Is Israel Spying on US? Espionage Among Allies Has Precedent

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Several media outlets report that an anonymous source from the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) leaked internal information indicating that the Pentagon has elevated Israel to the highest category of counterintelligence threat. The change was reportedly made because Israel has significantly expanded intelligence activities against the United States. The US government has denied the reports; Israel has called them "completely false."

The reports are causing a stir in Washington, where Israel remains one of the closest partners for the United States, highlighting a decades-old issue: mutual distrust regarding intelligence activities carried out by strategic allies.

Historic Distrust

In Germany, the news brings to mind a remark made by then Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2013 after it became known that the US National Security Agency (NSA) had been monitoring her cellphone: "Spying on friends is never acceptable," Merkel said. Shortly thereafter, however, it became known that the German foreign intelligence service, the BND, had also been spying on allied countries, governments and institutions for decades.

German intelligence expert Erich Schmidt-Eenboom said even friendly nations spied on one another regularly. In his view, this applies especially to the United States and Israel. "There have been repeated Mossad operations in the United States as part of the fight against international terrorism that were not coordinated with the FBI. Conversely, Israel has always been an interesting target for the National Security Agency's electronic surveillance, especially during all wars," he said.

Israeli Espionage Against the United States

Probably the most prominent case of Israeli espionage in the United States to date is that of Jonathan Pollard in 1987. Working as a US Navy intelligence analyst, Pollard passed information to Israeli handlers and, according to The Times of Israel,  received tens of thousands of US dollars in return.

After his confession, he was sentenced to life in prison in the US. However, leading Israeli politicians repeatedly advocated for Pollard until he was released from prison in 2015 under certain conditions. When Pollard was allowed to leave for Israel in 2020, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally greeted him at the airport. "That was quite an insult to the Americans," Schmidt-Eenboom told DW.

In 2004, it became known that Lawrence Franklin, a political analyst at the US Department of Defense, had passed on confidential information about US policy toward Iran to Israel via the influential pro-Israel lobbying organization AIPAC. Israel and AIPAC deny this, but Franklin was nevertheless convicted of espionage.

In the wake of the Snowden affair in 2013, Israeli espionage in the US was not a prominent issue. However, the British daily newspaper The Guardian mentioned in passing that, according to one of the documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden, an "NIE [National Intelligence Estimate] ranked them as the third-most aggressive intelligence service against the US."

US Counterintelligence Against Allies

The Snowden leaks made headlines because they exposed the NSA and other US intelligence agencies' indiscriminate surveillance of millions of people. The documents also revealed the close cooperation between the NSA and the intelligence services of friendly nations, as well as that the US was also spying on its allies. Those affected included then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel as well as French Presidents Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande.

In 2023, leaked Pentagon documents suggested that US intelligence agencies had monitored internal talks held by the South Korean government. Both sides denied this and jointly announced that the documents were largely forged, without specifying details on which meetings.

Why Is the Latest Case So Contentious?

It is largely undisputed that the latest controversy should be viewed against the backdrop of the joint US-Israel war with Iran and the strained relationship between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. While the US president is apparently trying to resolve the conflict as quickly as possible, Netanyahu is, in Trump's eyes, doing too little to end the war. 

According to various assessments, Israel may indeed have crossed a red line by monitoring high-ranking government officials including US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and several officials from the US Department of Defense who are familiar with US negotiations with Iran.

If true, the reclassification could be seen as a crisis of confidence between Washington and Israel. The question remains, however, as to why the information has now become public.

For Erich Schmidt-Eenboom, it is irrelevant whether the information is true or not. He is convinced that it was released in consultation with the US government. Trump is looking for ways to put diplomatic pressure on Israel.

"Given the midterms in November, however, he cannot afford to antagonize the Israeli lobby in the US, for example by simply cutting military aid to Israel," he said. Under the impression that Israel is massively violating US interests with counterintelligence, this could be much easier. "Now the US president has the opportunity to exert pressure on Israel to halt the bombings and withdraw troops from southern Lebanon," the intelligence expert told DW.

Read: Trump Warns Netanyahu Against Escalating Conflict With Iran

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