Skip to Main Content

Target Tehran

How Israel Is Using Sabotage, Cyberwarfare, Assassination – and Secret Diplomacy – to Stop a Nuclear Iran and Create a New Middle East

About The Book

A Wall Street Journal Best Book of the Year/Politics
Winner of the Jewish Book Council’s Natan Notable Book Prize

“One of the most accurate and fascinating books so far” (Michael Bar-Zohar, coauthor of Mossad) about how Israel used sabotage, assassination, cyberwar—and diplomacy—to thwart Iran’s development of nuclear weapons and, in the process, begin to reshape the Middle East.

Yonah Bob and Ilan Evyatar describe how Israel has used cyberwarfare, targeted assassinations, and sabotage of Iranian facilities to great effect, sometimes in cooperation with the United States. Even as it takes lethal action, Israel has managed to alter the politics of the Middle East, culminating in the Abraham Accords of 2020. Arab states such as Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates normalized relations with Israel, and the holy grail of normalization with Saudi Arabia may yet be achieved. Despite the war with Hamas, these Arab states share Israel’s concern with Iran, remaining silent while Israel undermines Iran’s nuclear program.

Bob and Evyatar reveal how Israel has used documents stolen from Tehran in a daring, secret Mossad raid to show the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency how Iran has repeatedly violated the 2015 JCPOA nuclear agreement and lied about its active nuclear weapons program. Drawing from interviews with top confidential Israeli and US sources, including from the Mossad and the CIA, the authors tell the “thrilling” (Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, author of Battlegrounds) inside story of the tumultuous, and often bloody, history of how Israel has managed to outmaneuver Iran—so far.

About The Authors

Photograph by Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post

Yonah Jeremy Bob is the senior military and intelligence analyst as well as the book review editor for The Jerusalem Post. Hailing originally from Baltimore, Maryland, Yonah has close connections with many Israeli intelligence figures and previously worked in the Israeli military international law division, at the Israeli Embassy to the UN, and in the Israeli Justice Ministry. He is the author of Justice in the West Bank? and the editor and translator of A Raid on the Red Sea, an intelligence thriller whose principal author is Amos Gilboa, a former IDF deputy chief of intelligence.

Photograph by Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post

Ilan Evyatar is a former editor-in-chief of the award-winning magazine The Jerusalem Report, and a former news director, columnist, and senior contributor at The Jerusalem Post. He has edited and translated several books and has worked as a speechwriter and ghostwriter. Born in Israel and raised in London, England, he has interviewed a wide variety of top intelligence officials, as well as leading political, business, and cultural personalities.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster (November 29, 2023)
  • Length: 368 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781668014561

Browse Related Books

Raves and Reviews

Target Tehran is replete with anti-Iran cyber-warfare and sabotage successes. . . . Bob and Evyatar reveal, basically for the first time, how Mossad’s work helped create the environment culminating in the Abraham Accords.”

– John Bolton, The Wall Street Journal

Target Tehran is more than a thrilling tale that combines intelligence operations, diplomacy, and espionage. It is a story that sheds fresh light and understanding on the threat from Iran and why is vitally important to ensure that the theocratic dictatorship in Tehran does not gain access to the most destructive weapons on earth.”

– Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster (USA-Ret.), former U.S. National Security Advisor and author of Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World

“One of the most accurate and fascinating books so far about the secret war waged by Israel and her allies against the Iranian nuclear project. In a fast, riveting style, Yonah Jeremy Bob and Ilan Evyatar describe this secret war that will have a tremendous impact on world history. But it leaves open one cardinal question: will Iran become a nuclear power? Or will Israel, the US and their allies be ready to use all possible means, including the military option, in order to prevent the ayatollahs from achieving their dark goals?”

– Michael Bar Zohar, author of Mossad: The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service and The Mossad Amazons: The Amazing Women in the Israeli Secret Service

"The book contains some fascinating descriptions of Israeli intelligence activities. . . . A valuable contribution to our understanding of Israel’s extraordinary intelligence and diplomatic efforts."

– Todd Kushner, Washington Independent Review of Books

"Bob and Evyatar, both contributors to the Jerusalem Post, have deep connections to Israel’s security agencies and government processes. . . . Throughout this remarkable narrative, the authors provide valuable context to the new Middle East picture. Built on meticulous, diligent research, this book is key reading for those interested in geopolitical issues.

Kirkus Reviews

"Drawing on interviews with Mossad officials, the authors’ well-paced narrative steeps readers in intricate spy craft and high-wire diplomacy, making these events feel like a true-life James Bond mission that’s carefully calibrated to shape American foreign policy and Middle East geopolitics. The result is an engrossing look at one of the most effective covert-ops projects of recent times."

Publishers Weekly

“A remarkable story about the war against Iran’s attempts to achieve military nuclear capability. While I cannot confirm the details presented in the book, it is no secret that Israel and its allies are engaged in a relentless fight to stop Iran, and the authors relate this struggle in a thrilling fashion, as well as discussing the important moves to develop relations with Muslim countries afraid of an Iranian bomb.”

– Danny Yatom, former Mossad chief and Member of Knesset (Labor)

“When I served as the head of Israeli military intelligence in 1995, the Israeli intelligence community estimated that if Iran moved forward with a success-oriented process toward a nuclear weapon, Iran would obtain the bomb within a decade. The campaign which has been carried out since the 1990s to prevent the Iranian regime from gaining a military nuclear capability has been mostly clandestine, chapters and individual episodes of which are described in Target Tehran.”

– Moshe Ya’alon, former Israeli defense minister and military chief

“Israel’s covert campaign against Iran’s nuclear program has gone on for nearly three decades. Drawing from a wealth of reliable sources, including esteemed intelligence officers, this compelling narrative offers a meticulously updated chronicle of Mossad’s audacious undertakings aimed at impeding Iran's pursuit of nuclear weaponry.”

– Uri Bar-Joseph, author of The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel

“A must-read for fans of international affairs, espionage, and drama. Based on hard facts and intelligent commentary, the writers expose clandestine details about the most dangerous threat to humanity of our time: The relentless efforts of the clerical regime in Iran to develop and possess nuclear weapons in order to fulfill their radical Shia Islamist apocalyptic vision. A riveting page-turner that is both scary and hopeful at the same time.”

– Danny Ayalon, former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S.

Resources and Downloads

High Resolution Images