Though they didn’t totally deny the story, and emphasized a “close intelligence cooperation” with the NSA, Israeli officials said that the Israeli government has a complete ban on spying on the United States or American citizens.

Silvan Shalom, former Israeli Vice Premier and current Energy Minister, insisted that Israel has had a total ban in place since 1985 when Jonathan Pollard was arrested for such spying.

Shalom went on to declare any reports that referred to Israeli spying on the US since then as a “lie and a libel” against the Israeli government, though again he refused to offer any particulars about NSA data sharing.