The problem with NSO is that even in Israel, it doesn't have a great reputation. They invest a lot in tempting high-tech employees to work for them. They have links to the government through regulation and export permits. It's no secret in tech circles that this is the bare minimum of the company's ties to the government. Israel hasn't sold the final word on the intelligence and tracking programs. The fact is that the program can be turned off at the company's discretion, even when it is being operated by foreign governments.
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Ultimately, the world is in an era of tracking and oversight, and in the past decade, Israel has become a cyberpower. In fact, cyber is one of the factors that has made Israel into a power. We aren't talking about selling advanced tools to countries that post a danger to the world, like Iran or China. Hungary, Azerbaijan, and Saudi Arabia are three countries that, to varying extents, are not in good standing with the New York Times, the BBC, or the rest of the media pyramid in the west.
But Hungary is a democracy under a nationalist leader whom the liberal-radical sector does not like. However, it's a legitimately democratic country. The reason Israel does business with these countries is well-known. Much has already been written about Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan being vital to Israel's strategic arrangements on Iran.
There could be many reasons for the reports about NSO's ties to those same countries. We can assess which is correct based on the results. During the Obama administration, all of a sudden Wikileaks published an enormous amount of material, including authentic reports about American spying on Brazilian government officials and tracking and bugging certain government sites in Germany as well as Israel. These reports caused diplomatic crises between the US and the other countries involves. The main effect was embarrassment.
Today, Israel is in the crosshairs. Different entities want to paint Israel as a country that helps evil regimes oppress their citizens. Someone is operating a system of targeted demonization of Israel.
The problem is that in all these countries, including the American democracy โ and maybe especially there โ the government devotes a lot of effort in trying to control its citizens. The Biden administration allegedly tracks people through Facebook in an effort to silence people about the pandemic and vaccines. This dismantles the First Amendment. The truly important thing is that none of these surveillance and espionage methods be activated in Israel without close legal oversight.
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