Obama administration (2009)

Israeli-US relations came under increased strain during Prime Minister Netanyahu's second administration and the new Obama administration. After he took office, Obama made achieving a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians a major goal, and pressured Netanyahu into accepting a Palestinian state and entering negotiations. Netanyahu eventually conceded on July 14, 2009. In accordance with U.S. wishes, Israel imposed a ten-month freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank. As the freeze did not include East Jerusalem, which Israel regards as its sovereign territory, or 3,000 pre-approved housing units already under construction, as well as the failure to dismantle already-built Israeli outposts, the Palestinians rejected the freeze as inadequate, and refused to enter negotiations for nine months. In 2009, Obama became the first US President to authorize the sale of bunker buster bombs to Israel. The transfer was kept secret to avoid the impression that the United States was arming Israel for an attack on Iran.[33] In March 2010, Israel announced it would continue to build 1,600 new homes that were already under construction in the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, during VicePresident Joe Biden's visit to Israel. The incident was described as "one of the most serious rows between the two allies in recent decades".[34] Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Israel's move was "deeply negative" for US-Israeli relations.[35] East Jerusalem is, on the international diplomatic stage, widely considered to be occupied territory, while Israel disputes this, as it annexed the area.[34] Obama was reported to be "livid" over the announcement.[36] Shortly afterward, Obama instructed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to present Netanyahu with a four-part ultimatum: that Israel cancel the approval of the housing units, freeze all Jewish construction in East Jerusalem, that Israel make a gesture to the Palestinians that it wants peace with a recommendation on releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, and that Israel agree to discuss a partition of Jerusalem and a solution to the Palestinian refugee problem during the negotiations. Obama threatened that neither he or any senior administration official would meet Netanyahu and his senior ministers during their upcoming visit to Washington.[37] On March 26, 2010, Netanyahu and Obama met in the White House. The meeting was conducted without photographers or any press statements. During the meeting, Obama demanded that Israel extend the settlement freeze after its expiration, impose a freeze on Jewish construction in East Jerusalem, and withdraw troops to positions held before the start of the Second Intifada. Netanyahu did not give written concessions on these issues, and presented Obama with a flowchart on how permission for building is granted in the Jerusalem Municipality to reiterate that he had no prior knowledge of the plans. Obama then suggested that Netanyahu and his staff stay at the White House to consider his proposals so that if he changed his mind, he could inform Obama right away, and was quoted as saying "I'm still around, let me know if there is anything new". Netanyahu and his aides went to the Roosevelt Room, spent a further half-hour with Obama, and extended his stay for a day of emergency talks to restart peace negotiations, but left without any official statement from either side.[36][38] On May 19, 2011, Obama made a foreign policy speech in which he called for a return to the pre-1967 Israeli borders with mutually agreed land swaps, to which Netanyahu objected.[39] Obama was also criticized by many on the right in the U.S. for the proposal.[40] The speech came a day before Obama and Netanyahu were scheduled to meet.[41] In October 2011 the new American Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta, suggested that Israeli policies were partly responsible for its increasing diplomatic isolation in the Middle East, but the

Israeli government responded that the problem was the growing radicalism in the region rather than their own hard-lined policies.[42]

[edit] Current issues

[edit] United States aid

Table 5. Recent U.S. aid to Israel. From a Jan 2, 2008 Congressional Research Service report for Congress titled "U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel." [43] Please see that report for more years, charts, and detailed financial breakdowns of grants and loans. See also: United States military aid to Israel Since the 1970s, Israel has been one of the top recipients of U.S. foreign aid.[44] While it is mostly military aid, in the past a portion was dedicated to economic assistance, but all economic aid to Israel ended in 2007. In 2007, the United States increased its military aid to Israel by over 25% to an average of $3 billion per year for the following ten year period. The United States ended economic aid to Israel in 2007, due to Israel's growing economy.[45][46] In 1998, Israeli, congressional, and Administration officials agreed to reduce U.S. $1.2 billion in Economic Support Funds (ESF) to zero over ten years, while increasing Foreign Military Financing (FMF) from $1.8 billion to $2.4 billion. Separate from the scheduled cuts, there was an extra $200 million in anti-terror assistance, $1.2 billion to implement the Wye agreement, and the supplemental appropriations bill assisted for another $1 billion in FMF for the 2003 fiscal year. For the 2005 fiscal year, Israel received $2.202 billion in FMF, $357 million in ESF, and migration settlement assistance of $50 million. For 2006, the Administration has requested $240 million in ESF and $2.28 billion in FMF. H.R. 3057, passed in the House on June 28, 2005, and in the Senate on July 20, approved these amounts. House and Senate measures also supported $40 million for the settlement of immigrants from the former Soviet Union and plan to bring the remaining Ethiopian Jews to Israel.[citation needed]

