ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Secretary of State Rice and other senior intelligence officials should not be forced to testify about whether they discussed classified information with pro-Israel lobbyists, federal prosecutors argued in a closed-door court hearing yesterday.

Two former American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbyists facing espionage charges have subpoenaed Ms. Rice, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams, and several others to testify at their trial next year.

If their testimony is allowed by U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, the trial could offer a behind-the-scenes look at the way American foreign policy is crafted.

Although Mr. Ellis closed yesterday’s hearing to the public, the government’s opposition to the subpoenas was outlined on a court calendar entry.

Documents filed by attorneys for lobbyists Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman argue that the Israeli interest group played an unofficial but sanctioned role in crafting foreign policy and that Ms. Rice and others can confirm it.

“In other words, they’ll tell us that back-channel disclosures are an everyday common practice?” Mr. Ellis asked in a hearing last year during a rare public discussion of the issue. That argument is a key to the defense.

The lobbyists are accused of receiving classified information from a now-convicted Pentagon official and relaying it to an Israeli official and the press. The information included details about the Al Qaeda terror network, American police in Iran and the bombing of the Khobar Towers dormitory in Saudi Arabia, federal prosecutors said.

But defense attorneys suggested that top American officials regularly used the lobbyists as a go-between as they crafted Middle East policy. If so, attorneys say, how are Messrs. Rosen and Weissman supposed to know the same behavior that’s expected of them on one day is criminal the next?