What Are the Reasons Behind the 'Israeli Spying' on Algeria

On October 1, 2021, the French website MENADEFENSE for military affairs published a report confirming the occurrence of a maritime incident near Algeria's territorial waters, summed up in an Algerian submarine chasing an Israeli submarine.

The next day, the Algerian Ministry of Defense denied what was published about the alleged pursuit, coinciding with the implementation of naval maneuvers.

The ministry confirmed that there were no incidents on the 29th and 30th of September 2021, and that it "categorically denies all of this information that was circulated by these media outlets."

The MENADEFENSE website re-confirmed on October 2, 2021 that it did not talk about incidents that occurred on the two days indicated by the Ministry of Defense, but a day before.

The site indicated that the incident it referred to was on September 27, that is, before the start of the maneuvers and during the evacuation of the marine area in preparation for it.

Clarifying that "there was no incident on September 29 and 30 but on September 27. The DND denial came to confirm that there was nothing on 29 and 30.​"​

But it stressed that "during the preparation of the exercise, on September 27, an incident took place. An Israeli Dolphin-class submarine, was spotted by passive means.​"​

Indicating that the Algerian navy "tracked down [the Israeli submarine] and forced it to surface in international waters and leave the area."

 

What Happened?

According to what an Egyptian naval captain told Al-Estiklal, marine vehicles are being detected underwater on the way of two types of monitoring.

The first, using "positive radars," which emit sound waves, bounce back when they hit underwater vehicle bodies and reveal their location to the monitoring center that issued the signal.

The second is based on the "passive monitoring" system, which uses radars that can pick up the sound waves of enemy submarine radars (sonar waves), or detect noise from marine vehicles' engines, and locate them.

MENADEFENSE quoted its sources as saying that immediately after the discovery of the Israeli submarine, the Algerian leadership decided to track it in a passive way, without sonar to avoid cross-detection by a Dolphin submarine.

The French website said that the Algerian forces revealed the Israeli submarine Dolphin using the sound systems of the Algerian Kilo submarine.

It  pointed out that "the aircraft of Kalaat Béni Abbès ​​played a central role in the operation by deploying two Super Lynx anti-submarine warfare helicopters. The two devices with their optical means and magnetic anomaly detectors continued the fight while two Kilo 636 submarines pushed the intruder back north.​"

It explained that the Israeli submarine Dolphin remained stuck in the territorial waters, which led to the appearance of its captain on the surface of the waters as an indication that it had abandoned the spy mission and moved away from the Algerian coast.

The site confirmed that it had evidence of the accident on September 27, with evidence that it appeared on the Swedish website Flightradar24—mainly specialized in tracking international air traffic.

On the same day, the Algerian Air Force, which specializes in anti-submarine warfare, intervened.

It stressed that the intervention of this Algerian element indicates a "warning" in this regard, which is the discovery of the presence of the Israeli submarine and its pursuit to leave the area where it was spying on the Algerian naval maneuver.

MENADEFENSE quoted its sources as saying that "Algeria's dispatch of two project 636 submarines and Super Lynx Mk140 submarine-hunting aircraft equipped with MU90 torpedoes could have sent the enemy submarine to the bottom."

The website wondered: Is this renewed Israeli interest in the Algerian army and spying on it linked to the tensions between Algeria and Morocco and Tel Aviv's relationship with Rabat, or are there other motives behind it?

Darko Todorovski, the military editor of the Russian Balkanist website, confirmed the incident of an Israeli submarine spying on Algeria and its attempt to "track a training launch of a cruise missile Club-S from an Algerian submarine."

He wrote on Twitter that the Israeli submarine "was discovered and pursued by 2 submarines of project 636. They forced it to surface and leave the area," after it was spying on the Algerian naval maneuver.

Israeli and Algerian newspapers were interested in the incident, and the former director general of the Israel Broadcasting Corporation, journalist Yoni Ben-Menachem, wrote about what was published about the Algerian naval forces' pursuit of an Israeli submarine, without confirming or denying the occurrence.

 

Espionage and Anger

According to sites specialized in defense and military affairs, the presence of the Israeli submarine near the territorial waters of Algeria, was intended to test the reactions of the Algerian navy.

It said that the Algerian exercise was complex and involved many warships, so it was an opportunity for the Israelis to gather and encrypt electronic intelligence and data about Algerian naval transmissions.

The MENADEFENSE website, which specializes in military analyzes, confirmed in its report on October 2, 2021 that the objectives of the Israeli submarine are to collect intelligence and technical information about the new Algerian submarine Dolphin.

It indicated that the Israeli submarine might have been aiming to gather intelligence information about the launch, range, and impact of the Kalibr missiles by an Algerian submarine.

