IRGC's Attempt to Assassinate Georgian Jewish Merchant

Itzik Moshe, a Jewish merchant from Georgia, claimed that in the past year, he has survived three assassination attempts in his country, with investigations in Georgia identifying the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as 'behind these attacks.' According to the Jerusalem Post, Moshe told Media Line that fortunately, all three attempts on his life were thwarted by Georgian security forces. Two of these attacks involved knife assaults, while the third was a shooting, where Georgian security managed to 'sabotage' the attacker's weapon before it could be fired. This Georgian Jewish merchant stated to Media Line: 'Investigations by local authorities indicate that the IRGC of Iran was behind these attacks.' These assaults appear to have been aimed at halting Moshe's efforts to promote better relations between Israel and Georgia and to improve perceptions of Israel in the region. Itzik Moshe immigrated to Israel in the 1970s at the age of 12 and returned to his homeland in 1989 as the first representative of the Jewish Agency in the Soviet Union. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, he has built bridges between the former Soviet republics and Israel. His organization, Beit Israel (House of Israel), has expanded to 18 countries. The Washington Post reported that Western officials believe those involved in the assassination attempts on this Georgian Jewish merchant were also implicated in a 2021 plot to kill John Bolton, former U.S. National Security Advisor and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. An Iranian national has been charged with conspiracy to assassinate Bolton. Recently, Yoav Gallant, Israel's Defense Minister, warned that Israel and its allies have managed to thwart more than fifty attempts by the Islamic Republic to assassinate Israeli and Jewish citizens worldwide in recent years.