Military-Security Complex Has Seized Power In Israel

The latest alarming chapter in the never-ending roller-coaster world tour of NSO, the most controversial and notorious global offensive cyber company, should not come as a surprise, Yossi Melman said in an analysis published by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Photo Insert: It now turns out that Israel’s police force, using NSO’s Pegasus spyware and without warrants, monitored Israelis.

It now turns out that Israel’s police force, using NSO’s Pegasus spyware and without warrants, monitored Israelis, including civil society activists and protestors against former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The police deny the allegations exposed by business daily Calcalist and claims that each bugging case was approved by a judge. These new revelations are just a natural process of Israel’s crippled and eroded democracy, which is controlled by a powerful military-security apparatus.

Six years ago, the first reports emerged around the world regarding a mysterious, unruly, Israeli company which was involved in dirty spying, violations of human rights, and invasions of privacy.

The Israeli government turned a blind eye and the complacent Israeli public shrugged its shoulders. Then came the second wave, about the use of NSO's software against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank who were targeted by the Shin Bet, Israel's domestic security service.

Still, Israelis didn’t care. Most of them are used to living in peace alongside the occupation, which will mark its 55th anniversary this year. For many, its use against Palestinians was more than acceptable.

Now we reach the third phase, its most troubling from a narrow Israeli perspective. This is the revelation that the sophisticated Pegasus tool, which is capable of remotely hacking iPhones and android phones, was used by the police not only to fight crime but also to spy on innocent Israeli citizens, Jews and Arabs alike.

In the 19th century, the U.S. and other western powers pursued their foreign policy objectives through gunboat diplomacy. Israel, in the 20th and 21st centuries, has advanced its international relations with what we can call "espionage diplomacy."

NSO, now blacklisted by the US, was encouraged by the Israeli government to sell its product to countries around the world. As leverage to persuade foreign governments to either establish diplomatic ties or a sweetener to upgrade them, the Ministry of Defense and the Mossad, Israel's foreign security service, greenlighted the private firm to sell Pegasus.

WEEKLY FEATURE : MVP Group Keeps Lights On During Pandemic