From Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian to Jennifer Aniston and Lionel Messi, celebrities across the world are hiring teams of Israeli bodyguards made up of former Shin Bet, Mossad, and Israeli special forces.
But how safe is it to entrust your life and most intimate details to agents from spying agencies with a long track record of infiltrating, surveiling, and blackmailing foreign targets?
MintPress explores how Israeli security took over Hollywood and the world.
In High Demand
Israeli Secret Service agents do not die or fade away, writes The New York Post. Instead, they move to Hollywood. The Tel Aviv-to-Tinsel Town pipeline has been well established over decades, and there are now a myriad of Israeli security agencies, both in Los Angeles and across the world, guarding many of the planet’s richest, most famous, and influential figures.
Inter Miami soccer superstar Lionel Messi – who, in 2020 became the face of an Israeli A.I. company staffed by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spies – is accompanied by an select force of former Israeli agents everywhere he goes.
Hollywood royalty Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston are known to have relied on the services of Israeli security, as have pop stars, Madonna, Pink, and Jennifer Lopez.
Actress Lucy Liu, meanwhile, is followed around everywhere by a troupe of Israeli minders.
And Canadian singer Justin Bieber’s relationship with Israeli security came to public attention in 2013, after he allegedly beat up his ex-IDF handler Moshe Benabou, the CEO of Israguard Security Services.
In short, Israeli bodyguards are highly sought after. “There’s demand around the world, and rightly so. Israeli security is like Coca-Cola,” said Roman Tukh, the co-founder of Guise Security, “You don’t have to advertise yourself – you have a name. The question is whether you manage to maintain it or not. That’s why it’s easier for us as Israelis.”
Bodyguards do not come cheap. The services Tukh and others like him provide cost between $125 and $1,500 per hour, depending on the level of security needed.
Two other famous names well acquainted with Israeli security dispatches are Bill Maher and Charlie Kirk. In a 2025 conversation, the former revealed that he spent his entire European vacation “wedged between these two giant Israeli bodyguards the whole way.” “When I went to Europe in 2015, I had like two Israeli bodyguards and my security person,” he told the conservative influencer. “If you want security, the Israelis know what they are doing,” Kirk responded, knowingly.
Maher edited this conversation out of the video he released to the public. It only exists as a reaction video on Kirk’s official channel, which appears to be unmaintained since his death.
Only a few months later, Kirk would be publicly assassinated. His death, and his precise relationship with Israel and Israeli security, has triggered all manner of speculation online.
Stars and Spies
One of the pioneers of the pipeline was Moshe Alon. A former longtime IDF officer and Israeli Secret Service veteran, Alon came to the United States in 1984 as head of the security team protecting Israeli athletes at the Los Angeles Summer Olympics.
He never left, setting up Professional Security Consultants (PSC) the next year and bringing over large numbers of former colleagues to protect Hollywood royalty. Today, PSC is licensed in over 40 states and employs more than 4,000 people across the country, and Alon himself provided security for Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Caine, Armand Hammer, and Goldie Hawn.
Many bodyguards come from top-tier units in the Israeli military or national security state that have carried out major war crimes in Gaza and beyond. Yet these allegiances are not seen in the U.S. as a mark against them, but rather a selling point.
Kfir Goldin, director of Safe Security and bodyguard to Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra, boasts of his past as a member of the elite IDF unit, the Givati Brigade. The Givati Brigade is known for its mass bulldozing and torching of civilian Palestinian homes. “In every place where [our] soldiers walk, the place turns into scorched earth,” declared Givati commander, Avraham Zeriviv.
Meanwhile, before he was a bodyguard to the stars, Lior Raz served in the notorious Duvdevan Unit of the IDF, an elite group of spies who live deep undercover in Arab communities, secretly spying on them. Raz moved to the U.S. and became the personal bodyguard of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver. He later created “Fauda,” a TV series glamorizing the lives and work of Duvdevan operatives.
“Israel is branded around the world as a counterterrorism success, so that catches on overseas. The question is what happens in practice, what’s the product you get. Duvdevan is something that people flaunt because of ‘Fauda,’” said Yechiel Salomon, an Israeli Special Forces veteran whose company, BHS Security, protects the likes of Helen Mirren, Michael Douglas, and Catherine Zeta-Jones. “People want bodyguards ‘like in “Fauda.”’ It’s great marketing,” he added.
Another Duvdevan operative turned bodyguard to the stars is Aaron Cohen. Born in Canada, Cohen made Aliyah at 17-years-old and served for three years in the Duvdevan, where he learned Arabic and participated in over 200 missions infiltrating Arab communities.
