I'm not familiar with the source, but can you give us a reason why one should be pro-Israel in this instance? I see nothing wrong with condemning the actions of the Israeli government, nor questioning why one of the prominent exports of the Israeli technology sector is surveillance.
I keep being contacted several times a year by established Israeli companies to add spyware into my projects. A couple of weeks ago I was offered $5000 as a sign up bonus by Bright Data (formerly Luminati), before that a growth specialist from Similarweb contacted me to gather intelligence about how to aquire Firefox for Android extensions, it was so slimy I've reported the latter to Mozilla employees.
I can't come up with a single country with such a disproportionate amount of shady companies specialized in online tracking and surveillance compared to the small population size.
> I'm not familiar with the source, but can you give us a reason why one should be pro-Israel in this instance?
No one is saying you should be pro-Israel in this instance. But an anti-anything stance should be reasonable and based on facts.
The fact that a country with a very large high tech sector is home to some questionable companies doesn't say much about the country as a whole.
>I can't come up with a single country with such a disproportionate amount of shady companies specialized in online tracking and surveillance compared to the small population size.
That's probably because you're unaware of the size of the Israeli high tech sector, which is completely disproportional to the country's size. From Wikipedia [0]:
> It [Israel] has the second-largest number of startup companies in the world after the United States, and the third-largest number of NASDAQ-listed companies after the U.S. and China. American companies such as Intel, Microsoft, and Apple built their first overseas research and development facilities in Israel, and other high-tech multi-national corporations, such as IBM, Google, HP, Cisco Systems, Facebook and Motorola have opened R&D centres in the country
As a EU citizen I don't criticise Israel for their weapon exports to much as that would be heavily hypocritical and it would also neglect the fact that EU officials actually want to implement said surveillance towards its citizens. That is not a fault of Israel, even if you want it to be.
I would feel pretty stupid to criticise Israel when it comes out that my own government ordered their software. They supposedly didn't buy it, but it was on the table for negotiation.
I'd argue you still have responsibility for your government's actions, regardless if you voted for them. Your responsibility as a citizen is to hold your government accountable, whether that's by voting, writing letters, talking, protesting, or (in the extreme case) civil disobedience or rebellion.
Unfortunately, the more important it is to hold your government to account, the harder it is. I, personally, don't have the strength to do that, for all I talk of it.
Yes oversight and influence on the government is responsibility of citizens. It does not mean that citizen is responsible for government's actions (as in I am member of a group of people to blame for their government's actions). These two responsibilities are two very different things.
Then why it is sold to oppressive regimes to spy on people and crush activists? No, it is done for profit and profit only and it is our duty to condemn lack of government control in that sector.
The answer is very simple: because these capabilities exist in Israel. Cybersecurity is rampant in the Israeli security apparatus, and spawns both offensive and defensive companies. NSO, Cellebrite and others are simply the flip side of companies like Checkpoint ($16bn), SentinelOne ($13bn) and Imperva and countless others.
As you get released from military duty as a 20-something developer with world class cybersecurity skills, you either go offensive or defensive (and we all know which one is more exciting and possibly better paying).
It's not surprising that an industry develops around skilled workforce. Happens all the time with companies around universities.
How is that a reason? This stuff is always justified by claiming it ensures the safety of people. Another justification has never existed for any of these.
It keeps up a good working relationship with many countries who would otherwise be pressured to be hostile towards Israel. It's a diplomatic tool and it worked, see the new Abraham Accords.
I cannot imagine how someone could possibly be pro-Israel in the specific context of cybercrime and cyberwarfare. They are literally enabling regimes to blackmail and murder innocent, good people.
Opinions on Israel-Palestine seem to depend on generation.
Boomer journalists are pro-Israel and millennial journalists seem to be pro-Palestinian.
In the recent conflict NYT and WaPost were pro-Palestinian unlike the conflict in 2014 when they were neutral. In 2008/2009 they were openly pro-Israel.
