JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s defense minister is denying a report that his country spied on the United States’ handling of sensitive negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.
Moshe Yaalon said Tuesday that “there is no way” that Israel spied on its closest and most important ally. Yaalon, a former military chief and head of military intelligence, noted that the U.S. has never complained to Israel about the alleged spying.
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Israel had penetrated the talks and used the information to build a case against an emerging agreement.
Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a controversial speech to the U.S. Congress arguing against the deal. The speech, delivered over White House objections, was organized with Republican Party leaders in Congress.
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Well, as they phrase it in the U.K., “But then, he would say that, wouldn’t he?”
Indeed; plus, if you head up a big important Israeli government portfolio with serious responsibility for national security, would it not be professional negligence to REFRAIN from spying on this?
Also, it’s not as if Defense is the ONLY portfolio important to Israeli national security; I’m not up enough on how things work there to know if it’s even the most likely one to be involved with such a spying operation.
Also, it’s not like Israeli would actually have to spy from the outside in on these talks: there are friendly compromised US State Dept officials available at every step all the way up the turtle tower. Who needs to consider applying the least positive effort to ‘spying’ when you’re receiving multiple hourly updates regardless of any action at all?
Spying on your allies when they’re involved in negotiations that affect your country is normal and expected. Using intelligence to meddle in a country’s domestic politics, however, is only cricket if the country is an enemy.
And, as best I can tell, when a client state that overtly professes to be an ally covertly treats the United States as an enemy, it means we get to blow the shit out of anyone in their territory we want with a drone strike without getting permission and conduct raids with special forces on their soil without giving them a heads up. “Pakistan Rules,” as it were.