Coming from a screenwriting family, he moved to Los Angeles and founded IMS Security Consultants, and provided security for a host of stars, including Britney Spears, Katy Perry, and Brad Pitt.
And after she was robbed at gunpoint in 2016, Kanye West tasked Cohen with revamping his then-wife Kim Kardashian’s security. Given West’s political trajectory, it is remarkable that, less than 10 years ago, he was paying an armed former Israeli spy to follow his every move, entrusting his life to him.
But one does not have to descend to Ye’s level of paranoia to raise serious concerns about the problematic relationship between Israeli spies and the world’s celebrity elite.
The Duvdevan is an elite Israeli spying force who are charged with going deep undercover in enemy territory for years, passing themselves off as friends or as one of their targets. All the while, they are secretly collecting information and data on these marks, in order to control, extort, blackmail, or even kill them. Why any celebrity would want an individual such as this near them – especially a foreign national from a country known for their international espionage operations – is an open question.
National Security Threat
It is often said that one never truly retires from the spying business. Cohen’s case is of particular note, as he called his security firm “Cherries” – the English translation of the Hebrew word, duvdevan.
Is it unfair to ask to whom – state or celebrity – these former Israeli commandos owe their allegiance? This question was put into sharp relief in 2023, when, after the October 7 attacks, a spate of high-profile security guards quit their American jobs to rejoin their units.
The most notable of these was Taylor Swift’s bodyguard, who discussed his reasons for rejoining his IDF unit with local outlet, Israel Hayom. “I have a pretty great life in America, a dream job, great friends and a comfortable home. I didn’t have to come here, but I couldn’t stand by while families were slaughtered and burned alive in their homes… I couldn’t stand by and do nothing,” he said.
Another example is Oded Krashinsky, the founder of Advanced Security Concepts and Nicole Kidman’s personal bodyguard. Krashinsky previously served for many years as an officer in an unnamed IDF Secret Service operations unit. In 2023, he dropped everything to fight for Israel. “I came here to help my unit. The morale is tense. The main threat is invasion — we have to deflect it, fight it, and protect against it,” he said, “I am who I am because I came from here. At the end of the day, it’s about experience, decision-making, tactics, and leadership — that’s what I felt I could bring and that’s what I do now.”
The individuals and companies Hollywood stars trust with their lives and their most intimate secrets come from some of the same organizations infamous for creating and spreading malware and spyware targeting tens of thousands of notable figures, including political leaders, journalists, and royals. Former agents of elite IDF group, Unit 8200, launched Pegasus, software that attacked the devices of heads of state, giving the Israeli government intimate knowledge of the ongoings of both their enemies and their allies. Known victims include President Emmanuel Macron of France, Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan, and Iraqi president, Barham Salih.
Authoritarian governments around the world used Pegasus to suppress their enemies. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi used the software to dig up dirt on his personal opponents. Meanwhile, the government of Saudi Arabia targeted Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi before dismembering him with a bone saw.
IDF spooks also spy on Palestinian Arab populations, reading their texts and listening to their calls for the purposes of blackmail and extortion. If a target was found to be homosexual or cheating on their spouse, that information would be used against them. One IDF whistleblower revealed that, as part of their training, they were assigned to memorize different Arabic words for “gay” so that they could listen out for them in conversations.
Hollywood itself, though, has been bastion of support for Israel. A MintPress News investigation based on leaked emails published by Wikileaks found top movie producers coordinating with Israeli government and military officials on how best to promote the country in the United States and how to stamp out pro-Palestinian voices within the industry.
Therefore, it should hardly come as a shock that many in Tinseltown see little problem in hiring former Israeli operatives to provide security services. Perhaps more surprising, however, is the amount of ex-secret agents from a foreign country the United States allows to live and operate within its own borders.
If this were any other country, it would doubtless be considered a massive security risk. Given how quickly the United States and Israel are beginning to merge, however – the House of Representatives just passed a $1.5 trillion bill integrating the two countries’ militaries – it is likely that we will see more of the same in the future.
That individual celebrities do not see the risk in entrusting their most intimate security to foreign nationals from agencies infamous for undercover surveillance and extortion of high-value targets, is deeply concerning.
Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian: you have been warned.
Alan Macleod
Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. He completed his PhD in 2017 and has since authored two acclaimed books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams. Follow Alan on Twitter for more of his work and commentary: @AlanRMacLeod.
