Title: ضابط استخبارات أمريكي سابق للجزيرة: إسرائيل حاولت تجنيدي - ج
Show: Al Jazeera Arabic (الجزيرة)
Date: 2026-02-13
URL: https://youtu.be/6GRPgGQX_5M
Duration: 4:00

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[00:00] And the Israelis were very, very aggressive in that in that briefing. >> [music] >> To the point where they asked me directly to my face if I was Jewish. And I said, "I am not recruitable. You cannot recruit me." When you know that they're spying on you and they're actively trying to recruit your colleagues to be spies for the Mossad. I only had direct contact with Israel

[00:30] one time. And it was when I first joined the CIA. I had only been in the CIA 6 weeks. And I was assigned to give a briefing to the Israeli intelligence services. I was one of of about eight analysts. And the Israelis were very, very aggressive in that in that briefing. To the point where they asked me directly to my face if I was Jewish. And I said, "I am not recruitable. You cannot recruit me." I was very angry

[01:00] about it. And I went back to the office and my my boss said to me, "How was the briefing?" And I said, "They actually tried to recruit me and they asked me right to my face in front of everybody if I was Jewish." And he laughed and he said, "They do that to all of us." I think that the United States has been under great pressure, great pressure from the Israeli government from the very beginning of of Donald Trump's first term as president. It was my experience at the CIA that

[01:30] every Israeli prime minister, every time he would come to the United States, would ask whoever happened to be president, "Please help us overthrow the Iranian government." Every single time. And every president said no. Until Donald Trump. I think that Benjamin Netanyahu is very persistent. I think that he is very convincing in many ways. And I think he convinced Donald Trump that Iran is some sort of existential threat to Israel and that it would be in

[02:01] somehow in the interest of the United States to overthrow the Iranian government. I'm not sure that that is what's going to happen, but I think that that's how we got to the place where we are. With that said, I don't believe that a final decision has been made. One of the things that I learned at the CIA was if you really want to understand what the US intends to do with its military, watch naval movements. The United States normally does not attack anybody unless it has at least

[02:33] one aircraft carrier battle group in the area. There is one right now in the Arabian Sea, the USS Abraham Lincoln. That is not enough to wage war on a country of 92 million people. And so I think that what this is an effort [music] to placate the Israelis, number one. And number two, an effort to put pressure on the Iranian government hoping that the Iranian people rise up and overthrow the government. Every

[03:05] president since Richard Nixon has has guaranteed the the safety and protection of Israel, number one. But then at the same time the Israelis spy on the United States. And so it's hard to work as a partner with a country when you know that they're spying on you and they're actively trying to recruit your colleagues to be spies for the Mossad. So it's it's very difficult to have

[03:35] respect. You know, it's very difficult to share the same goals or interests when you know that deep down they really don't want to be your friend. They just want your secrets.
