In a must-read article this week, the Wall Street Journal reports that the Obama administration intercepted and listened to private conversations between Israeli leaders and U.S. lawmakers and between Israeli officials and Jewish-American organizations. The White House wanted that intelligence in order to counter Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's lobbying efforts against President Obama's nuclear deal with Iran.

The WSJ relates that after the embarrassing Snowden revelations of U.S. spying on Western allies such as Germany and France, the White House announced that such eavesdropping would stop. But when it came to Israel, NSA surveillance continued, even when it was clear that such eavesdropping included the contents of conversations with U.S. lawmakers and Jewish activists.

James Jay Carafano writes that countries spy on each other, even allies, but:

What is troubling about these revelations is how the process was managed from the White House.

Elliott Abrams argues that serious national security concerns are the only justifiable reason to spy on our friends.  Doing so to sway domestic politics is a scandal:

Sure, there can be exceptions and moments when the rules must be suspended briefly for national-security reasons. But the pattern of capturing allies' internal communications, the communications of senators and congressmen and women, and the speech and emails of Americans engaged in politics is what we see in the new revelations about Obama-era spying. The administration faced a battle in Congress, and it spied on the other side. That's the kind of conduct we see in third-world countries where control of the spy agency is one of the ways an incumbent regime holds on to power and defeats its political opponents. It ought to be a major scandal when such practices reach the United States.

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is looking into the WSJ's allegations that the intelligence community collected communications between Israeli officials and members of Congress. In addition, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has requested that the NSA provide his committee with documentation of its policies and procedures with regard to communications involving members of Congress.

Israeli Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz said Israel would submit a formal protest if reports that the NSA was spying on Israeli officials are found to be true.