It's no secret that Israeli spying and surveillance is pervasive, and it is often even directed at its most powerful ally and backer, the United States. But the phenomenon has escalated of late, outraging Washington intelligence officials.
Behind the scenes of this alliance which mainstream media and pundits typically project as essentially untouchable, deep-seated friction is boiling over. In an unprecedented move, the Pentagon has officially elevated Israel's counterintelligence threat level to its highest possible category, driven by surging internal alarm that this primary Mideast regional ally is aggressively ramping up espionage operations targeting senior US officials - even Trump's own top Iran negotiator.
The intelligence warning, freshly reported this weekend by NBC News and The New York Times, highlights a profound rift within the national security apparatus as tensions mount between the Trump administration and Israel over the ongoing joint war on Iran.
The revelation's timing is interesting, given it comes after Axios reported at the start of this month that on a phone call President Trump 'steamrolled' Prime Minister Netanyahu. Trump is said to have been "pissed" and at one point yelled and berated Netanyahu, saying "What the fuck are you doing?"
And now, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is broadcasting an internal alert raising Israel's specific threat designation to "critical". According to details revealed in a Sunday NBC report:
The designation stems from concerns within the Pentagon that Israel is making a particular effort to surveil top U.S. officials to get information on the Trump administration’s internal deliberations and decision-making on the conflicts in the Middle East, the officials said.
The DIA assessment includes a seven-page document and features a chart, according to one of the current U.S. officials. The document says the assessment of Israel is that its ability to conduct human espionage and technical collection is at a “critical level,” according to the official.
And parallel to this, a report by the NY Times lists out names that are very high level within the Trump administration. Israel has allegedly focused its electronic and human efforts to eavesdrop on the following officials (likely among others):
- Steve Witkoff, Trump’s premier regional negotiator.
- Elbridge A. Colby, the Pentagon’s top policy official.
- Michael P. DiMino IV, one of Colby’s primary deputies.
The Israeli embassy in Washingtons has slammed the reports as 'completely false': "This entire story is false and sourced to someone who doesn’t have any knowledge of what’s going on," it said in a statement.
But the major US media reports highlight American intel officials who don't try and tone down or couch their words. Instead they speak of "unhinged" Israeli spying on US government officials.
The targeting of Colby is particularly notable given his past public policy statements, where he has explicitly called for a "reset" on the foundational US relationship with Israel. More broadly, Israel is worried about losing the political Right in the United States, given the number of younger, prominent conservative 'influencers' who have been highly critical of Israel of late.
Meanwhile the DIA dossier explicitly concludes that Israel's capabilities to execute both human espionage (HUMINT) and technical collection (SIGINT) and provides deals and documentation of specific recent incidents
Current and former US officials summarized the crisis to NBC by noting that Israel's recent clandestine activities have moved far beyond the baseline, routine espionage conventionally tolerated on some level between friendly nations.
It appears the Netanyahu government is going to great lengths to ensure President Trump doesn't make a 'bad deal' to end the Iran war. Also, it's clear - given these new leaks by US officials - that Trump insiders are quite outraged at this Israeli aggression on the intelligence-sharing front.