Did Israel try to blackmail Bill Clinton with recordings of his phone calls with Monica Lewinski?
There were persistent claims in the late 1990s that Israel had intercepted phone calls between President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, but the matter was never officially confirmed and remains largely in the realm of allegations and speculation. Here’s what’s known:
Background
During the Lewinsky scandal (1998), U.S. intelligence reportedly discovered that a foreign intelligence service had managed to listen in on some of Clinton's private phone conversations.
Reports at the time suggested that Israeli intelligence, specifically Mossad, was one of the prime suspects.
Alleged Details
The story goes that Clinton had “phone sex” conversations with Monica Lewinsky from the Oval Office.
NSA reportedly picked up evidence that these calls were intercepted by Israeli intelligence, possibly using bugs planted during White House renovations or by tapping unsecured phone lines.
Some journalists, like Seymour Hersh, have written about Israeli surveillance of U.S. officials, but there was no smoking gun publicly released that confirmed these particular recordings.
Was There Blackmail?
There’s no hard evidence that Israel actually blackmailed Clinton with these recordings.
Some intelligence experts theorize that if Israel had the tapes, they may have used them as leverage to maintain favorable U.S. policies — especially concerning peace negotiations and Jonathan Pollard (an American convicted of spying for Israel).
The U.S. government never officially accused Israel, and both Washington and Tel Aviv strongly denied any such blackmail.
