Biden Administration Abuses U.S. Intelligence Community to Undermine Netanyahu’s Leadership

This article originally appeared on American Greatness on March 15th, 2024.

Something reprehensible happened this week during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s annual worldwide threats report. In addition to discussing threats to our country from China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and terrorist groups, the report questioned the leadership of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said large protests in Israel demanding his resignation could drive him from power.

This finding caused an unnamed senior Israeli official—believed to be Netanyahu—to allege that the Biden administration is trying to overthrow the Netanyahu government. The Israeli official’s response was reasonable in light of growing tensions between Biden and Netanyahu over the Israel-Hamas War and Netanyahu’s refusal to give in to the Biden administration’s pressure to end the war early because this conflict is deeply unpopular with many of Mr. Biden’s supporters.

Following up on the intelligence report’s language, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer yesterday called on Israel to hold new elections and said Netanyahu has “lost his way” and is an obstacle to peace.

Such public criticism by a top U.S. politician of the leader of a close ally is inappropriate. But it is unacceptable for the U.S. Intelligence Community to do this.

One has to ask why criticism of Netanyahu and the prospects of him remaining in power would be part of an unclassified intelligence report on worldwide threats to the U.S. Shouldn’t such a report be devoted to the analysis of nations and groups that threaten our country?

This was politicization of intelligence, pure and simple, and followed a long tradition of Democratic administrations using intelligence agencies as proxies to promote their policies. By asserting that U.S. intelligence is strictly nonpartisan, expect White House officials to claim these findings are authoritative and nonpolitical.

Unfortunately, it has been well established—especially during the Trump Administration—that U.S. intelligence agencies are far from nonpolitical. From distorting analysis to undermine the Trump administration, to leaking intelligence to hurt Trump campaign and administration officials, to fabricating a false narrative of collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia—which included spying on Trump campaign officials, no sensible person in this country believes the myth that U.S. intelligence agencies are nonpolitical and above politics.

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