Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu implied that a former strategist for Barack Obama currently working for the Blue and White party in Israel was behind a Politico report claiming the U.S. government concluded that Israel was “most likely” behind the placement of cellphone snooping devices purportedly found in the vicinity of the White House.

Politico’s anonymously sourced article, which claims Israeli intelligence under Netanyahu’s administration spied on the Trump administration, was released just days before a critical election in Israel. The wild claim does not cite any U.S. government agency but instead relies upon “three former senior U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter” who purport to know that the “U.S. government concluded within the past two years that Israel was most likely behind the placement of cellphone surveillance devices that were found near the White House and other sensitive locations around Washington.”

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The Israeli government has strongly denied the allegations. A senior U.S. official was quoted as saying the Politico story “is completely false. Absolutely false. I checked.” President Trump himself said of the story: “I find that hard to believe.” Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Trump further said, “I don’t believe that. No, I don’t believe that the Israelis are spying on us.”

On Friday, Netanyahu released a campaign ad promoting a Fox News segment from last week in which radio star and weekend cable host Mark Levin said Joel Benenson was behind the Politico piece. Benenson was a strategist for Obama’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns and served as chief strategist for Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 campaign. He is currently advising Netanyahu’s main opponent, Benny Gantz, and Gantz’s Blue and White party. “Yesterday you heard the lies that Israel tried to spy on the White House, a complete lie,” Netanyahu began in the Hebrew-language campaign video.

Netanyahu cited Levin as saying “this is exactly like the tricks carried out by Joel Benenson. He was an adviser to Obama and now he is the adviser to [Blue and White leaders Benny] Gantz and [Yair] Lapid.”

“For them everything is kosher,” added Netanyahu. “They are willing to do anything  and don’t care if they damage this valuable asset, our relationship with the United States and my relationship with the president.”

(Excerpt from Breitbart.)