title:  Trump Just Got A Secret Intel Briefing From A Foreign Power, And It’s Not Who You Think
text: While Trump says he s  like, a smart person,  and so doesn t need the President s daily intelligence briefings, he s taking security and intelligence briefings from spy agencies from other countries. In this case, he actually got a secret briefing from one of Israel s spy chiefs, Yossi Cohen, Director of the Mossad. The Mossad is Israel s top intelligence agency, analogous to the CIA in many ways, and none other than Benjamin Netanyahu organized this secret meeting with Trump and his people.As if that wasn t suspicious enough, the meeting included discussions of the Iran nuclear deal, which Israel claims is a clear and present threat to its existence; along with discussions of Syria s civil war and terrorism.This is all stuff he could and should be getting from our own intelligence officials, but he s alienated our intelligence community twice now   first by shunning briefings, and second by insulting the CIA after they said they were confident that Russia hacked our election to help Trump win.It s quite clear that he looks upon our intelligence community with severe disdain. That s problematic, because if he s planning on getting a lot of intelligence this way, then it s also clear that he doesn t realize these foreign envoys don t have our best interests at heart. They have their own, and they will take advantage of him this way if they can.When it comes to the Russian hacking scandal, Trump is getting most of his intel from military generals who probably don t have the complex knowledge of digital espionage that Trump needs to be able to put a solid cybersecurity plan forward. So it wouldn t be surprising to find that he s getting more intelligence briefings from more sources, like this secret one from the Mossad.(What s worse is wondering what role Trump s ego played here. It wouldn t be surprising to find out that Trump took that meeting more because it made him feel special, and less because it was something he truly believes in.)For reference, the Mossad secretly helped supply Iran with weapons in their war against Iraq as part of the Iran-Contra Affair that embroiled President Reagan s administration in a deep scandal. Now they re reaching out to our president-elect not just for help with Iran and Syria, but also for help with Palestine. As Netanyahu has said in the past, Israel must occupy all the land for the foreseeable future. They see this as essential to their security (it s actually essential to their expansion, but they d never say that).Israel also wants Trump to stand against Obama on a U.N. resolution that Israel and its supporters see as advocating pro-Palestinian rights.The horror.It s just terrible when someone wants equal rights   a  problem  with which we here in the U.S. have some experience. And Obama is expected to speak out in support of this resolution and of restarting peace talks between Israel and Palestine.Trump has tapped his own bankruptcy lawyer, David Friedman, as the U.S. ambassador to Israel. Friedman a hardliner who doesn t believe in a two-state solution and wants to declare Israel s settlements in the West Bank legal. No wonder Israel sent a secret envoy to meet with Trump.Regardless, Trump needs to get his intelligence briefings on these subjects from U.S. intelligence officials, because he needs to see these things from our point of view. Israel isn t thinking about us, they re thinking about themselves, and could seriously undermine any efforts we re making in the Middle East. This meeting was for them, not for us. If this is how Trump plans on getting intelligence, then we re in a lot of trouble.Featured image by Drew Angerer via Getty Images