WASHINGTON – The Pentagon is concerned about Israel increasing its spying on the US, according to two US officials and a former US official, who recently raised the counterintelligence threat level to the highest level on America’s top ally in the Middle East.
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The Pentagon’s defense intelligence agency has released a new counterintelligence threat assessment amid rising tensions between Israel and the United States in recent weeks over whether to escalate war with Iran, officials said. He said the DIA posted an internal message, seen by one of the current officials, that raised the level to “critical” for Israel.
Officials said the designation stems from concerns within the Pentagon that Israel is making a special effort to conduct surveillance on top U.S. officials to obtain information on the Trump administration’s internal deliberations and decision-making on conflicts in the Middle East.
According to one of the current US officials, the DIA assessment consisted of a seven-page document and a chart. Israel’s assessment is that its capabilities for human espionage and technical collection are at a “significant level,” the document said, according to the official.
It also identifies a series of specific incidents that have raised US concerns, the official said.
A spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, said in a statement that it is “completely false” that Israel spies on the US. “Israel does not collect intelligence on US entities, let alone US government officials,” the spokesperson said. “Israel’s intelligence gathering efforts are targeted at its enemies, not its allies. Any claims to the contrary are either misinformation or politically motivated.”
The Pentagon declined to comment.
“This entire story is false and fabricated by someone who has no idea what’s going on,” a White House official said in a statement.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees all US intelligence agencies, including the DIA, did not respond to a request for comment.
Although it is common for allies and adversaries around the world to spy on each other, current and former US officials said Israel’s recent efforts go far beyond typical and expected spying. Officials did not know whether any specific incident led to the DIA’s decision to raise the counterintelligence threat level.
The heightened alert comes as President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have clashed over the war with Iran and Israel’s military operations in Lebanon, including a tense phone call last week, NBC News reports. Trump later admitted to reporters that he had called Netanyahu “crazy” during the call as it raised questions about whether the two countries’ objectives in the Middle East were beginning to diverge significantly.
Since reaching a ceasefire agreement in early April, Trump has been working on a diplomatic deal with Iran to end the war that broke out between Israel and the US on February 28. Israel has publicly expressed skepticism that Iran will abide by any negotiated agreement. According to Western officials, Netanyahu has pushed to resume bombings against Iran and is at odds with Trump, who has pressured him to reduce attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Current and former US officials and outside experts said Israel has a keen interest in whether Trump decides to resume major combat operations against Iran or end the conflict.
Current and former US officials said the most practical outcome for the Pentagon is that US officials will take extra precautions when traveling to Israel or when traveling with Israeli officials. He said there is no impact on the high-level intelligence sharing that occurs on a daily basis between the two countries, especially the Iran war.
“The US already takes extra precautions when visiting Israel,” said one of the current US officials. “They are known to collect aggressively.”
The US, like other countries, maintains an elaborate counterintelligence, or “spy catcher”, effort to prevent and track espionage by foreign adversaries as well as allies and partners, safeguard state secrets, and monitor efforts to recruit or coerce US officials. Under US law, the FBI has the lead role in counterintelligence efforts, but they also involve many government agencies and the military.
Israel has been notorious for years for aggressive espionage, even against its closest ally, the US, according to current and former diplomats and former national security officials. According to experts and current and former US officials, it is a practice that has long raised concerns among national security and diplomatic officials, and US intelligence officials closely monitor the issue.
Current and former US officials and experts said top US officials often take extra precautions when traveling to Israel, sometimes using burner phones and computers and exercising extreme caution when talking in hotel rooms during official visits.
Israel has “a hyper-aggressive intelligence service,” said Emily Harding, vice president of the Department of Defense and Security and director of the intelligence, national security and technology program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington. “They have a tremendous interest in what we’re doing,” Harding said of the Israelis.
In the 1980s, as spying by Israel led to a rift with Washington, U.S. Naval intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard spent 30 years in prison after he was found guilty of selling suitcases of top-secret documents to Israel.
The US also spies on its allies and seeks to gather intelligence about foreign partners, as revealed by intelligence contractor Edward Snowden’s leaks in 2013.
Those leaks revealed that the US was spying on European leaders, including the mobile phones of then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel, sparking outrage in Berlin.
The US and Israel remain close allies, and the intelligence services of both countries have enjoyed a close working relationship for decades. But concerns about possible Israeli spying at such a sensitive moment — when the two governments are not in full agreement about a war with Iran — risk undermining trust between the two countries, two additional former U.S. officials said.
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