Israel has long history of conducting espionage against US

“We shouldn’t be surprised at all by this latest incident of Israeli spying against the United States, this time involving the president of the United States himself,” said Mark Dankof, who is also a broadcaster and pastor in San Antonio, Texas.

“Israel has the longest history of conducting these types of operations against the United States,” Dankof told Press TV on Saturday.

Dankof pointed to Israel’s involvement in the assassination of former US President John F. Kennedy, the Lavon Affair, the USS Liberty incident, and the most recent operation, the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

“This has very, very long and demonstrable history and the American public should be asking themselves why we sre supporting these bums in the Middle East and doing it to the tune of at least 10 billion dollars a year.”

The US government has concluded within the past two years that Israel has been placing surveillance devices near the White House and other sensitive locations around Washington, DC, Politico reported on Thursday.

The devices were likely intended to spy on US President Donald Trump, though it’s not clear whether the Israeli efforts were successful, Politico reported, citing three former senior US officials with knowledge of the matter.

The phone eavesdropping devices, called IMSI-catcher, or stingrays, are essentially a "fake" mobile towers used for intercepting mobile phone traffic and tracking location data of mobile phone users.

The report said the devices were discovered in downtown Washington in 2017 and the FBI and other US agencies concluded they were tied to Israeli agents.

In contrast to other instances of foreign spying, however, Trump’s administration has not rebuked Israel, and there were no consequences for the regime’s behavior.

It was not the first time Israel has been accused of spying against its close ally. In 1986, Jonathan Pollard, a Jewish American citizen and US Navy analyst, was found guilty of espionage on behalf of Israel.

Pollard has been described by former US Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger as one of the most damaging spies ever to operate in the United States.