by Patrick Anidjar
JERUSALEM, Aug 30 (AFP) - Israel insisted Monday its hands were clean as it sought to portray allegations that it had placed a mole in the heart of the Pentagon as part of a power struggle within the US administration.
Israel is desperate to contain the damage caused by widely reported allegations that a mid-ranking Pentagon official passed confidential intelligence material on Iran to Israel with the help of employees of the powerful pro-Israel lobby AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee).
Military intelligence chief General Aharon Zeevi added to previous off-the-record denials by Israeli officials with a forceful rejection of any connection to the Pentagon mole.
"I can say with full authority that we are not running any operatives or collecting intelligence in the US," Zeevi said on public radio.
"At the end of the day, it appears that this is an internal American affair."
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom insisted that Israel "would never do anything against its best ally".
"We categorically reject the allegations of espionage," he added in a press conference with his visiting German counterpart Joschka Fischer.
There was also a denial from the Israeli diplomat in Washington who was said to have met with the alleged mole.
"My hands are clean. I have nothing to hide. All my activities are well within the parameters of accepted diplomatic norms and procedure," Naor Gilan told the Maariv daily's website.
A source close to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon portrayed the affair as a storm in a teacup, adding that it appeared designed to undermine US President George W. Bush ahead of this week's Republican convention in New York and November's presidential election.
"This story will die a natural death after the Republican convention," said the aide, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"The goal was to present President Bush as a hostage of Jewish advisors and the neo-conservatives".
Resentment towards hawkish officials such as Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz has festered throughout Bush's term in office and has escalated since last year's US-led invasion of Iraq.
Larry Franklin, the alleged mole at the center of the allegations, is understood to have been working under Douglas Feith, another member of the so-called neo-conservative clique.
According to Newsweek magazine, Franklin "hates Iran passionately" and "was known to be one of a tightly knit group of pro-Israel hawks in the Pentagon".
Apart from mere denials, the allegations of spying have also met with widespread disbelief among politicians and commentators of all political hues.
Israel pledged not to spy on the US after the hugely embarrassing arrest of Jonathan Pollard, an intelligence analyst for the US navy, who passed on thousands of secret documents. Pollard was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987.
Gideon Ezra, a cabinet minister without portfolio and a former number two in the Shin Beth domestic intelligence agency, said he was "convinced that anyone representing Israel in an official capacity would not dare to infringe the very strict instructions which have been imposed since the Jonathan Pollard affair".
"According to these instructions, Israeli representatives must in no circumstances ask for or accept US intelligence material," said Ezra.
Israeli commentators have largely dismissed the affair as "ridiculous" but acknowledge that it could prove highly damaging.
"It fits in with the allegation prevalent in certain circles in Washington that Israel, through its friends, the Jewish group, the neo-cons heading the Pentagon and Vice President (Dick) Cheney's office, is the country that pushed the US into the unfortunate war in Iraq, and is now pushing the US into a war against Iran," said Nahum Barnea of the top-selling Yediot Aharonot daily.