Former Vice President Dick Cheney of the United States meets with Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni of Israel at the White House Israeli press reported that Israel requested $2.25 billion in special aid in a mix of grants and loan guarantees over four years, with one-third to be used to relocate military bases from the Gaza Strip to Israel in the disengagement from the Gaza Strip and the rest to develop the Negev and Galilee regions of Israel and for other purposes, but none to help compensate settlers or for other civilian aspects of the disengagement. An Israeli team has visited Washington to present elements of the request, and preliminary discussions are underway. No formal request has been presented to Congress. In light of the costs inflicted on the United States by Hurricane Katrina, an Israeli delegation intending to discuss the aid canceled a trip to Washington. Congress has legislated other special provisions regarding aid to Israel. Since the 1980s, ESF and FMF have been provided as all grant cash transfers, not designated for particular projects, transferred as a lump sum in the first month of the fiscal year, instead of in periodic increments. Israel is allowed to spend about one-quarter of the military aid for the procurement in Israel of defense articles and services, including research and development, rather than in the United States. Finally, to help Israel out of its economic slump, the U.S. provided $9 billion in loan guarantees over three years, use of which was extended to 2008. President Obama's Fiscal Year 2010 budget proposes $53.8 billion for appropriated international affairs' programs. From that budget, $5.7 billion is appropriated for foreign military financing, military education, and peacekeeping operations. From that $5.7 billion, $2.8 billion, almost 50% is appropriated for Israel.[47] Israel also has available roughly $3 billion of conditional loan guarantees, with additional funds coming available if Israel meets conditions negotiated at the U.S.-Israel Joint Economic Development Group (JEDG). In 2010, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees approved President Obama's request for $3 billion in military aid to Israel in the 2011 budget.[48] The appropriation has not yet been approved by Congress. Throughout 2009, however, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, a Republican think tank, reported that Obama has imposed a virtual arms embargo on Israel. Obama blocked all major Israeli weapons requests, including key projects and upgrades, linking arms sales to progress in the peace process. At the same time, Obama approved $10 billion in arms sales to Arab states, including fighters, missiles, helicopters, and fast attack craft. Israel did not protest, despite reports that its qualitative military edge was being eroded.[49]

But Eli Lake, the national security correspondent of The Washington Times, reported on 23 September 2011 that Obama had authorized at the beginning of his presidency "significant new aid to the Israeli military that includes the sale of 55 deep-penetrating bombs known as bunker busters".[50] Former head of the Israeli Air Force, retired Major General Eitan Ben Eliyahu, has called the American sale of Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II nuclear capable stealth fighter bombers to Israel a key test of the relationship.[51]

[edit] Washington pressures against peace talks with Syria

Syria has repeatedly requested that Israel re-commence peace negotiations with the Syrian government.[52] There is an on-going internal debate within the Israeli government regarding the seriousness of this Syrian invitation for negotiations. Some Israeli officials asserted that there had been some unpublicized talks with Syria not officially sanctioned by the Israeli government.
[53][54][55]

The United States demanded that Israel desist from even exploratory contacts with Syria to test whether Damascus is serious in its declared intentions to hold peace talks with Israel. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was forceful in expressing Washington's view on the matter to Israeli officials that even exploratory negotiations with Syria must not be attempted. For years, Israel obeyed Washington's demand to desist from officially returning to peace talks.[56][57] Around May 2008 however, Israel informed the U.S. that it was starting peace talks with Syria brokered by Turkey. However, Syria withdrew from the peace talks several months later in response to the Gaza War.