During the maneuvers carried out by the Algerian Navy, in the second military region in the northwest of the country on the border with Morocco, in which several ships, including 636 submarines, participated, Kalibr missiles were launched.

Russia's 636 submarines are famous for being an improved version of the Kilo submarine and for being particularly quiet, and Algeria has six of them equipped with Russian Kalibr Club-S cruise missiles with a range of 300 km.

There are no relations between Algeria and "Israel," as the former supports the Palestinian cause, rejects normalization, and is hostile to Tel Aviv.

It is widely believed that Israeli spying on the Algerian army and navy is part of the hostility between the two parties, and an attempt to deepen the rift between Algeria and Morocco.

Algeria was angered by the normalization of its neighbor Morocco with Tel Aviv on December 10, 2020, and criticized the "Zionist entity" due to its "advice" to remain silent and not to accuse it of being responsible for Algeria’s diplomatic crisis with Rabat.

Algeria led a campaign to reject Israel's membership in the African Union, after officially announcing on July 22, 2021 that it had joined its 55 members, as an observer member.

“Israel” maintains relations with 46 AU countries, Algeria not included, which is one of the rare Arab countries that supports Palestine and publicly and strongly rejects normalization.

On August 24, 2021, the Algerian Foreign Minister, Ramtane Lamamra, conducted an Arab and African tour to mobilize African countries to reject Israel's membership in the Union.

The minister said that the number of African countries rejecting Tel Aviv's membership in the union is "increasing."

 

Strained Relationships

Justifying the severing of diplomatic relations with Morocco, Algeria accused "Israel" on August 24, 2021 of having a role in this, referring to statements made by Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid during his official visit to Rabat against Algeria.

Lapid had expressed, on August 12, 2021 in Casablanca, concerns about the role that Algeria plays in the region, its rapprochement with Iran, and the campaign it led against Israel's admission as an observer member of the African Union.

Tel Aviv responded to Algeria's accusation of spoiling its relations with Morocco, with an Israeli diplomat describing the "Algerian accusations" as "unfounded."

This unnamed diplomat called on Algeria to "focus" on its economic "problems," according to Agence France-Presse on August 24, 2021.

On August 18, 2021, Algeria blamed the devastating forest fires on the Islamist Rashad and the Berber Kabylia Independence Movement (MAK) groups in the Kabylia region.

It said that "the Kabylia Independence Movement is supported by the ‘Zionist entity,’” in reference to its accusation of “Israel” and Morocco.

“Israel” responded to Algeria's accusations by accusing the ruling authority of seeking to "use Israel in its conflict with Morocco to divert attention from its internal failure."

On September 3, 2021, the Israeli website i24News published a report by the Jewish News Agency (JNA), in which Bruce Maddy-Weitzman, a researcher at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, asserts that Algeria is "extremely disturbed" by the normalization of Morocco and “Israel.”

Israeli academics were quoted as saying that Algeria's tough stance toward “Israel” and Morocco "reflects pressures the regime is facing to renew its legitimacy among angry and disappointed citizens."

Before that, Tel Aviv was angered by the announcement of the Algerian judoka, Fathi Norine, that he officially withdrew from the Olympic Games in Tokyo on July 23, 2021, after the draw made him face an Israeli player, and he preferred the boycott over normalization.

“Israel” was also angered by Algeria's closure in September of airspace to Moroccan planes and then to planes bound for “Israel” from Rabat.

Those tensions began on August 24, when Algeria announced, through its foreign minister, Ramtane Lamamra, that it was severing diplomatic relations with Morocco because of what it called the continuation of a "hostile campaign against it," while Rabat described the justifications as flimsy.

Another reason for the Algerian–Israeli tension is the Algerian–Moroccan gas crisis, from which “Israel” might emerge a winner.

That is since “Israel” has an opportunity to expand its gas markets at the expense of Algerian gas by taking advantage of its growing relationship with Morocco.

An Algerian gas pipeline passes through Morocco to southern Spain, and Algeria's contract with Rabat to use it will expire in October 2021, and there are fears that the pipeline will be the sacrifice of strained relations between the two sides.

Through this pipeline, 3 billion cubic meters annually pass to Spain, to which one billion cubic meters are added annually to the Moroccan market, out of Algeria's total exports of 50 billion cubic meters annually.

If Algeria does not renew the contract for the passage of gas through this pipeline to Morocco, Algeria will lose one of the important logistical options for selling gas, at a time when “Israel” is looking for new markets for gas extracted from its fields off the coast of the Mediterranean.

Tel Aviv may take advantage of the diplomatic situation and crisis between Algeria and Morocco, and offer Rabat to sign an agreement to supply it with Israeli gas instead of Algeria.

Relations between the two sides may extend in the field of energy and reach to restart the Moroccan–Spanish gas pipeline, to supply Madrid and neighboring markets as well, but with Israeli, not Algerian, gas.