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Six Palestinian organizations hacked with NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware

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Re: Six Palestinian organizations hacked with NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware

#21

Post by iddan »

DeathArrow wrote: post #2

Can someone explain the strong ties between US and Israel, and why US stands behind Israel, no matter what?

Israel and the US have deep strategic and economic relations.c Tel Aviv is one of the hottest startup hubs in the world targeting mainly the US. The US sells military technology to Israel and vice versa. Most of Israel's enemies are hostile to the US as well: Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas to name a few. Not sure it is relevant but historically the Jewish-American community was pro Israel and lobbied for Israel in the US and in Israel there is a significant amount of American-Israeli citizens in diplomacy and power positions (e.g. prime ministers, ministers of foreign affairs). Culturally, Israel is the closest state to the US and Europe. Also, most people in Israel's big cities have a good grasp of the English language.

Re: Six Palestinian organizations hacked with NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware

#22

Post by skinkestek »

vadfa wrote: post #11
DeathArrow wrote: post #2

Can someone explain the strong ties between US and Israel, and why US stands behind Israel, no matter what?

I could tell you, but I would get banned.

I've done so a number of times and even though it goes against the grain here on HN it usually only cost me a few stupid points.

Just stick to the facts:

- UN resolutions

- Well known and well covered history

- Be aware that the Israelis have a rather nasty history too, even if it is rather bland compared to their neighbors

- etc

and you should be fine.

Edit: what I mean is for you and me and everyone who has studied this for a while it is obvious that this is very complicated.

Most people however isn't too interested in it and then the explanation closest at hand is mainstream media who correctly tell them that the Arabs in Gaza are suffering badly and correctly point out that recent Israeli moves has worsened it somewhat - while conveniently leaving out that most of the suffering in Gaza is caused directly by their own administration and the rest of it is created indirectly by them by not only allowing bit also sponsoring and even directing attacks from their territories.

Re: Six Palestinian organizations hacked with NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware

#23

Post by pmyteh »

ktownsend wrote: post #8
DeathArrow wrote: post #2

Can someone explain the strong ties between US and Israel, and why US stands behind Israel, no matter what?

Historically, this hasn't always been the case, and the US were actively opposed to Israel's covert Nuclear program, for example, which was built with French support against the wishes of the US government at the time. The world has change significantly since then, including the French and American governments alignment of interests and weighing to pros and cons. I'm sure other people here can provide more nuance tha…

I agree that it's mostly interests rather than electoral politics, though there's a certain amount of the latter as well (and Israel have invested heavily in public diplomacy programmes to try to keep their stock high in that regard). It's worth noting that one of the other closest allies of the US/UK in the region is Saudi Arabia, who nobody would describe as 'politically moderate' or close in values.

Re: Six Palestinian organizations hacked with NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware

#24

Post by codetrotter »

stef25 wrote: post #15

Slightly OT - Isn't it obvious that NSO must be able to control every "copy" of Pegasus it sells? They wouldn't sell it unless they were absolutely sure it wouldn't be used against its own people and they have no problem selling to their arch enemies. NSO's defense has always been "we just sell the tech and can't be held responsible for what our clients do with it" (this was clear from the Darknet Diaries episode). I…

> They wouldn't sell it unless they were absolutely sure it wouldn't be used against its own people

Why not? NSO Group is willing to sacrifice the lives of others for profit, so who’s to say that NSO Group would shy away from that?

Re: Six Palestinian organizations hacked with NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware

#25

Post by rob74 »

ktownsend wrote: post #8
DeathArrow wrote: post #2

Can someone explain the strong ties between US and Israel, and why US stands behind Israel, no matter what?

Historically, this hasn't always been the case, and the US were actively opposed to Israel's covert Nuclear program, for example, which was built with French support against the wishes of the US government at the time. The world has change significantly since then, including the French and American governments alignment of interests and weighing to pros and cons. I'm sure other people here can provide more nuance tha…

> But US interests align far more with Israel, or politically moderate countries like Jordan than some others in the region.

funny though that Saudi Arabia, which I would definitely not describe as "moderate", is also a very close US ally...

Re: Six Palestinian organizations hacked with NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware

#26

Post by LogonType10 »

DeathArrow wrote: post #2

Can someone explain the strong ties between US and Israel, and why US stands behind Israel, no matter what?

Because if Israel loses a war they will use nukes. When they ask "please help us" we support them... because of the implication.

Re: Six Palestinian organizations hacked with NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware

#28

Post by rob74 »

skinkestek wrote: post #20
DeathArrow wrote: post #2

Can someone explain the strong ties between US and Israel, and why US stands behind Israel, no matter what?

A more instructive question might be (warning: this is meant to get people thinking, but at least I'll be straight forward about it): Why does nobody else follow up on the UN resolution from 1948? (Just like in the case of India / Pakistan UN decided to divide the area into two parts, one for Jews, one for Arabs.) I can also ask: why does so few other support the single somewhat functioning democracy in the region? T…

Er... you mean the UN resolution which produced this map: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Partition_Plan_... ? Well, today Israel opposes the current "two state solution" proposal which would give the Palestinians a much smaller territory than on that map, so I kind of understand why the proposal from 1948 is not on the table anymore...

Re: Six Palestinian organizations hacked with NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware

#30

Post by jonathanstrange »

encryptluks2 wrote: post #6

Is there a tool to scan your devices for Pegasus?

Such a tool would be outdated very soon after it's published because these companies check their hacks against known antivirus and detection tools before they deploy them.
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