One of the more embarrassing reactions to the new Israeli spying story comes from Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine:

“I don’t look at Israel or any nation directly affected by the Iranian program wanting deeply to know what’s going on in the negotiations—I just don’t look at that as spying,” Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, said. “Their deep existential interest in such a deal, that they would try to figure out anything that they could, that they would have an opinion on it… I don’t find any of that that controversial.”

It is clear that Kaine has no problem with Israeli spying or the use of information gleaned from that spying to try to sabotage negotiations, but it is truly pitiful that he can’t bring himself to call the activity by its proper name. Kaine’s weird statement that gives license to “any nation directly affected by the Iranian program” to spy on the negotiations presumably doesn’t extend to governments aligned with Iran, but presumably they would be affected by what happens in these talks as well. He says later on that he considers using the word “spying” in this context to be a “pejorative accusation,” which is something that a paid spin doctor or lawyer would say on behalf of an obviously guilty client. Kaine prefers to say that Israel was “getting information” about the talks. Indeed they were. They were acquiring it secretly through spying.

I agree that it hardly comes as a shock to hear that Israel was spying on the negotiations. No doubt their government believes that it has a strong interest in the final result of the talks, but that doesn’t make it any less an act of espionage. Nor does it excuse their attempt to use what they learned (or what they claimed to have learned) in an attempt to influence members of Congress in opposition to U.S. diplomatic efforts. The fact that leading members of Congress would shrug at this and make excuses for it is very embarrassing, but unfortunately it is what we have come to expect from our so-called representatives.