[edit] Washington brokers "peace process"

The United States has taken on the preeminent role in facilitating peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The US has been criticized as acting as the attorney of the Israeli government rather than as an honest broker, catering and coordinating with the Israeli government at the expense of advancing the peace talks.[58] For example, under the US-Israeli "no surprises" policy, the US government must first check with the Israeli government any ideas for advancing the negotiations before publicly proposing them, which allegedly may have stripped the US of the "independence and flexibility required for serious peacemaking."[58]

[edit] Military sales to China

Over the years, the United States and Israel have regularly discussed Israel's sale of sensitive security equipment and technology to various countries, especially the People's Republic of China. U.S. administrations believe that such sales are potentially harmful to the security of U.S. forces in Asia. China has looked to Israel to obtain technology it could not acquire from elsewhere, and has purchased a wide array of military equipment and technology, including communications satellites. To further foster its relationship with China, Israel has strongly limited its cooperation with Taiwan. In 2000, the United States persuaded Israel to cancel the sale of the Phalcon, an advanced, airborne early-warning system developed by Israel Aircraft Industries, to China. In 2005, the U.S. Department of Defense was angered by Israel's agreement to upgrade Harpy Killer unmanned aerial vehicles, which it had sold to China in 1999, and which China tested over the Taiwan Strait in 2004. The Department suspended technological cooperation with the Israeli Air Force on the future F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft as well as several other cooperative programs, held up shipments of some military equipment, and refused to communicate with Israeli Defense Ministry Director, General Amos Yaron, whom Pentagon officials believe misled them about the Harpy deal. According to a reputable Israeli

military journalist[citation needed] the U.S. Department of Defense demanded details of 60 Israeli deals with China, an examination of Israel's security equipment supervision system, and a memorandum of understanding about arms sales to prevent future difficulties.

[edit] Maintenance contract with Venezuela

On October 21, 2005, it was reported that pressure from Washington forced Israel to freeze a major contract with Venezuela to upgrade its 22 U.S.-manufactured F-16 fighter jets. The Israeli government had requested U.S. permission to proceed with the deal, but permission was not granted.[59]

[edit] Jerusalem

Western Wall in Jerusalem, the most important Jewish religious Site

The old United States consulate in Jerusalem After capturing East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War, Israel annexed it and incorporated it into the Jerusalem Municipality, and has built Jewish neighborhoods and Jewish homes in Arab neighborhoods there, along with government offices. Israel has insisted that Jerusalem is its eternal and indivisible capital. The United States does not agree with this position and believes the permanent status of Jerusalem is still subject to negotiations. This is based on the UN's 1947 Partition plan for Palestine, which called for separate international administration of Jerusalem. This position was accepted at the time by most other countries and the Zionist leadership, but rejected by the Arab countries. As a result, most countries had located their embassies in Tel Aviv before 1967; Jerusalem was also located on the contested border. The Declaration of Principles and subsequent Oslo Accords signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in September 1993 similarly state that it is a subject for permanent status negotiations. U.S. Administrations have consistently indicated, by keeping the Embassy of the United States in Israel in Tel Aviv, that Jerusalem's status is unresolved. In 1995, however, both houses of Congress overwhelmingly passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act to move the embassy to Jerusalem, no later than May 31, 1999, and suggested funding penalties on the State Department for non-compliance. Executive branch opposition to such a move, on constitutional questions of Congressional interference in foreign policy, as well as a series of

