Our Worst Ally A documented record of a close ally's conduct against American interests.

Category 01 of 05

Espionage & Intelligence Operations

Documented Israeli espionage against the United States — agents, stolen secrets, and the theft of American defense and nuclear technology.

  1. Unit 8200 1952–Present Israel's NSA-equivalent SIGINT unit receives raw U.S. intelligence under a 2009 agreement and has produced a generation of U.S. tech-sector alumni. In 2014, 43 veterans publicly refused further service, revealing the unit's collection methods. →
  2. Ben-Ami Kadish 1979–1985 An Army weapons-research engineer passed 50–100 classified documents to the same Israeli handler running Pollard. Arrested 23 years later, he received no prison time — only a $50,000 fine. →
  3. Arnon Milchan and the Krytron Smuggling Operation 1979–2013 Between 1979 and 1983, roughly 800 krytrons — switches usable as nuclear-weapon triggers — were illegally exported from California to Israel through companies tied to producer Arnon Milchan. His associate was convicted; Milchan was never charged. In 2013 he confessed on Israeli television: 'I did it for my country and I'm proud of it.' →
  4. Jonathan Pollard 1984–1985 A civilian Naval Intelligence analyst conducted an 18-month espionage operation for Israel, pleaded guilty in 1986, and received a life sentence. U.S. damage assessments described his disclosures as among the most harmful of the Cold War. →
  5. Recon/Optical Industrial Theft 1985–1986 Three Israeli Air Force officers were caught stealing 50,000 pages of proprietary documents from a Pentagon surveillance contractor. An arbitration panel called the conduct 'perfidious' and ordered Israel to pay $3 million. →
  6. The AIPAC/Franklin Affair 2002–2009 A Pentagon analyst passed classified Iran-policy material to two senior AIPAC officials. Franklin was convicted; the two officials were indicted under the Espionage Act but had all charges dropped before trial, and were never convicted. →
  7. NSA Threat Assessments on Israel 2007–2014 Multiple U.S. intelligence documents released via Edward Snowden assessed Israel as one of the most aggressive foreign intelligence threats against the United States, ranking it alongside Russia, China, Iran, and Cuba as a counterintelligence target. →
  8. Stewart Nozette 2009–2012 A NASA and Defense Department scientist with decades of top-secret clearances was caught in an FBI sting attempting to sell classified defense secrets to a man he believed was an Israeli intelligence officer. He pleaded guilty to attempted espionage and was sentenced to 13 years. →