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The Politico Israel Spying On Trump Story Is Nonsense lidblog.com/politico-israe… via @yidwithlid
@yidwithlid Yesterday, Politico published a story that “three former senior U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter” claimed the “U.S. government concluded within the past two years that Israel was most likely behind the placement of cellphone surveillance devices” ...
@yidwithlid ....called StingRays “that were found near the White House and other sensitive locations around Washington.”
@yidwithlid Along with the fact that both Trump and Netanyahu have denied the story, the Politico article is full of holes. I would suggest that the story is not only nonsense but part of a liberal attempt to defeat Binyamin Netanyahu in next week’s Israeli election
@yidwithlid One of Netanyahu’s selling points to the Israeli public is his relationship with Trump. This story suggests that the Israeli Prime Minister is not as close to President Trump as he contends.
@yidwithlid The U.S. and Israel are extremely close allies, and that relationship has grown closer since President Trump took office. Intelligence is shared between Washington and Israel as the nations confront common enemies in the volatile Middle East and terrorists across the world.
@yidwithlid Netanyahu and Trump have been close friends for over thirty years. There is no need for Israel to risk that friendship by spying on the Trump administration.
@yidwithlid The Prime Minister’s office stated in response to the Politico article. “There is a longstanding commitment and a directive from the Israeli government not to engage in any intelligence operations in the US. This directive is strictly enforced without exception.”
@yidwithlid Speaking of the Obama Administration’s hostility, were the “three unnamed former senior U.S. officials” with knowledge of the matter employees of the anti-Israel Obama administration?
@yidwithlid I wouldn’t be surprised to learn this was another claim made by John Brennan. or another member of the Obama administration. One of the people adding their opinion in the Politico article was another Obama employee
@yidwithlid “The Israelis are aggressive intelligence collectors, but they have sworn off spying on the U.S. at various points and it’s not surprising that such efforts continue,” said Daniel Benjamin, a former coordinator of counterterrorism at the Obama State Department
@yidwithlid But it may not have been an Obama employee. It’s possible this claim came from Pompeo’s predecessor Rex Tillerson or some of his close staff. There was a significant disagreement between President Trump and Tillerson about Israel.
@yidwithlid StingRay is ancient. If Israel were to mount an operation to spy on the pro-Israel Trump administration after eight-year of the anti-Israel Obama White House, there is no way they would use ancient technology which can be easily detected.
@yidwithlid Israel using a StingRay to spy on Trump is like someone at Apple using a Commodore 64 and booting it up with one of those old AOL disks.
