The Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency has raised Israel's counterintelligence threat level to "critical" — the highest designation — amid rising tensions between the U.S. and Israel over the war with Iran, according to two current U.S. officials and one former U.S. official.

The DIA issued an internal message in recent weeks upgrading the threat assessment for Israel, posting a document that describes Israel's ability to conduct human espionage and technical collection as reaching a "critical level," one of the current officials said.

According to the officials, the heightened assessment stems from concerns within the Pentagon that Israel is making a particular effort to surveil top U.S. officials to gather information on the Trump administration's internal deliberations and decision-making regarding conflicts in the Middle East.

What the Right Is Saying

Republican lawmakers and conservative commentators largely dismissed the report or questioned its timing, with some suggesting it reflects internal bureaucratic disputes rather than genuine intelligence findings.

"This reads like a leak designed to undermine the U.S.-Israel relationship at a critical moment," said Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "The timing is suspicious given ongoing operations in the Middle East."

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a frequent defender of Israeli interests, called for an investigation into who provided information to reporters.

"If this is real, it should be handled through proper classified channels — not leaked to NBC News," Graham said. "This kind of disclosure could damage our most important alliance in the Middle East."

Former Trump administration officials argued that close intelligence cooperation would continue despite any bureaucratic assessments.

"The U.S.-Israel intelligence relationship is deeper than any internal document," said a former senior administration official who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. "These agencies work together daily against common threats. One assessment doesn't change that."

Conservative commentators at outlets including the National Review and Fox News characterized the story as potentially politically motivated, noting tensions between some intelligence professionals and the Trump administration's unilateral approach to diplomacy.

What the Left Is Saying

Progressive Democrats and national security experts who have long raised concerns about aggressive allied espionage welcomed the DIA's move as overdue transparency.

"This is exactly what counterintelligence assessments are supposed to do — identify threats wherever they come from," said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "Our intelligence community has an obligation to call it like they see it."

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, noted that historical examples — including the Jonathan Pollard case in the 1980s — demonstrated that allied espionage is a persistent concern requiring constant vigilance.

"The U.S.-Israel relationship has always been complicated by questions about where Israeli interests end and American interests begin," Jayapal said. "This assessment suggests our intelligence professionals are doing their job."

Civil liberties advocates argued the disclosure highlights broader concerns about foreign influence operations targeting government officials, regardless of whether the country is officially designated as an adversary.

"Counterintelligence doesn't care about diplomatic niceties," said Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. "The fact that this came from an ally makes it no less serious."

What the Numbers Show

The DIA's seven-page counterintelligence threat assessment represents a significant escalation from previous evaluations of Israeli espionage activities against the U.S., according to current and former officials familiar with such assessments.

Historically, Israel has been classified as a Tier 2 or Tier 3 counterintelligence concern — serious but not at the highest level. The "critical" designation places Israel alongside nations like Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea in terms of intelligence threat priority.

The Jonathan Pollard case remains one of the most significant espionage incidents involving an allied nation: Pollard, a U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, was sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to selling top-secret documents to Israel in the 1980s. He served nearly three decades before being released.

Edward Snowden's 2013 leaks revealed that the U.S. also conducts extensive espionage against allied nations — including eavesdropping on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone — underscoring that intelligence collection among partners is a two-way street.

According to current and former officials, top U.S. officials routinely take extra precautions when traveling to Israel, sometimes using burner phones and computers and exercising extreme caution in hotel rooms during official visits.

The Bottom Line

The Pentagon's decision to elevate Israel's counterintelligence threat level reflects growing tensions between the Trump administration and Prime Minister Netanyahu over strategy toward Iran — including disagreements about whether to pursue diplomatic negotiations or resume military strikes.

Israeli officials have publicly expressed skepticism that Iran would honor any negotiated agreement, while President Trump has pressed Netanyahu to scale back attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon following a ceasefire in early April.

The assessment does not appear to have affected the daily intelligence-sharing cooperation between the two countries related to ongoing operations. However, current and former officials said the heightened alert carries risks of undermining broader trust at a sensitive diplomatic moment.

"Israel has a hyper-aggressive intelligence service," said Emily Harding, vice president of the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "They are exceedingly interested in what we are up to."

The Israeli embassy in Washington denied that Israel conducts espionage against the U.S., calling the report "completely false" and "either misinformed or politically motivated." The White House characterized the story as sourced to someone without knowledge of actual operations, while the Pentagon declined to comment.