, no charges have been filed.
“National governments in the European Union are very, very slow and reluctant to embrace reality in general - and very much so, when it comes to Israel,” in 't Veld said. “The only time they regulated was when the Americans were affected. Not because of a matter of principle but because it had affected American citizens.”
By refusing to address the threat, Europe has left itself exposed and vulnerable. “Slovenia had no idea that this could happen, so Israel was effective,” said Mekina. “There is no immune system.”