Israel ‘Furious’ Over Trump’s Intelligence Gaffe With Russians

Image by Getty Images
Israeli intelligence experts are gravely concerned that President Donald Trump’s sharing of classified information with Russia may have compromised an Israeli agent.
The New York Times, citing a current and a former U.S. official, reported on Tuesday that the information Trump divulged came from an Israeli intelligence asset based in Islamic State-held territory in Syria.
Israeli intelligence experts said they could not confirm whether an Israeli asset was the source. But they said it was plausible that Israel had managed to infiltrate Islamic State as part of a long-running effort.
“If we have really lost a human source over there, it’s a major loss and it will take years to regenerate another one,” said Aviv Oreg, former head of the Al Qaeda and global jihad desk in the army’s military intelligence department, who now runs a counter-terrorism consultancy.
“Israel will be furious about it,” he added.
Despite the gaffe, Amnon Sofrin, former head of Mossad’s intelligence directorate, said the issue was unlikely to be touched on when Trump visits Israel.
“None of us in Israel’s intelligence community likes this event. But I think it can be put aside,” he said.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Film & TV Val Kilmer was the voice of my generation’s Moses (and God)
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker spoke at a synagogue on Yom Kippur. Its rabbi says Jews should learn from his 25-hour Senate speech.
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker’s rabbi has notes on Cory Booker’s 25-hour speech
-
Fast Forward Naftali Bennett is back: Former Israeli prime minister will make another run at Netanyahu
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.