presidential waivers, based on national security interests, have delayed the move by all successive administrations, since it was passed during the Clinton Administration.[60] The U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem was first established in 1844, just inside the Jaffa Gate. A permanent consular office was established in 1856 in this same building. The mission moved to Street of the Prophets in the late 19th century, and to its present location on Agron Street in 1912. The Consulate General on Nablus Road in East Jerusalem was built in 1868 by the Vester family, the owners of the American Colony Hotel. In 2006, the U.S. Consulate General on Agron Road leased an adjacent building, a Lazarist monastery built in the 1860s, to provide more office space.[61] In March 2010 Gen. David Petraeus was quoted by Max Boot claiming the lack of progress in the Middle East peace process has "fomented anti-Americanism, undermined moderate Arab regimes, limited the strength and depth of U.S. partnerships, increased the influence of Iran, projected an image of U.S. weakness, and served as a potent recruiting tool for Al Qaeda."[62] When questioned by journalist Philip Klein, Petraeus said Boot "picked apart" and "spun" his speech. He believes there are many important factors standing in the way of peace, including "a whole bunch of extremist organizations, some of which by the way deny Israel's right to exist. There's a country that has a nuclear program who denies that the Holocaust took place. So again we have all these factors in there. This [Israel] is just one."[63] US-Israeli relations came under strain in March 2010, as Israel announced it was building 1,600 new homes in the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo as Vice President Joe Biden was visiting.[64] Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the move as "insulting".[64] Israel apologized for the timing of the announcement.

[edit] Public opinion

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (July 2011)

Kippah with Israeli and American flags Poll results fluctuate every year, although both sides of sympathy have modestly stepped up since 1998 and those with no preference have modestly decreased. The greatest percentage consistently sympathize with Israel.[citation needed] The September 11, 2001 attacks and 2006 IsraelHezbollah War both saw heights in American sympathy for Israel,[citation needed] with most Americans putting the blame on Hezbollah for the war and the civilian casualties.[citation needed] The record-breaking height of sympathy for Israel was during the 1991 Gulf War, as well as the alltime low of sympathy for the Palestinians, whose leadership supported Saddam Hussein.[65]

As of July 2006, polls claimed that 44% of Americans thought that the "United States supports Israel about the right amount," 11% thought "too little", and 38% thought "too much".[66][67][68][69] Many in the United States question the levels of aid and general commitment to Israel, and argue that a U.S. bias operates at the expense of improved relations with various Arab states. Others maintain that democratic Israel is a helpful and strategic ally, and believe that U.S. relations with Israel strengthen the U.S. presence in the Middle East.[70] A 20022006 Gallup Poll of Americans by party affiliation (Republican/Democratic) and ideology (conservative/moderate/liberal) found that although sympathy for Israel is strongest amongst the right (conservative Republicans), the group most on the left (liberal Democrats) also have a greater percentage sympathizing with Israel. Although proportions are different, each group has most sympathizing more with Israel, followed by both/neither, and lastly more with the Palestinians.[71] A 2007 Gallup World Affairs poll included the annual update on Americans' ratings of various countries around the world, and asked Americans to rate the overall importance to the United States of what happens in most of these nations, according to that poll, Israel was the only country that a majority of Americans felt both favorably toward (63%) and said that what happens there is vitally important to the United States (55%).[72] Israeli attitudes toward the U.S. are largely positive. In several ways of measuring a country's view of America (American ideas about democracy; ways of doing business; music, movies and television; science and technology; spread of U.S. ideas), Israel came on top as the developed country who viewed it most positively.[73]

[edit] Immigration
Israel is in large part a nation of Jewish immigrants. Israel has welcomed newcomers inspired by Zionism, the Jewish national movement. Zionism is an expression of the desire of many Jews to live in a historical homeland. The largest numbers of immigrants have come to Israel from countries in the Middle East and Europe. The United States has played a special role in assisting Israel with the complex task of absorbing and assimilating masses of immigrants in short periods of time. Soon after Israel's establishment, President Truman offered $135 million in loans to help Israel cope with the arrival of thousands of refugees from the Holocaust. Within the first three years of Israel's establishment, the number of immigrants more than doubled the Jewish population of the country. Mass immigrations have continued throughout Israeli history. Since 1989, Israel absorbed approximately one million Jews from the former Soviet Union. The United States worked with Israel to bring Jews from Arab countries, Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union to Israel, and has assisted in their absorption into Israeli society. In addition, large numbers of Jewish immigrants arrive from the United States each year, while some Israelis who leave the country have also settled in the United States. [edit] Corporate exchange Several regional America-Israel Chambers of Commerce exist to facilitate expansion by Israeli and American companies into each other's markets.[74] American companies such as Motorola, IBM, Microsoft and Intel chose Israel to establish major R&D centers. Israel has more companies listed on the NASDAQ than any country outside North America.

