Overview
- Defense Intelligence Agency staff circulated an internal assessment that, according to current and former U.S. officials, elevated Israel’s counterintelligence threat designation to “critical” because of reported efforts to collect on senior American officials.
- The assessment is said to include a seven-page write-up and a chart that warns Israel’s human and technical collection capabilities had reached a critical level, though the Pentagon and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment publicly.
- The Israeli embassy in Washington called the claims “completely false” and a White House official disputed the reporting, saying the story was sourced to someone without knowledge of the situation.
- Practically, officials say the change would mean tighter operational precautions such as limited conversations, burner devices, and extra caution for U.S. staff traveling to or meeting in Israel, while daily high-level intelligence sharing appears to continue.
- The move reflects long-running U.S. counterintelligence concerns about allied collection and comes against a background of growing policy friction between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu over the war with Iran and operations in Lebanon.