Israeli Spyware is a Blight Unto the Nations

Diversity Macht Frei
October 21, 2018

The great anti-Semitic fantasy is that Jews, operating from some secret base somewhere, are involved in almost every form of nefariousness across the world. A recent article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz shows that this fantasy is, to significant degree, true.

It documents how Israel firms are shipping surveillance technology to dodgy regimes across the world. The technology offers almost total penetration of mobile phone systems, allowing dissidents to be tracked and monitored. Their calls can be listened to; their messages and emails can be read (or sent); the phones can be turned into microphones allowing real-world conversations to be heard.

Israel has established a leading role for itself in this dubious technological sector.

Haaretz:

Privacy International has been publishing research studies about international trade in surveillance technology since 1995. A PI report issued two years ago noted the tremendous growth of the industry. Whereas in 2012 it encompassed 246 companies globally, by 2016 the number of firms had more than doubled, to 528. There are 27 Israeli firms on the list, making Israel the country with the highest per capita ratio of surveillance companies. Local and international data indicate that Israel accounts for between 10 and 20 percent of the global cyber market. In 2016, investments in Israeli startups in the industry accounted for 20 percent of the world total.

The dizzying success of the Israeli interception and surveillance industry is not a chance development that was generated by a spontaneous eruption of Jewish genius. When the high-tech bubble burst, in 2000, the Israeli economy went into a tailspin, which was countered by the intervention of Finance Minister Silvan Shalom and his successor, Benjamin Netanyahu. The government increased security expenditures by more than 10 percent and encouraged the local startup industry to enter the fields of security and surveillance.

The Israel Defense Forces, for its part, played the role of a business hothouse, as its technological intelligence units swelled and their graduates channeled the knowledge they’d acquired into a host of startups.

Indeed, a recently published study found that the 700 local cyber companies were established by a small group of 2,300 Israelis, 80 percent of whom belong to the exclusive club created in the IDF’s intelligence units, notably Unit 8200.

The Israelis have helped governments persecute political dissidents in Latin America. And it’s not clear that the technology was sold only to governments.

Another source who spoke to Haaretz confirms that Israeli firms are continuing to sell offensive cyber capabilities to Mexico as well, even after it became known that they were being used against civilians. “One of the things that always scared me in Mexico is that you never know whom you’re actually talking to, and who’s behind him,” the source says. “Everything there is utterly corrupt, but they are very careful not to reveal their purposes to the Israelis.”

An instructor who trained local agencies in Latin America in the use of Verint systems, relates that he personally witnessed the abuse of the products. “There was one time that I was teaching people how to collect information from the social networks,” he recalls. “I’m working with the trainees and explaining things to them, when suddenly they ask me to run a check on [political] demonstrators. Just like that, in the middle of the training session.”

Another similar anecdote from an unspecified location.

“I happened to see a super-wrong use of the systems,” says Tomer, who has trained intelligence bodies all over the world. “I’m telling foreign trainees about the system’s capabilities, and they pounce on it and start to place people under surveillance for negligible reasons, right before my eyes. Someone was critical of the president’s move to raise prices, someone else shared a hashtag identified with the opposition – and in an instant they’re both on the surveillance list.

The Israelis are quite happy to cooperate with crazy Islamic regimes in the Middle East and elsewhere. Haaretz says Israeli technology was used to “fabricate cases of heresy against Islam in Muslim countries that don’t maintain formal relations with Israel.”

More detail is provided about Indonesia.

Indonesia is no haven for the LGBT community, either: Same-sex relations are classified as a criminal offense there. Reports by human rights organizations have noted the tough policy against the community, as well as against religious minorities, under legislation that bans “blasphemy.” Three sources who spoke to Haaretz talked about wrongful use of Verint products in Indonesia.

In one case, the systems were used to create a database of LGBT rights activists who had been targeted for surveillance. In another, the victims of the spyware were religious minorities. “As soon as I arrived in the country, the client told me that my help was needed with an investigation that was bogged down,” Netanel, who worked with the Indonesians to activate the systems, relates. “Very quickly the investigation turned out to be a case against a non-Muslim public figure who was accused of heresy, an offense that carries the death penalty.”

As far as I can determine, what he says here is incorrect. There seems to be no offence of heresy in Indonesia, only blasphemy, and the maximum penalty for it is not death, but 5 years’ imprisonment.

Nonetheless, the case he is describing is almost certainly that of Basuki Tjahaja Purnama,  known as Ahok. He was a Christian Chinaman and popular governor of an Indonesian province who was expected to make a bid for the Indonesian presidency in future. Accused of blasphemy against Islam, he was imprisoned for 2 years. Critics said the case had been concocted to derail his political career.

Hundreds of thousands of Muslims protested against this governor and demanded that he be arrested and punished for “blasphemy”.

So here were Jews stirring up Muslim hatred against Christians.

When Israeli origins might be perceived as problematical, the Israelis can easily pretend to be from elsewhere.

Two prominent countries on the Israeli cyber map are Cyprus and Bulgaria. The choice of those countries, says a particularly experienced source, derives from low costs, the fact that both are members of the European Union, and also because, despite the European cachet, they are still undeveloped in a way that ensures toothless regulation.

According to Cyberia’s Guy Mizrahi, “Cyprus is definitely one of the preferred countries. Some countries are unwilling to work with Israeli companies and insist on working with a European firm, so you need an additional front to win bids. In most cases, when you want to sell in the EU, and very definitely in the Gulf states, you will need a non-Israeli front.”

Anti-Semites often accuse Jews of playing both sides, of both causing the problem and selling the solution. In the case of cyber espionage, this is literally what they’re doing.

The demand for both defense and offense has led to a widespread phenomenon in the Israeli cyber industry: the sale of espionage capabilities alongside security products. The phenomenon can be likened to a group of hackers who develop malware and afterward sell the antivirus, or to physicians who spread epidemics and then sell the vaccination. Though in some fields this is prohibited practice, in the security world it’s common and widely accepted.

Having investigated the matter, Israeli MP Yehuda Glick came to an interesting conclusion.

“Instead of being a light unto the nations, the Jewish state is circulating weapons that are used in crimes against humanity, and it makes no difference whether it’s a rifle by the force of which a woman was raped by soldiers, or a digital system used for surveillance.”

And, in Israel, none of this is illegal. All of these sales have been approved by the Israeli government. So there actually is a secret cabal of Jews green-lighting iniquity across the globe.