[edit] Strategic cooperation

The U.S. and Israel are engaged in extensive strategic, political and military cooperation. This cooperation is broad and includes American aid, intelligence sharing, and joint military

exercises. American military aid to Israel comes in different forms, including grants, special project allocations and loans. [edit] Memorandum of Understanding To address threats to security in the Middle East, including joint military exercises and readiness activities, cooperation in defense trade and access to maintenance facilities. The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding marked the beginning of close security cooperation and coordination between the American and Israeli governments. Comprehensive cooperation between Israel and the United States on security issues became official in 1981 when Israel's Defense Minister Ariel Sharon and American Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger signed a Memorandum of Understanding that recognized "the common bonds of friendship between the United States and Israel and builds on the mutual security relationship that exists between the two nations." The memorandum called for several measures. [edit] Missile program One facet of the U.S.-Israel strategic relationship is the joint development of the Arrow AntiBallistic Missile Program. Designed to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles, the Arrow is the most advanced missile defense system in the world. The development is funded by both Israel and the United States. The Arrow has also provided the U.S. the research and experience necessary to develop additional weapons systems. [edit] Counter-terrorism In April 1996, President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Shimon Peres signed the U.S.-Israel Counter-terrorism Accord. The two countries agreed to further cooperation in information sharing, training, investigations, research and development and policymaking. [edit] Homeland security At the federal, state and local levels there is close Israeli-American cooperation on Homeland Security. Israel was one of the first countries to cooperate with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in developing initiatives to enhance homeland security. In this framework, there are many areas of partnership, including preparedness and protection of travel and trade. American and Israeli law enforcement officers and Homeland Security officials regularly meet in both countries to study counter-terrorism techniques and new ideas regarding intelligence gathering and threat prevention. In December 2005, the United States and Israel signed an agreement to begin a joint effort to detect the smuggling of nuclear and other radioactive material by installing special equipment in Haifa, Israel's busiest seaport. This effort is part of a nonproliferation program of the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration that works with foreign partners to detect, deter, and interdict illicit trafficking in nuclear and other radioactive materials. [edit] Military bases The United States maintains six war reserve stocks inside Israel, and maintains some $300 million in military equipment at these sites. The equipment is owned by the United States and is for use by American forces in the Middle East, but can also be transferred to Israeli use during a time of crisis. The United States is also alleged to keep fighter and bomber aircraft at these sites, and one of the bases is thought to contain a 500-bed hospital for US Marines and Special Forces.
[75][76]

The Dimona Radar Facility is an American radar facility in the Negev desert of Israel, located near Dimona. The facility has two 400-foot radar towers designed to track ballistic missiles

through space and provide ground-based missiles with the targeting data needed to intercept them. It can detect missiles up to 1,500 miles away. The facility is owned and operated by the US military, and provides only second-hand intelligence to Israel. The towers of the facility are the tallest radar towers in the world, and the tallest towers in Israel.

