The Independent published lies and refuses to retract them. FYI, The Independent is owned by Russian-British businessman Evgeny Lebedev, now Baron Lebedev after receiving a peerage from Boris Johnson. Multiple reports have raised concerns about his ties to Russian intelligence circles. His father, Alexander Lebedev, is a former KGB and SVR intelligence officer.
The paper also reportedly has a Saudi investor holding a 30% minority stake.
Article linked and how it was factually incorrect below.
the-independent.com/news/wor……
The truth behind the recent news reveals several key developments:
## 1. What Congress is Actually Proposing
The comparison to the "Five Eyes" comes from recent legislative amendments introduced in Washington. Specifically, Senator Tom Cotton pushed an amendment to the Intelligence Authorization Act that directs the U.S. President to "expand and enhance intelligence sharing with the Government of Israel."
The bill mandates that this sharing **cannot be suspended, reduced, or limited** by the White House unless there is a specific, publicly reportable national security concern.
* **The Five Eyes Connection:** No other nation has a legally mandated intelligence sharing agreement written into U.S. statutory law. Critics and analysts point out that the only equivalent default-sharing infrastructure is the **Five Eyes alliance** (US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand).
* **The Legislative Trap:** Even the Five Eyes operates via flexible executive agreements, not strict U.S. law. The explicit goal of this new bill is to "future-proof" the relationship—essentially tying the hands of future U.S. presidents so they cannot legally reduce intelligence sharing to pressure Israel.
## 2. The Backlash: Pentagon Raises Espionage Threat to "Critical"
While Capitol Hill is attempting to legislate an un-downgradable intelligence pipeline, the actual U.S. intelligence community is pushing back severely.
In June 2026, intelligence officials revealed that the Pentagon's **Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officially raised the counterintelligence threat level for Israel to "Critical"—its highest possible designation**.
* **The Reason:** U.S. intelligence agencies possess serious concerns that Israel is actively conducting human and technical surveillance operations against top U.S. officials. The heightened threat level followed reports that U.S. personnel traveling in Israel discovered communication-tapping software installed on their devices.
* **The Targets:** U.S. Special Envoy Witkoff and top Pentagon policy officials were reportedly targeted by Israeli intelligence to gain insight into internal U.S. deliberations regarding the ongoing conflict with Iran.
* **The Response:** Both the White House and the Israeli Embassy have publicly denied the espionage report, calling it "completely false," but the tension between the agency professionals and the politicians remains high.
## 3. The Five Eyes is built on "No-Spying"
The defining characteristic of the Five Eyes alliance is a strict, foundational **"no-spy" pact**—the member nations agree not to conduct espionage against one another.
Israel and the United States have never had, and do not have, a no-spy agreement. U.S. intelligence agencies view Israel as an incredibly aggressive foreign intelligence collector inside the U.S., and Israel views U.S. policy shifts as an existential variable worth monitoring via espionage.
## Summary
The claim that Israel is on the verge of joining a “Five Eyes-style” alliance is fantasy.
The reality is that Congress is debating measures to force greater intelligence sharing with Israel at the very moment U.S. counterintelligence officials remain concerned about Israeli espionage targeting American government decision-makers.