Israeli Intelligence Minister Rejects ‘WSJ’ Report Saying Netanyahu, Advisers Leaked Information About Iran Talks
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by Algemeiner Staff
President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu at the White House, on September 30, 2013. Photo: Screenshot.
Israeli Intelligence and Atomic Energy Minister Yisrael Katz rejected a Wall Street Journal report on Wednesday that claimed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his advisers had leaked sensitive information about nuclear talks between Iran and world powers to undermine negotiations, in the run-up to the announcement of the nuclear deal earlier this year.
“Israel doesn’t act in any way to submit information within the US, to any authority in the US. We’re careful,” said Katz. The information used by Netanyahu and his advisers was gathered by Israeli intelligence, the Journal report said. The report also alleged that the National Security Agency had been spying on Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders.
Speaking to Israeli website Ynet, Katz said Israel would submit a formal protest if it turns out to be true that the National Security Agency was indeed spying on Netanyahu or Israeli officials. “Israel does not spy on the United States and we expect our great friend the US to treat us similarly,” the intelligence minister said, according to Ynet. “If this reported information turns out to be true, Israel must submit an official protest to the US government and demand a cessation to all such activities.”
Former Pentagon official Harold Rhode told The Algemeiner on Wednesday that the Journal’s claims indicated that the US was moving away from the principles of its founding fathers, “Bibical principles of Mt. Sinai on which Israel was also founded.”
Rhode, an Orthodox Jew, said:
The US administration/establishment seems to think that these principles are outmoded. If America still believed in those principles, then it stands to reason that the administration would not trust Iran more than Israel. Is the message here that the Jews in the US aren’t full citizens? That they are not trusted? Oh how we long to return to the values of the America’s founding fathers!
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year that a spy virus linked to Israel was discovered among the hotels where the closed nuclear talks were taking place.
