Pentagon reportedly raised alarms of increasing Israeli espionage on the US, and the threat level is ‘critical’

The Pentagon has officially raised the counterintelligence threat level regarding Israel to critical, marking a significant and tense shift in how the United States views its ally in the Middle East. This decision comes from the Defense Intelligence Agency, which recently issued an internal assessment highlighting a surge in concerns about Israeli espionage activities, as reported by NBC News.

According to two current U.S. officials and one former official, this new designation reflects worries that Israel is actively surveilling high-level American officials to gain insight into the Trump administration’s internal decision-making processes. These deliberations are particularly focused on the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, specifically the war with Iran.

The Defense Intelligence Agency assessment is quite detailed, consisting of a seven-page document that includes a chart illustrating the threat level. Officials noted that the document explicitly characterizes Israel’s current ability to conduct both human espionage and technical collection as being at a critical level. It also identifies a series of specific incidents that triggered this heightened alert. While it is common for countries to spy on both adversaries and allies, current and former officials emphasized that these recent efforts by Israel have gone far beyond what is typically expected in a standard diplomatic relationship.

This development unfolds during a period of clear friction between Trump and Netanyahu

The two leaders have clashed repeatedly over the war with Iran and ongoing military operations in Lebanon. Just this past week, a tense phone call took place between them, which President Trump later acknowledged to reporters by noting that he called Netanyahu “crazy.” These disagreements are becoming more public as questions mount regarding whether the objectives of the two nations are starting to significantly diverge.

Since a ceasefire deal was reached in early April, President Trump has been working toward a diplomatic resolution with Iran to end the war that both nations launched on February 28. In contrast, Netanyahu has remained skeptical of any such deal and has continued to push for resumed bombing raids against Iran, while also disagreeing with the President’s pressure to scale back attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israel is clearly interested in whether President Trump intends to end the conflict or resume major combat operations against Iran. Naturally, the Pentagon’s main practical response to this critical threat level is to ensure that U.S. officials exercise extreme caution when traveling to Israel or meeting with Israeli counterparts.

One current official mentioned that the U.S. already takes extra precautions when visiting Israel because “they are well-known to aggressively collect.” Despite these concerns, there does not appear to be an immediate impact on the high-level intelligence sharing that happens daily between the two countries, especially regarding the Iran war.

The Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., has pushed back hard against these reports. A spokesperson stated, “It is completely false that Israel spies on the U.S.” The spokesperson added, “Israel does not gather intelligence on American entities, let alone US government officials.” They further claimed, “Israel intelligence collection efforts are aimed at its enemies, not its allies,” and suggested that “any claims to the contrary are either misinformed or politically motivated.”

Similarly, a White House official dismissed the entire story, saying it is “false and sourced to someone who doesn’t have any knowledge of what’s going on.” The Pentagon itself has declined to comment on the matter, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not respond to requests for comment.

The U.S. government maintains elaborate counterintelligence efforts, often referred to as spy catching, to track espionage by both adversaries and partners. While the FBI leads these efforts, various agencies and the military are involved in safeguarding state secrets. Emily Harding, who serves as the 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, noted that “Israel has a hyper-aggressive intelligence service.” She added, “They are exceedingly interested in what we are up to.”

For years, Israel has held a reputation for this kind of aggressive activity, even against its closest ally. Top U.S. officials often take specific measures during trips to Israel, such as using burner phones and computers, and they are careful about what they discuss in hotel rooms. Historically, this has caused rifts, such as the case in the 1980s involving Jonathan Pollard, a U.S. Navy intelligence analyst who spent 30 years in prison for selling top-secret documents to Israel.

Of course, the U.S. also gathers intelligence on its own partners, as seen in 2013 with leaks from Edward Snowden that revealed the U.S. was eavesdropping on leaders like former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Even with such a long history of intelligence cooperation, the current climate of disagreement regarding the war with Iran makes these espionage concerns a potential risk to the trust between the two governments.