{"id":792,"date":"2026-06-06T05:39:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T05:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trustedmovinggroups.com\/?p=792"},"modified":"2026-06-06T05:39:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T05:39:00","slug":"pentagon-raised-threat-of-israeli-spying-on-u-s-to-highest-level-sources-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trustedmovinggroups.com\/?p=792","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon raised threat of Israeli spying on U.S. to highest level, sources say"},"content":{"rendered":"
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WASHINGTON \u2014 The Pentagon is increasingly concerned about Israel ramping up its spying on the U.S., recently raising the counterintelligence threat level from America\u2019s top ally in the Middle East to the highest level, according to two U.S. officials and one former U.S. official.<\/p>\n

Read more U.S. military says it shot down Iranian drones launched toward Strait of Hormuz<\/a><\/p>\n

The Pentagon\u2019s 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 \u201ccritical.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

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\u2019s internal deliberations and decision-making on the conflicts in the Middle East, the officials said. <\/p>\n

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 \u201dcritical level,\u201d according to the official.<\/p>\n

It also identifies a series of specific incidents that heightened U.S. concerns, the official said.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., said in a statement that it is \u201ccompletely false\u201d that Israel spies on the U.S. \u201cIsrael does not gather intelligence on American entities, let alone US government officials,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cIsrael intelligence collection efforts are aimed at its enemies, not its allies. Any claims to the contrary are either misinformed or politically motivated.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The Pentagon declined to comment.<\/p>\n

A White House official said in a statement, \u201cThis entire story is false and sourced to someone who doesn\u2019t have any knowledge of what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees all the U.S. intelligence agencies including the DIA, did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

While it is commonplace for allies and adversaries across the globe to spy on each other, the current and former U.S. officials said Israel\u2019s recent efforts have gone well beyond what is typical and expected espionage. The officials did not know if a specific incident triggered the DIA\u2019s decision to raise the counterintelligence threat level. <\/p>\n

The heightened alert comes as President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have clashed over the war with Iran and Israel\u2019s military operations in Lebanon, including in a tense phone call this past week, NBC News reported. Trump acknowledged afterward to reporters that he called Netanyahu \u201ccrazy\u201d during the call as questions mount about whether the two countries\u2019 objectives in the Middle East are beginning to significantly diverge. <\/p>\n

Since a ceasefire went into place in early April, Trump has been pursuing a diplomatic deal with Iran to end the war Israel and the U.S. launched on Feb. 28. Israel has publicly expressed skepticism that Iran would abide by any negotiated deal. Netanyahu has pushed for a resumption of bombing raids against Iran and disagreed with Trump, who has pressed him to scale back attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon, according to Western officials.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Israel is keenly interested in whether Trump decides to resume major combat operations against Iran or to end the conflict, the current and former U.S. officials and outside experts said. <\/p>\n

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The most practical outcome for the Pentagon is that U.S. officials will use extra caution when traveling to Israel or visiting with Israeli officials, the current and former U.S. officials said. They said there did not appear to be any impact on the high-level intelligence-sharing that occurs on a daily basis between the two countries, particularly associated with the war in Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. already takes extra precautions when visiting Israel,\u201d one of the current U.S. officials said. \u201cThey\u2019re well-known to aggressively collect.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S., like other countries, maintains elaborate counterintelligence or \u201cspy catcher\u201d efforts to prevent and track espionage by foreign adversaries as well as by allies and partners, seeking to safeguard state secrets and monitor attempts to recruit or coerce U.S. officials. Under U.S. law, the FBI has the leading role in counter-intelligence efforts, but they also involve a range of government agencies and the military.<\/p>\n

According to current and former diplomats and former national security officials, Israel for years has had a reputation for aggressive espionage even against the U.S., its closest ally. It\u2019s a practice that has long raised concerns among national security and diplomatic officials, and U.S. intelligence officials closely monitor the issue, according to experts and the current and former U.S. officials.<\/p>\n

Top U.S. officials often take extra care when traveling to Israel, sometimes using burner phones and computers and extreme caution when speaking in hotel rooms during official trips, the current and former U.S. officials and experts said.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Israel has \u201ca hyper-aggressive intelligence service,\u201d said Emily Harding, vice president of the Defense and Security Department and director of the intelligence, national security and technology program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington. \u201cThey are exceedingly interested in what we are up to,\u201d Harding said of the Israelis.<\/p>\n

In the 1980s, spying by Israel caused a rift with Washington, with U.S. Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard spending 30 years in prison after he was found to have sold suitcases of top-secret documents to Israel.<\/p>\n

The U.S. also spies on its allies and seeks to gather intelligence on foreign partners, as evidenced in 2013 by leaks from intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.<\/p>\n

Those leaks showed that the U.S. was eavesdropping on European leaders, including then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel\u2019s mobile phone, sparking outrage in Berlin.<\/p>\n

The U.S. and Israel remain close allies and the two countries\u2019 intelligence services have forged a close, working relationship over decades. But concerns about possible Israeli espionage at such a sensitive moment \u2014 when the two governments are not in full agreement about the war with Iran \u2014 carry the risk of undermining trust between the two countries, two additional former U.S. officials said.<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018Maine had my back\u2019: Graham Platner hits the campaign trail amid latest turmoil<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 The Pentagon is increasingly concerned about Israel ramping up its spying on the U.S., recently raising the counterintelligence threat level from America\u2019s top ally in the Middle East to the highest level, according to two U.S. officials and one former U.S. official<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-security"],"yoast_head":"\nPentagon raised threat of Israeli spying on U.S. to highest level, sources say - Trusted Moving Group<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/trustedmovinggroups.com\/?p=792\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pentagon raised threat of Israeli spying on U.S. to highest level, sources say - 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