Ehud Barak
Ehud Barak is an Israeli politician and former soldier. He was Prime Minister of Israel from May 1999 to March 2001, headed IDF military intelligence (Aman) in the mid-1980s, and later served as Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister. In 2019 he co-founded the spyware company Paragon Solutions. The same year Ronan Farrow reported that Harvey Weinstein had written that Black Cube contacted him through Barak; the Times of Israel, covering an interview with Black Cube operative Stella Penn Pechanac, said Barak "has admitted introducing" Weinstein to the firm.[1][2][3][4]
Offices and military intelligence
Barak headed Aman from April 1983 to January 1986. He was Prime Minister from May 1999 to March 2001, and leader of the Labor Party. From June 2007 he was Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister (MFA biography accessed July 2009). By the time he co-founded Paragon in 2019 he was out of government.[1][2]
Paragon Solutions
In 2019 Barak co-founded Paragon Solutions with Unit 8200 veterans including Brigadier General (res.) Ehud Schneorson, a former commander of the unit, and his deputy Idan Nurick. The company's product is the zero-click implant Graphite. In late 2024 the Israeli operation was sold to a US buyer; Globes put the price at up to $900 million and the buyer as AE Industrial Partners, with a merger into REDLattice. In 2025 Citizen Lab and WhatsApp said Graphite had been found on phones of Italian journalists and activists. The live Paragon page states Barak's role as co-founder. Fuller detail is on Paragon Solutions.[2]
Weinstein and Black Cube
In 2019 Farrow reported a Weinstein email to lawyer David Boies about a firm "recommended to him by Ehud Barak, the former Prime Minister of Israel": "The Black Cube Group from Israel contacted me through Ehud Barak," Weinstein wrote. Boies Schiller Flexner then contracted with Black Cube to stop publication of sexual-abuse allegations. The operation is covered on Black Cube and Harvey Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein.[3][5]
The Times of Israel, reporting Pechanac's Channel 12 interview, wrote that Barak "has admitted introducing Weinstein to Black Cube, though he has said he did not know why Weinstein was interested in the company's services." Pechanac herself referred to the introduction: "When a former prime minister connects you to a very powerful man who looks you in the eye and says that 'There is nothing to these accusations, I am under attack and need your help' — so I went out to find out the truth."[4] The Real News Network, cited on the Black Cube page, likewise reported that Weinstein took the firm on Barak's recommendation.[6]
Affiliations
- MEMRI – Board of Advisors
- Paragon Solutions – co-founder (2019)
- Labor Party
- Black Cube (introduction of Weinstein, as admitted / reported)
External Resources
- David Blair, Israel says Iran has pulled back from the brink of nuclear weapon - for now, The Telegraph, 30 October 2012.
See also
- Paragon Solutions
- Black Cube
- Black Cube and Harvey Weinstein
- Harvey Weinstein
- Stella Penn Pechanac
- Unit 8200
- NSO Group
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Ehud Barak: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense (Labor), Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, accessed 31 July 2009.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Assaf Gilead, Cyberattack co Paragon agrees SPAC merger at $1.25b valuation, Globes, 28 September 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Ronan Farrow, The Black Cube Chronicles: The Undercover Operative, The New Yorker, 8 October 2019.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 ToI Staff, Israeli who helped Weinstein undermine victims: 'He wasn't a monster then', Times of Israel, 7 June 2019.
- ↑ Ronan Farrow, Harvey Weinstein's Army of Spies, The New Yorker, 6 November 2017.
- ↑ Israeli Private Intelligence Company Black Cube Out of Control, The Real News Network (critical), 11 June 2019.