Executive Summary

Seven decades of Tel Aviv’s espionage, and more recently covert influence operations, against Washington have targeted domains of unaligned priorities between the two governments and supported Israel’s interests afar and closer to home. Surfacing periodically since at least the Cold War, they range from stealing of classified information from within the U.S. government and military to online influence campaigns against the U.S. legislature on X, Facebook, and Instagram. While recent press reporting on a potential nexus between the Mossad, Jeffery Epstein, and U.S. powerbrokers remains speculative, verified cases of Israeli intelligence operations against the United States point to an established track record of ally-on-ally espionage and covert action. Notably, the U.S. continues to display high tolerance for hostile Israeli intelligence operations, very likely due to the strategic partnership for American interests in the Middle East and a strong pro-Israel lobby in the U.S. 

Key Judgements

KJ-1. Israel’s intelligence operations against the United States have surfaced periodically since the Cold War, ranging from espionage to covert influence campaigns, and we have not seen indications that Tel Aviv has made a policy decision to prohibit such operations in the future.

1. Between November 2023 and February 2024, at least 128 members of congress were targeted by Israeli-linked operations online. The Israeli political marketing firm  STOIC composed fake profiles on X, Instagram, and Facebook to promote pro-Israeli military content amid concerns over support for the war in Gaza and the safety of Jewish students on U.S. campuses. [source, source]
2. In late 2019, detailed forensic analyses by intelligence agencies, including the FBI, found evidence of likely Israeli espionage activities intended to spy on Donald Trump. Cellphone surveillance devices, known as StingRays (formally as IMSI-catchers), were planted in the White House and other sensitive locations around Washington D.C. Israeli Embassy spokesperson Elad Strohmayer and President Trump denied these claims. [source]
3. Former U.S. Army mechanical engineer Ben-Ami Kadish in 2008 was arrested for passing classified documents, including information on U.S. missile defense systems, to Israeli intelligence officer Yosef Yagur between 1980 and 1985. Yagur was also the handler for infamous Israeli mole and U.S. Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard. [source]
4. In 2004, the FBI investigated Lawrence Franklin, civilian desk officer for Iran in the U.S. Department of Defense, for allegedly passing classified U.S. policy information to Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, former American–Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC) employees. It was further alleged that Rosen and Weissman later passed the information to Israeli embassy officials in Washington. Across 2005, all three men were indicted, though only Franklin served time in prison. [source]
5. Johnathan Pollard–acknoweldged as an Israeli operative by Natanyahu in May 1998–carried out espionage activities for Israel from June 1984 to November 1985, when he was convicted. He was initially recruited by Israel to pass military developments and intelligence to Yosef Yagur about Arab countries. He also passed sensitive information about Arab nations’ support from the Soviet Union, “Arab and Pakistani nuclear technology, chemical and biological weapons programs, Soviet aircraft and air defense systems,” and about Israeli political figures passing information to the CIA. [source]
6. Across the 1950s, the FBI investigated alleged Israeli espionage activities. In 1954, Israel’s defence attache in Washington, Chaim Herzog (Israeli president 1983-1993), was accused by U.S. Army investigators of attempting to recruit a soldier stationed at the Jordanian embassy in Washington DC for intelligence on the Arab Legion. That same year, US officials found a hidden microphone in the office of the U.S. Ambassador to Tel Aviv. In 1956, two phone taps were discovered in the residence of the US military attache in Tel Aviv. [source]
7. Also in 1954, a failed Israeli false-flag operation in Egypt that aimed to sabotage U.S. ties with Cairo went down in history as the “Lavon affair.” In a complex turn of events, the aftermath included expanded nuclear cooperation between Israel and France, which later enabled Israel to build nuclear weapons. [source]

KJ-2. Tel Aviv’s operations targeted domains of diverging priorities with Washington, likely to assess, influence, and at times circumvent U.S. policy intentions and technological capabilities. 

1. Israel’s influence operation targeting American lawmakers and politicians online dated back to November 2023, one month following the 7 October Hamas attack. The network intended to shape political and public opinions on their offensive military posture in Gaza, disseminating violent content of the attack, especially sexual violence, and de-legitimsing UNRWA through alleged connections to the attack. [source, source]  
2. The Kadish and Pollard cases (1980s) concerned passing classified information on military technology and missile defence systems. Israel needed defensive and offensive missile technology to achieve selfreliance and regional protection. Part of Israel’s air defences, now known as the Iron Dome (short-range anti-missile system), was initially proposed in the early 1990s but met with US skepticism. [source]
3. The Pollard case also revealed Israel’s focus on nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Earlier in the 1950s and 1960s, Israel had secretly acquired the material and technology to build nuclear weapons, misleading Western governments, including the U.S., about its plans; Washington had expressed explicit objection. The Lavon Affair in 1954 also demonstrated Israel’s prioritisation of self-interest over relations with its patron, the U.S,, opening doors to nuclear cooperation with France by creating turbulence for the U.S. in Egypt.  [source]

KJ-3. The U.S. continues to display high tolerance for hostile Israeli intelligence operations; we can only speculate that the reason lies in the strategic partnership for American interests in the Middle East and a strong pro-Israel lobby in Washington. 

1. Politico reported on 1 March 2026 that the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) was entering the midterm primaries with USD $100 million in reserve and plans to be active in various races this year. Spokesperson Partick Dorton said AIPACs biggest goal is to “elect the biggest possible bipartisan pro-Israel majority in Congress, no matter which party is in control.” During the 2024 election cycle, the organisation supported 361 pro-Israel Democratic and Republican candidates with more than USD $53 million in direct financial support. [source, source]
2. The ongoing joint U.S.-Israeli military and intelligence operations in Iran demonstrate bilateral dependency. The strike that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei and Iran’s top military brass on 28 February 2026 was a joint mission. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the Israeli strike was made possible through “real-time electronic surveillance provided by the CIA.” [source]
3. In July 2025, US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee hosted convicted spy Pollard at the US embassy in Jerusalem. Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in November that, though the White House was unaware of this meeting, the President stands by Huckabee. Pollard, sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987 and paroled in 2015, has been living freely in Israel since 2020. [source]
4. The 2019 alleged case of Israeli technical espionage in the White House was met with denials from Trump himself. The president told reporters that he found the allegations “hard to believe” and that his relationship with Israel was on good terms. [source]
5. The individuals implicated in older Israeli intelligence operations also were shown tolerance. Kadish was tried in 2008, after 23 years of investigation, and received only a USD $50,000 fine instead of a jail sentence due to his health and old age (85). AIPAC staffers, Rosen and Weissman, implicated in the case of 2004, were also spared a prison sentence. In 2009, the charges were dropped to prevent exposing classified information during trial. [source, source]

Statement on Analysis

We have high certainty in our assessments given the vast reporting of the cases, and respective publicly reported investigations, of Israeli espionage operations against the United States. We acknowledge that some of the cases cited remain alleged and that gaps in publicly available information about this politically sensitive issue (Israeli spying on the U.S.) could limit our understanding of some aspects of the situation.

 With the recent Israeli-American war on Iran, which started on 28 February 2026, we expect to see continued military and intelligence cooperations between the two countries in the future, at least until the end of president Trump’s time in office.  

Intelligence Cut-Off Date: 15 March 2026