[edit] Espionage
Although there is strong intelligence cooperation and sharing between the two countries, both have engaged in covert espionage operations against the other. [edit] American spying on Israel According to intelligence writer Matthew M. Aid, the United States spied on the Jewish community in British Mandatory Palestine before the State of Israel was formally declared in 1948. Aid also claimed that Israeli intercepts "have always been one of the most sensitive categories", and designated with the code-word "Gamma" to protect their status.[77] US intelligence began spying on Israel's secret nuclear weapons program at the Negev Nuclear Research Center near Dimona in 1958, when the facility was overflown by American U-2 spyplanes. It was identified as a nuclear site two years later.[78] According to a governmentsponsored book on Israeli intelligence, U.S. intelligence has since routinely spied on Israel's nonconventional capabilities, and on "what goes on behind its decision-making echelons" through the use of electronic eavesdropping and trained staff at the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv.[79] Information declassified in 2004 revealed that the United States ran a senior Israeli government official, likely a cabinet minister, as a spy around the time of the 1967 Six-Day War. The spy passed a steady stream of information to the United States through the U.S. military attach. The information included military and government documents, as well as detailed information on Israeli activity during the Six-Day War.[80] In 1968, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) allegedly found out about Israel's planned raid on the PLO base in the Jordanian town of Karameh in response to PLO guerilla attacks against Israel. In his memoirs, PLO Deputy Chief Abu Iyad claimed that the he and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat were tipped off about the impending attack by Jordanian officers who learned about it from the CIA.[81] The CIA continued spying on Israel's military capabilties throughout the 1970s, including the interception of communications and satellite surveillance. The CIA supplied Egypt with Israeli military secrets as part of a covert intelligence liasion. Israel was aware of the agreement, but Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin ordered officials not to raise the matter, as he considered the United States Israel's only real ally. Starting in 1979, the CIA supplied intelligence on Israel to Saudi Arabia, and helped the Saudis interpret and analyze the intelligence. Information about Israel's weak points was shared with other Arab states.[82] According to Jonathan Pollard, among the information he passed to his Israeli handlers was evidence that the United States had at least 200 agents within the Israeli intelligence, defense, and political ranks passing on classified information to the U.S.[83] Numerous U.S. spies have allegedly been caught in Israel. According to former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Israel caught a U.S. spy every few years. Some captured U.S. spies were caught stealing information damaging to Israel's national security. According to Rabin, Israel kept the scandals quiet and generally deported the spies.[84] Former senior Mossad official Yossi Alpher claimed that the CIA does spy on Israel, but that when American spies are caught, they receive "a wrap on the knuckles", and are then deported and declared persona non grata.

In 1986, Yosef Amit, an Israeli military intelligence officer, was charged with spying for the United States. Amit had sold CIA officials classified documents detailing Israeli troop movements and future plans in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, and also sold top-secret documents from the Israeli internal security service Shin Bet. He was arrested after being reported by a friend. A search of his home uncovered numerous classified documents. Amit was tried and found guilty in 1987, and imprisoned until 1993. Andrjez Kielczynski, a Polish immigrant to Israel who served on the Likud Central Committee and its Security Committee, claimed that he was recruited by the CIA to spy on Israel in 1985. Between then and 1991, Kielczynski allegedly provided a large amount of information on Israel to the United States, and claimed that U.S. intelligence was especially interested in information on Israeli settlement construction, Israel's nuclear program, and discussions in the government and the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Knesset. Some of the other information included a State Comptroller report on the Mossad and Shin Bet, and the positions Israel would take in secret talks with the United States. Kielczynski's activities were discovered, and he fled Israel in 1992 after discovering that he was under suspicion. Kielczynski first fled to Poland, then to the United States, where his requests for political asylum, severance pay, and a stipend were denied, and he was deported to Israel, where Shin Bet agents interrogated him and warned him not to talk to journalists. However, Shin Bet eventually suspended its investigation of him.[85] In 1992, the U.S. government began satellite monitoring of Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.[86] In 1996, the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) wiretapped the phone lines to Israel's embassy in Washington and broke the Israeli security code, exposing Israel's deepest policy secrets to the United States. The wiretapping was discovered following the widely publicized "Mega Scandal", when a phone call intercepted by the NSA became public. Due to Israel's expertise in computers and electronics and the sophistication of its electronic code system, it was widely believed that the NSA used an Israeli mole to obtain the security code. Every staff member was warned about the possibility of being listened to on ordinary and secure phone lines, sent very few telegrams, and sometimes traveled to Israel to deliver reports orally. In addition, it was suspected that U.S. intelligence tried to spy on Israeli embassies around the world and listen in on conversations between the embassy staff and government. The Israeli security service Shin Bet subsequently instructed all diplomats going abroad to treat every phone conversation as if it were being listened to, and to discuss classified information in sign language.[87] On November 10, 2004, an American submarine entered Israeli territorial waters eighteen kilometers off the coast of Haifa. The submarine's mission was never revealed. It was thought to have been trying to gather intelligence on the city's naval base and headquarters and other vital infrastructure, and was also suspected of intending to intercept Israeli naval electronic signals and test Israel's response to an intrusion. It also may have been trying to install sensors near Israeli naval headquarters and other vital installations. Minutes after it entered Israeli waters, the submarine was detected and tracked by the Israeli Navy. The submarine was initially identified as belonging to a NATO power, and later confirmed to be American. The Israeli General Staff refrained from ordering an attack on what was considered the asset of a friendly nation. After several hours, the submarine submerged and fled, presumably determining that it was under surveillance. The Israeli Navy then sent fast patrol craft, missile boats, and helicopters in pursuit. The submarine was not found, but military sources maintained that the submarine had failed to complete its mission.[88][89] According to Israeli officials, such spy missions were common, and Western spy submarines had been intercepted by Israel before. Following the incident, reports

