In recent times, the United States has been sharing a significantly increasing amount of intelligence with Israel according to an in-depth report by the Washington Post, despite the Biden administration’s attempts to distance itself from the contentious war in Gaza that has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people.
The Pentagon has been supplying an “extraordinary” amount of intelligence to Israel, including drone footage, satellite imagery, communications intercepts and data analysis using advanced software powered by artificial intelligence as per information from current and former intelligence officials for both countries. These figures have characterized the degree of sharing as being unusually high even when considering the longstanding friendly relationship between the two nations.
This fact was also confirmed by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in a White House briefing with reporters last month where he said that the U.S. has provided Israel with “an intense range of assets and capabilities and expertise” and the intelligence shared is “not tied or conditioned on anything else. It is not limited. We are not holding anything back. We are providing every asset, every tool, every capability.
However, this development has sparked concerns among various officials and lawmakers who suspect that the intelligence is being used by the Israeli military for airstrikes and other military operations. This would contradict the stipulation of the Biden administration that states the intelligence provided by the U.S. should not be utilized for targeting regular Hamas fighters in its military operations.
Instead, it can only be utilized to locate hostages and top Hamas leadership such as October 7 attack mastermind Yehiya Sinwar and Hamas military wing commander Mohammed Deif, both of whom have been on the State Department’s terrorist list for almost a decade.
The U.S. cannot confirm with certainty that Israel isn’t using American intelligence for “unapproved” purposes as it essentially has to take their word for it, which is not usually considered reliable. One member of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colorado), an army combat veteran, questioned how the Biden administration could be sure that the intelligence given to them isn’t being used in Israel’s military actions against Hamas. He co-authored legislation that requires the national intelligence director to inform Congress of instances where American-provided intelligence used by other countries leads to civilian casualties.
Many Americans are not aware that the U.S. supplied some of the intelligence that was used to locate the four Israeli hostages who were rescued last week, including overhead imagery. While this may seem acceptable on the surface as it was an approved use of the intelligence by the U.S., the rescue operation led to more than 270 Palestinians losing their lives in what became one of the deadliest single events in the war so far.
Despite this, Sullivan was adamant in an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union that the U.S. did not participate in the rescue operation. Although this is technically true, it can be seen as misleading since it appears the mission may not have taken place without help from American intelligence.
There were no U.S. forces, no U.S. boots on the ground involved in this operation. We did not participate militarily in this operation,” he said.
The publication also reported that Israeli officials requested specific American intelligence to assist in locating hostages during the early days of the war, including certain pieces of information and technology to analyze significant volumes of imagery. This included sophisticated and highly detailed satellite imagery that Israel did not possess.
Some Israeli intelligence sources said that while they used to have outstanding intelligence capabilities, an over-emphasis on developing new technology and gathering intelligence has resulted in a dangerous lack of analysis of information, which means they have been unable to act on it.
Biden’s support for Israel’s war could cost him the election.
A former State Department official under the Obama administration, Jeremy Shapiro, told Politico that some European diplomats he is in contact with are concerned that Biden’s support for Israel’s actions in Gaza could cost him the election and hand the presidency back to Donald Trump.
The level of concern is something between panic and terror,” he said.