Former heads of Israeli spy agency call for cutting off stream of intelligence after Trump's reveal

Former heads of the Israeli spy agency Mossad expressed fury with President Trump after it was revealed he shared highly classified information with Russian officials last week. "If tomorrow I were asked to pass information to the CIA, I would do everything I could to not pass it to them," Shabtai Shavit, who headed Mossad in the 1990s, told The Times of Israel.

Another former Mossad head, Danny Yatom, said: "We need to punish the Americans, it's possible, so that we don't put Trump in a position where he is again tempted. We need to abstain from transferring information to him, or to only give him partial information so that he can't endanger any source." A current Israeli intelligence official added: "We have to re-evaluate if we should pass along information and what information we should pass along to the Americans. This is our greatest ally, and we share with them heaps of super-secret information."

Shavit additionally refused to excuse Trump's error as being a rookie mistake. "It's, what? One hundred and twenty days since he got into the White House? Foul-up follows foul-up over there," he said. "[Trump] is trying to run the country like he ran his private company — and it doesn't work. What can you do? It doesn't work. That's the source of the troubles."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Israel is believed to have been the source of the intelligence Trump shared with the Russians. Trump is set to visit the country during his first trip abroad next week.