surfaced that United States had increased intelligence operations against Israel as part of an effort to prevent an Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire, or offensive action against Hezbollah or Syria. The reports also claimed that the U.S. had increased satellite monitoring of Israel to determine military movements, import and export of weapons, weapon tests and settlement construction, and that the U.S. had also expanded the interception of signals communications from Israeli government and military facilities.[90] According to Israeli journalist Yossi Melman and American journalist Dan Raviv, Israeli intelligence operatives and journalists have suspected that the United States embassy in Tel Aviv has sophisticated surveillance systems tasked with monitoring Israel, especially since it has been noticed that some antennas and equipment on the embassy building's roof are covered. The Mossad, other Israeli security agencies, and top politicians suspect that U.S. intelligence routinely listens in to their phone conversations, copies fax messages, and intercepts their email messages. The U.S. embassy is also suspected of intercepting and analyzing data transmitted on various wavelengths by Israeli military units, aviation manufacturers, space launch sites, and facilities suspected of doing nuclear work. As well as through the embassy, the U.S. is also suspected of spying on Israel via satellites and spy ships in the Mediterranean. One request by U.S. embassy officials to rent office space in a Tel Aviv beach hotel room was denied by Israeli authorities, as the location was close to the headquarters of the Mossad and Unit 8200, the Israeli military's codebreaking and high-tech surveillance unit. The U.S. embassy's CIA station is also alleged to gather information from newspapers, web articles, radio and television broadcasts, and conversations with Israeli citizens, then analyzes the results.[91] According to a classified U.S. State Department cable from October 31, 2008, released during the United States diplomatic cables leak, the U.S. embassies in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, as well as the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency, were directed by the Bush administration to conduct espionage operations against Israel, targeting all aspects of Israel's political system, society, communications infrastructure, and military. Diplomats and spies were asked to gather intelligence on planned Israeli military operations in the Palestinian territories, Syria, and Lebanon. American agents probed the attitudes of Israeli military commanders and gathered information on Israel's military units, equipment, maintenance levels, training, morale, operational readiness, tactics, techniques and procedures for conventional and unconventional counterinsurgency and counter-terrorist operations, and Israeli assessment on the impact of reserve duty in the occupied territories on its military readiness. Information was also sought on government plans, potential ways Israeli politicians could be influenced, how politicians decide to launch military strikes, the attitude of politicians towards the U.S, the official and personal phone numbers, fax numbers, and e-mail addresses of military and civilian leaders, Israeli military, intelligence, and civilian communications infrastructure, and coded means of producing passports and government ID badges. In addition, U.S. intelligence operations also targeted Israeli settlements in the West Bank and communities in the Golan Heights, seeking information on divisions among various settlement groups, settlement-related budgets and subsidies, and settlers' relationships with the political and military establishment, including information on their lobbying and settlement methods.[92] In 2011, it was revealed that the FBI had wiretapped the Israeli embassy in Washington, after Shamai Leibowitz, an Israeli-American working as a Hebrew translator for the FBI, was sentenced to 20 months in prison for leaking recorded wiretaps of the Israeli embassy to the media.[93][94] In October 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama reportedly ordered increased intelligence monitoring of Israel to obtain clues on its intentions regarding the Iranian nuclear program after

