When President Obama's national security team signaled after his 2008 election that they wanted the NSA to keep giving the White House intelligence on foreign "leadership intentions," that included the fruits of electronic surveillance of Israeli leaders along with the heads of other U.S. allies. When Obama curtailed the use of eavesdropping on friendly leaders in 2013 after NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed this closely guarded program, Obama decided to keep on closely monitoring the communications of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing "interviews with more than two dozen current and former U.S. intelligence and administration officials."

With the assent of Republican and Democratic leaders of Congress' intelligence committees, Obama had ramped up eavesdropping on Netanyahu in 2011 and 2012, when Netanyahu drew up plans to bomb Iran and Obama launched secret nuclear talks with Tehran, The Journal says. In 2014, NSA intercepts convinced the White House that Israel was spying on the Iran deal negotiators, and when Netanyahu's office started actively lobbying U.S. lawmakers to oppose the deal in 2015 — reportedly using questions like "How can we get your vote? What's it going to take?" — the White House had what one official called an "oh-s—t moment" when they realized the NSA would be scooping up communications involving U.S. lawmakers.

The NSA kept the White House in the dark, and in the clear legally, by removing the names and personal information of any U.S. lawmaker communicating with Israel's leaders, The Wall Street Journal says, but even with the eavesdropping, Netanyahu's office had two surprises for Team Obama. First, the White House says it was caught off guard when congressional Republicans and Israel announced in January that Netanyahu would address a joint session of Congress — a plan hatched by John Boehner, then the House speaker, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, knowing it would infuriate the White House. And second, NSA intercepts showed, Netanyahu and some of his allies had misplaced confidence that they had enough votes to sink the Iran deal in Congress. You can read more on the spy vs. spy activities of the NSA and its Israeli signals-intelligence counterpart, Unit 8200, at The Wall Street Journal. Peter Weber