Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

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

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.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

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. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

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 credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link 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.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.