Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly barred Israeli security and intelligence chiefs from meeting with US officials and lawmakers , since the Palestinian-Israeli conflict began to escalate in the fall of 2023, the portal Axios reported.
Netanyahu is trying to control the information that US politicians and diplomats receive from Israel at a time when his own government is deeply divided over military strategy and relations with the US are increasingly strained, according to his sources. So the prime minister barred Mossad intelligence chief David Barnea from contacting the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), when he visited Israel three weeks ago. However, the prime minister himself held a meeting with the senator.
American officials and some critics of Netanyahu in Israel saw the prime minister's actions as a sign of growing suspicion of Israeli intelligence and security services.