> aimed at Starlink users and that it was the No. 1 bidder on Starlink traffic in more than 100 countries, including several where Starlink itself was banned or restricted.
Some counter espionage program? Maybe spies use Starlink instead of radios these days.
Increasingly obvious and annoying, even to most normies, that Israel is nowadays the main obstacle not only to lasting peace in the middle east (and various other regions) but also a major menace to anyone valuing their right to (digital) privacy.
This is always the classic defense whenever Israel is discovered to be doing something nefarious. Used to deflect criticism. Do we have any evidence that other nations are doing this? If we did we did, then that other country would get criticized in the exact same way. They are not being held to a different standard.
An example would be Cambridge Analytica, they got more bad press for doing similarly evil things and they are not Israeli.
Yes other countries do things that are similar, like China. But China doesn't have a "special relationship" with the US like Israel does, they aren't our "greatest ally" like Israel is purported to be, and they don't have staff and representatives at the highest levels of the US government like Israel does.
I would rather eat a bug than debate Israel vs. NATO on HN (or anywhere else), but these threads about Israeli spyware firms are actively misleading about something HN generally covers (CNE and security). I don't care what you think about Israel. I do care that people genuinely believe that these kinds of things (ad-driven spyware feels like it's on the tame side of what we talk about) are somehow distinctive to Israel.
Your argument reduces the quality of discussion. Part of it is stripping nuance, and part of it is whataboutism.
If someone comments that "Qatar produces a high amount of greenhouse gases", a reply that says "Every country on Earth produces some greenhouse gases" is low quality; can we talk about CO2 production, compare trends, dig into why Qatar's per capita emissions are so damn high, and what can be done - if anything - to achieve the idealized version of the world.
If you say so. Someone made a claim, suggesting that Israel is somehow the world leader in spyware. That's definitely not true. Seems worth clarifying!
You do Israel a big disservice honestly. If you are going to defend them, try to do it well. Israel has a PR problem right now, and it’s because discussions are shut down or subverted. Please don’t be a part of that.
Having worked in the adtech many years ago, there are a lot questionable practices and companies, curiously only the Israeli one are singled out(and get to top of HN). Huge number of adtech companies are American, many are Chinese or Indian and others.
I hoped with Ukrainians destroying Yandex data centers the obsession with jews and Israel (a jew among the nations) would subdue on HN but alas ...
Only 100 years ago those things were said and now I see the repeat of it.
"The Jew has no interest in the solution of the questions regarding the German fate. . . . The Jew has caused our misery, and today he makes a living from it."
-Joseph Goebbels, 30 July 1928
> Israel is nowadays the main obstacle not only to lasting peace in the middle east (and various other regions)
Ironically Israel uses hacking tool sales as a tool for diplomacy[0]. Apparently Pegasus sales played a critical role in the Abraham Accord negotiations. While there are obvious ethical issues here it seems these tools likely actually helped create real peace deals in practice.
Empowering Israel is not a "peace deal". That's like saying the alliance of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan was a "peace deal". Israel was also blackmailing Bill Clinton over Monica Lewinsky:
The Abraham Accords[0] are a normalization and peace deal.
> That's like saying the alliance of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan was a "peace deal".
Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan made a peace deal(they were on different sides in WW1) before they created that military alliance, so that's not really the same thing.
> Israel was also blackmailing Bill Clinton over Monica Lewinsky
How is this related to a peace deal? The US and Israel had normalized relations already.
Relieved this has been posted here, I strongly feel the same and this should be general knowledge given how much public evidence put out by Israel themselves explaining their lunatic plans for the middle east.
Its private companies and not state per se, often spawned from young folks going through mandatory military service serving in NSA-like places like Unit 8200, and then continuing their trajectory either locally or in palantirs/faangs.
I don't think morals and ethics are drilled too deep into those recruits, more like 'the end justifies the means' style of operation.
I'm sorry that your top rated comment got flagged. That's ridiculous. My highly rated comment got flagged too. This site has a serious Zionism problem that the mods should address.
Mossad director Yossi Cohen said that they have implemented 'manipulated equipment' across "virtually every potential theatre of operation," and “in all the countries that you can imagine".
Indeed, few things are more appropriate for Hacker News than information about a state constantly hacking people. It's actually dangerous to bury this information so quickly as we are all at risk.
27 comments
[ 1.6 ms ] story [ 25.9 ms ] threadSome counter espionage program? Maybe spies use Starlink instead of radios these days.
An example would be Cambridge Analytica, they got more bad press for doing similarly evil things and they are not Israeli.
Yes other countries do things that are similar, like China. But China doesn't have a "special relationship" with the US like Israel does, they aren't our "greatest ally" like Israel is purported to be, and they don't have staff and representatives at the highest levels of the US government like Israel does.
If someone comments that "Qatar produces a high amount of greenhouse gases", a reply that says "Every country on Earth produces some greenhouse gases" is low quality; can we talk about CO2 production, compare trends, dig into why Qatar's per capita emissions are so damn high, and what can be done - if anything - to achieve the idealized version of the world.
Besides maybe the US, not really no
Only 100 years ago those things were said and now I see the repeat of it. "The Jew has no interest in the solution of the questions regarding the German fate. . . . The Jew has caused our misery, and today he makes a living from it." -Joseph Goebbels, 30 July 1928
Ironically Israel uses hacking tool sales as a tool for diplomacy[0]. Apparently Pegasus sales played a critical role in the Abraham Accord negotiations. While there are obvious ethical issues here it seems these tools likely actually helped create real peace deals in practice.
[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/28/world/middleeast/israel-p...
https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-said-to-have-offered...
The Abraham Accords[0] are a normalization and peace deal.
> That's like saying the alliance of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan was a "peace deal".
Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan made a peace deal(they were on different sides in WW1) before they created that military alliance, so that's not really the same thing.
> Israel was also blackmailing Bill Clinton over Monica Lewinsky
How is this related to a peace deal? The US and Israel had normalized relations already.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Accords
I don't think morals and ethics are drilled too deep into those recruits, more like 'the end justifies the means' style of operation.
I'm not offering my support of this, but it's just not a surprising state of affairs.
https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/israel-news/2462875/