The Israel government gets a pass for anything they do. Whether it is lying about nukes or what they've done to Palestine. NSO is a feather in their cap.
Why not flag the article itself? There's nothing technical to be discussed here. If the article was talking about the technology, that's one thing, but its talking about state-sponsored espionage. Flagging my post is a bit like closing the barn door after the horses have left the building.
HN isn't just for technical discussion. That ought to be clear both from the site guidelines (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html) and the front page every day. HN has had articles about this kind of thing pretty much since the beginning and there are often interesting details and twists to discuss. Moreover, the ongoing NSO/Pegasus story is one that a lot of the community has been following with genuine interest. So I think it's ok (I admit I didn't read the article though!)
Most importantly: no matter what the topic is, it doesn't make it ok for commenters to break the guidelines. Just the opposite, in fact—that's why we have this one:
"Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive."
Your comment obviously broke that, as well as several others, which is why I replied as I did.
These export controls for weapons exist in much of the western world. Once granted a license, Israel has no legal say in how the product is used by the end user.
It’s all very routine and standard, not sure why people need basic explanations of what government export regulation is when the discussion is on Israel.
