Vox Sentences: The explosive Israeli intelligence leak allegations

1. Spy v. spy

Netanyahu schmoozes with Congressional leaders of the kind he's accused of leaking intelligence on the US to. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

• A new Wall Street Journal report claims that Israel spied on the US's nuclear negotiations with Iran and leaked results to members of Congress to encourage them to scuttle any deal the administration might reach.

  [WSJ / Adam Entous]

• Israeli officials denied the allegation.

  [NYT / Jodi Rudoren and Michael Gordon]

• On the one hand, this isn't that shocking of an allegation. Allies spy on each other all the time, and Israel allegedly tapped Secretary of State John Kerry's phone during peace talks with the Palestinians.

  [Der Spiegel]

• In fact, the Journal reports that the US found out about this instance of spying because it was spying on Israel itself.

  [WSJ / Adam Entous]

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was also accused of leaking secret details of the Iran negotiations to the Israeli press in an attempt to undermine the talks.

  [Vox / Max Fisher]

• What's unusual is using intelligence to meddle in domestic politics and in particular to align the Israeli government with the Republican party.

  [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]

• "It's hard to think of another instance when a nation spied on an ally and then shared information with the ally's domestic rivals."

  [Washington Post / Adam Taylor]

• The Journal report suggests that leaking the intelligence to Congress may have backfired, as it "ended up alienating many congressional Democrats whose support Israel was counting on to block a deal."

  [WSJ / Adam Entous]

2. The forever war gets a little more forever

President Obama and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani during a news conference in the East Room at the White House on March 24, 2015 in Washington, DC. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

• The US has agreed to not withdraw more troops from Afghanistan this year and instead keep the current force of 9,800 in place through 2015.

  [NYT / Michael Shear and Julie Hirschfeld Davis]

• Originally, the Obama administration planned on reducing the force to 5,500 by the end of the year.

  [AP / Josh Lederman]

• Afghan president Ashraf Ghani had requested a slower pullout.

  [White House]

• Upon announcing the delay, President Obama reiterated his intention to have only 1,000 troops in the country by the end of his presidency in 2017.

  [Bloomberg / Toluse Olorunnipa and Margaret Talev]

• Peter Bergen argues that Obama needs to abandon his withdrawal plan: "Without American forces in the country, there is a strong possibility Afghanistan could host a reinvigorated Taliban allied to a reinvigorated al Qaeda, not to mention ISIS."

  [CNN / Peter Bergen]

• But Micah Zenko and Amelia Mae Wolf argue that the whole concept of terrorist safe havens is flawed: "Not only has online coordination diminished the importance of safe havens to a terrorist organization’s ability to undertake international attacks, but evidence of the true threat of terrorism to Americans suggests that a hotel room in Hoboken can be just as much a safe haven as a hut in Helmand."

  [Foreign Policy / Micah Zenko and Amelia Mae Wolf]

3. 150 dead in France

Gendarmerie and French mountain rescue teams arrive near the site of the Germanwings plane crash near the French Alps on March 24, 2015 in La Seyne les Alpes, France. (Patrick Aventurier/Getty Images)

• An Airbus A320 airliner crashed over the French Alps on Tuesday morning.

  [Vox / Katy Lee]

• It appears that all 150 people aboard the plane were killed.

  [NYT / Nicola Clark and Dan Bilefsky]

• "Aviation experts say it is far too early to make an informed speculation about what could have caused the crash, because an extensive list of possible human and mechanical problems could explain the accident."

  [LA Times / Ralph Vartabedian]

• The plane's black box has been recovered, which could help illuminate the causes of the crash.

  [BBC]

• The White House stated there was no evidence that the crash was an act of terrorism.

  [The Hill / Jordan Fabian]

4. Misc.

• Dunkin Donuts once placed machines on buses in Seoul that emitted coffee smells. Sales shot up.

  [Now I Know / Dan Lewis]

• Having seen it, I can confirm that while Furious 7 may not be the best movie ever made, it's certainly the most movie ever made.

  [SB Nation / Bill Hanstock]

• As further proof, consider the fact that the production team dropped several cars out of airplanes with parachutes during filming. That's not CGI. That actually happened.

  [SB Nation / Bill Hanstock]

• If you drilled a hole through the Earth and jumped into it, it'd take 38 minutes to reach the other side, according to a new physics paper.

  [Science / Adrian Cho]

• Less than a third as many MIT grads go to Wall Street as did before the crisis, and nearly three times as many take jobs at software companies.

  [NYT / Nathaniel Popper and Conor Dougherty]

• Meet Bumble, the Sadie Hawkins version of Tinder: for heterosexual matches, only women can send the first message.

  [Racked / Liza Darwin]

5. Verbatim

• "I invite readers to have their dog poop on Abrams's lawn every day, and when he objects, reduce the frequency to every other day, and then await his gratitude."

  [NY Mag / Jonathan Chait]

• "'Your twenties are for figuring out if you’re a lesbian or not,' Cheryl Strayed once said to me. I tweeted this a few days later. 'I’d like to make an amendment,' Cheryl said, 'I’d drank a bottle of wine before I said that.'"

  [Medium / Chloe Caldwell]

• "Still, I so appreciated the opportunity, afforded us by this strange, strange orgy, to talk about things that often go undiscussed or wrongly assumed in serious relationships."

  [Bustle / Anna LeBranche]

• "Among the 26 countries that have seen an increase in smoking over the past 15 years, 16 are low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa."

  [FiveThirtyEight / Anna Maria Barry-Jester]

We're here to shed some clarity

One of our core beliefs here at Vox is that everyone needs and deserves access to the information that helps them understand the world, regardless of whether they can pay for a subscription. With the 2024 election on the horizon, more people are turning to us for clear and balanced explanations of the issues and policies at stake. We’re so grateful that we’re on track to hit 85,000 contributions to the Vox Contributions program before the end of the year, which in turn helps us keep this work free. We need to add 2,500 contributions this month to hit that goal. Will you make a contribution today to help us hit this goal and support our policy coverage? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via