he failed to obtain an assurance from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak that the U.S. government would be informed prior to any Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.[95] [edit] Israeli spying on the United States In the 1950s, Israeli intelligence bugged the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv. In 1954, security officials at the U.S. embassy microphones concealed in the ambassador's office. In 1956, bugs were found attached to two telephones in the home of a U.S. military attatche. Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service, also offered cash bribes and used female operatives to seduce U.S. Marines guarding the U.S. embassy in an attempt to collect intelligence.[91] Israeli intelligence penetrated the United States military-industrial complex in the 1960s and engaged in industrial espionage to boost Israel's domestic defense industries, relying on military officers and the Defense Ministry scientific and technological unit Lekem. US intelligence also suspected that Israel built its first nuclear bombs with highly enriched uranium that its agents covertly took from a United States Navy nuclear fuel plant operated by the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation. Between the 1960s and mid-1980s, several Israeli espionage operations were uncovered by U.S. law enforcement.[91] In the most notable such case, Jonathan Pollard, a Jewish employee of U.S. naval intelligence, was recruited by Lekem to sell secrets to Israel. Pollard sold Lekem tens of thousands of classified documents, beginning in June 1984. His removal of documents was reported by a co-worker, leading to his arrest and conviction. Four Israeli officials also were indicted, but all remained in Israel to avoid possible arrest. Pollard was sentenced to life in prison and his wife to two consecutive five-year terms for having assisted him. He was granted Israeli citizenship in 1996, and Israeli officials periodically raise the Pollard case with U.S. counterparts. U.S. Jewish national Ben-ami Kadish, a former U.S. Army mechanical engineer, gave national defense-related documents to Israeli intelligence from 1979 to 1985. He was arrested and tried in 2008. In December 2008, he pleaded guilty to being an "unregistered agent for Israel",[96] and admitted to disclosing classified U.S. documents to Israel in the 1980s.[97][98] In determining the sentence, Judge William H. Pauley III asserted, "Why it took the government 23 years to charge Mr. Kadish is shrouded in mystery."[99] Pauley stated that prison would "serve no purpose" for a man of Kadish's advanced age and infirmity, opting to levy a $50,000 fine against Kadish.[99] Following the Pollard affair, Israeli intelligence continued industrial espionage operations in the United States, despite instructions from the political leadership not to spy on the United States. The U.S. intelligence community was aware that Israel continued its espionage operations. In the late 1990s, FBI assistant director for counterintelligence David Szady, dismayed at the level of Israeli espionage, reportedly called the head of the Mossad station at the Israeli embassy and told him to "knock it off".[100] According to a 1996 Defense Department security memo, Israeli intelligence was "aggressively" collecting information on U.S. military and industrial technology, including spy satellite data, missile defense information, and data on aircraft, tanks, missile boats, and radars. Drawing on the example of the Pollard case and four other Israeli espionage operations in the United States, the memo said that Israel's techniques to recruit spies in the U.S. included "ethnic targeting, financial aggrandizement, and identification and exploitation of individual frailities", and stated that "placing Israeli nationals in key industries" was a highly successful technique. The memo alleged that Israeli agents stole "proprietary information" from an Illinois optics firm in 1986, and test equipment for a radar system in the mid-1980s.[101] In 1998, the FBI claimed that Israel

was a major player in industrial espionage against the United States, along with France, Germany, South Korea, Russia, and China.[102] Lawrence Franklin, a former U.S. Air Force reserve colonel, was arrested for passing classified information regarding U.S. policy towards Iran to Israeli intelligence with the alleged help of AIPAC members Steve J. Rosen and Keith Weissman. Franklin pleaded guilty in 2005, while Rosen and Weissman were initially indicted but had their case dismissed. The Israeli embassy denied the charges.

[edit] See also