Bahrain has delivered a masterstroke of sovereign realism. Last week, the kingdom stripped 69 individuals and their immediate family members of citizenship. The reason was clear: these people had glorified Iranian missile and drone barrages or maintained direct contacts with Tehran’s operatives.

The move followed the arrest of 14 former Bahraini citizens charged with spying for Iran’s IRGC. They accepted funds, leaked sensitive data, and underwent military training inside Iran. Three others built a Hezbollah-linked cell that fed real-time damage assessments of Iranian strikes back to Tehran.

In total, Bahrain intercepted 194 ballistic missiles and 523 drones aimed at its territory and infrastructure. A small Gulf state that hosts the United States Fifth Fleet has now declared that citizenship is a revocable privilege, not a shield for enemy agents.

The State of Israel faces the identical threat on a far deadlier scale. Since the October 7, 2023 massacre, Iranian intelligence has accelerated a systematic campaign of internal subversion. Public records show more than 50 arrests and indictments against Israeli citizens for espionage on behalf of Iran and its proxies.

In 2025 alone, prosecutors indicted 25 individuals. At least 35 distinct cases involving 54 suspects have surfaced, while authorities thwarted more than 120 separate recruitment attempts in recent periods. These acts of betrayal, which are unfolding while Israel is still waging a nine-front war for survival, are repulsive and intolerable.

The concrete damage is unmistakable. In October 2024, seven Israeli citizens........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)