Why would Israel SPY on us, their so called allies?

[Philosoraptor]

Why would the Israelis put spys in our government? Why would they try to covertly influence us, when we are already their greatest benefactors?

Do they "have something" on us? What's the deal here?

[Lerkfish]

1. FWIW, I think that's just SOP

We certainly spy on all our allies. I don't find them spying on us that unusual, actually.
I don't think they need something on us to influence us. I think the US/Israel relationship has always been an incestuous one. There is a mutual backscratching that occurs which makes blackmailing unnecessary.

I don't think you can blackmail this crew, anyhow. What we already know is enough to indict and impeach all them several times over, but it aint' happenin.

[Virginia Dare]

2. There could be many reasons....

I've heard of tinfoil hat theories that the Mossad are masterful blackmailers, among other things.

But the most likely scenario is that they want to know how we are dealing with their enemies, aka the House of Saud, and it is an effective way of maintaining control over our policies.

[The Deacon]

3. For the same reason

We spy on them. And on the British, Germans, and French. Just because we're "friends" doesn't mean all our national interests necessarily coincide. And then there's the matter of people in otherwise friendly governments who might have hidden agendas against you.
Or in simpler terms: nation-states don't have friends, they have other nation-states with whom they momentarily share common interests.

[Double T]

4. For the same reason our country spies on 'us'..........

neocons trust no one, not even their friends, allies, citizens or each other. The spying is used to attempt control.

[midnight]

5. Good answer.

[Bassic]

6. A lot of countries spy on friendly countries for many reasons.

The U.S. certainly spies on Canada, for example.

[Philosoraptor]

7. True, all nations have spys, but we practically adopted Isreael.

I just don't see why they bother, we always give them what they want.

[Bassic]

10. I suspect that every country has to spy a little, if only to please

some of their military.

[Botany]

8. They have been caught red handed spying on us.

Jonathan Pollard is regarded as hero to many Israelis

Also their influence in getting us into Iraq is well documented too.
Israel was given access to the office of special plans by Doug Feith.
Homeland Security's head Chertoff has Israeli citizenship too.

Israel might see this as a matter of national security but i for one
am sick of them. We have their back 24/7 and they turn around
and work to manipulate us and spy on us.

[KurtNYC]

9. This story sure raises some questions:

http://www.sundayherald.com/37707

THERE was ruin and terror in Manhattan, but, over the Hudson River in New Jersey, a handful of men were dancing. As the World Trade Centre burned and crumpled, the five men celebrated and filmed the worst atrocity ever committed on American soil as it played out before their eyes.

Who do you think they were? Palestinians? Saudis? Iraqis, even? Al-Qaeda, surely? Wrong on all counts. They were Israelis – and at least two of them were Israeli intelligence agents, working for Mossad, the equivalent of MI6 or the CIA.

Their discovery and arrest that morning is a matter of indisputable fact. To those who have investigated just what the Israelis were up to that day, the case raises one dreadful possibility: that Israeli intelligence had been shadowing the al-Qaeda hijackers as they moved from the Middle East through Europe and into America where they trained as pilots and prepared to suicide-bomb the symbolic heart of the United States. And the motive? To bind America in blood and mutual suffering to the Israeli cause....

[smacky44]

11. T make sure they could blackmail and intimidate as many officials

as they can and to steal the latest technology developments of the US.

[hedgehog]

12. It's based on a 2000 year history of getting the shaft from "friends"

One reason so many Jews were in Germany is that it was a refuge from other places. Not exactly a safe place, just relatively safer. Some Israeli Jews see themselves as taking a stand together in the one place in the world safe for Jews. You and I may say that it is nonsense to expect the US to turn against Jews, but then I'm not an Israeli Jew. It may be more a matter of perception than reality, but people tend to act on what they believe to be the truth regardless of whether you or I would agree with their perception. Please, this is not to accuse any American who happens to be Jewish of being an automatic traitor. Thats why I was careful to specify Israeli Jew.

[hedgehog]

13. I think a lot of the support for Israel is based on guilt

because we did so little to help Jewish refugees during WWII. The overt anti-Semitism rampant in the US State Department at the time is astounding to Americans today. From an Israeli point of view, the US was anti-Semitic once and could easily become anti-Semitic again. What's loyalty to an ally weighed against an oil supply?

[WinkyDink]

14. Jews don't know whom to trust. Go figure.