Published: June 07, 2026, 00:56 UTC
The Pentagon has quietly designated Israel a “critical” counterintelligence threat — the highest level — amid growing evidence that Israeli intelligence is targeting senior Trump administration officials to uncover internal White House deliberations about ending the war with Iran.
The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) raised Israel’s threat assessment from “high” to “critical” in recent weeks, according to two current U.S. officials and one former official who spoke to NBC News. The assessment, which includes a seven-page document with a color-coded threat chart, rates Israel’s ability to conduct both human espionage and technical surveillance at a “critical level.”
The move is extraordinary by any measure. Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. military aid in history and is formally described by Washington as its “closest ally in the Middle East.” The DIA designation now places Israel above all current U.S. allies and on par with countries that have far more adversarial relationships with Washington.
What Israel is after
The intelligence target, according to U.S. officials, is clear: the Trump administration’s internal debates on how to proceed in the war against Iran, which the United States and Israel launched together on Feb. 28.
President Donald Trump has publicly said he wants to bring the war to a close. He is pursuing a diplomatic deal with Tehran and has faced mounting political pressure at home, including a recent House vote to constrain his war authority. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has taken the opposite position, calling for the resumption of major combat operations despite an April 8 ceasefire that largely paused the fighting.
The New York Times reported that recent intelligence assessments document Israeli efforts to monitor Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who led nuclear talks before the war began, as well as Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s top policy official, and his deputy Michael DiMino IV. Israel is reportedly seeking to learn whether Trump plans to end the conflict or escalate it further.
A relationship in open rupture
The DIA’s escalation did not happen in a vacuum. On June 1, Trump and Netanyahu held what multiple sources described as an explosive phone call in which Trump called the Israeli prime minister “crazy” and accused him of ingratitude. Trump later confirmed the remark publicly.
The rift reflects a fundamental divergence in war aims. Since the April ceasefire, Trump has pressed Netanyahu to scale back operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon and pursue a deal with Iran. Netanyahu has resisted, insisting that only military pressure will achieve Israel’s objectives. The result is an alliance operating at cross purposes — militarily coordinated on the surface but politically at odds beneath it.
History of a pattern
The U.S. and Israel have a long, mostly hidden history of spying on each other. In the 1980s, the Jonathan Pollard affair — in which a U.S. Navy intelligence analyst sold classified documents to Israel — caused a major diplomatic crisis. More recently, the New York Times reported, Israeli military intelligence attempted to plant listening devices at DIA headquarters in 2021. In 2025, Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence service, was found to have tried to bug a Secret Service vehicle.
The current and former officials who spoke to NBC News said Israel’s recent espionage efforts have gone “well beyond what is typical and expected” between allies. A U.S. official noted: “The U.S. already takes extra precautions when visiting Israel. They’re well known to aggressively collect.”
Denials and fallout
Israel has denied the allegations. A spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Washington called the reports “completely false,” adding: “Israel does not gather intelligence on American entities, let alone US government officials.” A White House official also rejected the story, calling it “false and sourced to someone who doesn’t have any knowledge of what’s going on.” The Pentagon declined to comment.
For now, the practical consequence appears limited. U.S. officials said high-level intelligence sharing on the Iran war continues daily. But the assessment alerts the intelligence community to take extra precautions when handling Israeli liaison officers and when officials travel to Israel — a routine that already includes burner phones and careful conversations in hotel rooms.
The deeper damage is to trust. Two former U.S. officials told NBC News that the espionage concerns, coming at a moment when Washington and Tel Aviv are not in agreement on the war’s direction, risk undermining the foundation of the relationship itself. When an ally is formally labeled a “critical” spy threat, the bond is no longer what it was.
Sources: NBC News (June 2026); The New York Times (June 5, 2026)