“President Trump Meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu” by Trump White House Archived, Public Domain Mark
The Pentagon has designated Israel at the highest counterintelligence threat level amid increasing concerns that the top Middle East ally is spying on US officials to gather information on Trump’s decision-making as it pertains to Iran, two US officials reportedly claim, according to NBC News.
An Israeli Embassy spokesperson denied that Israel spies on the United States, describing the notion as “completely false.”
“Israel does not gather intelligence on American entities, let alone US government officials. Israel intelligence collection efforts are aimed at its enemies, not its allies. Any claims to the contrary are either misinformed or politically motivated,” the spokesperson said.
The White House further denied the report, saying, “This entire story is false and sourced to someone who doesn’t have any knowledge of what’s going on.”
The report from NBC cites two unnamed US officials and one former US official and points to past instances of Israel and the US both spying on allies, including Jonathan Pollard, who spent 30 years in prison for selling US intelligence to Israel.
Per NBC:
The Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency in recent weeks issued the new counterintelligence threat assessment amid rising tensions between Israel and the U.S. over the way forward in the war with Iran, the officials said. They said the DIA posted an internal message, viewed by one of the current officials, that raised the level for Israel to “critical.”
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.
It also identifies a series of specific incidents that heightened U.S. concerns, the official said.
This comes amid a potential rift between Trump and Netanyahu over differing strategies in the Iran war.
President Trump confirmed in an interview on Tuesday that he recently went off on Netanyahu during a heated phone call amid reports of Trump calling him “f*cking crazy” for continuing the war amid US-Iran negotiations. Trump reportedly accused Netanyahu of ingratitude, referenced helping keep him out of jail during his corruption trial, and allegedly yelled things like “What the f**k are you doing?”
“I was a little bit perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon, you know? At some point, I said, ‘Bibi, we’ve got to stop this. You’ve got to stop it,’” Trump told the New York Post’s Miranda Devine.
WATCH: Trump Confirms Reports that He Went Off on Netanyahu – “I Was a Little Bit Perturbed at His Constantly Fighting With Lebanon”
Israel has since continued launching strikes in Lebanon amid stalled ceasefire talks with Hezbollah.
Iran said it had suspended talks with the US on Monday over Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon. Trump later made phone calls to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hezbollah representatives to end the fighting, but after rounds of ceasefire talks between Lebanon and Israel, Hezbollah reportedly rejected a ceasefire.
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