Pegasus, the white, winged horse, and its story, is a favorite theme in Greek mythology and has often been regarded as a symbol of poetic inspiration.
So how did an Israeli cyber technology company come up with the idea to name its most successful product after the mystical flying white horse? It is hard to believe it was poetic inspiration but it has no doubt inspired many governments around the world, as well as shadier institutions like Mexican drug lords, and the use of the Pegasus spyware is widespread and more victims are being published almost daily. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has compiled a list of people and institutions where the spyware was found and it includes journalists, diplomats, government officials, human rights activists and many more.
Each country, and its governments and citizens, will have to deal with the serious human rights violations by their agencies or officials, and since in many cases, countries are involved where democracy is not really prevalent, not too much may be expected from that corner.
As Israelis, watching the developments around Pegasus and the security forces use of it, there are grounds to worry but there are three questions that should be prominent in that worry.
First of all, how come that spyware like the Pegasus, which is not only very sophisticated but also very intruding and capable of things that the man in the street will consider unimaginable, from reading your phone, listening to your calls, reading your mails and messages seeing and copying your pictures etc., how come that Israel is the fertile ground to develop such spyware. Of course the first thing coming to one’s mind, is security. And, while security is being brought up as excuse and justification of almost every action undertaken in Israel, there is a basis of justification here. Israel still has a lot of enemies and war as we have known it for the past seventy years is changing rapidly and cyber is playing a major role. In order to stay ahead of its enemies, Israel will need to have access to the most sophisticated weaponry, and while this still includes planes and systems like the Iron Dome, more and more, wars will be fought in cyberspace and Israel needs to be able to know what its enemies are planning and spyware is the obvious solution to that. But apparently we are a democracy too weak to withstand the possibilities that such spyware opens up and the control over our civil servants (and maybe politicians) is insufficient to prevent the use of such software for illegal purposes.
The second question Israelis need to ask is in fact related to the first one, in the sense that control over the spyware apparently is not sufficient to prevent the abuse of it. The Pegasus spyware, no doubt is a strategic weapon that was developed by Israel (an Israeli company) which should be considered part of the defense industry. In Israel there are very strict rules for the sale of weaponry and the Defense Ministry has to give explicit permission for such sales to take place. So how did Mexican drug cartels get their hands on Pegasus? Where did the list of shady governments in South America, Africa and the Far East buy the software? How did the Saudi government obtain the spyware?
Did NSO sell it to these outside sources illegally? It is hard to believe, but if they did, why are they still operating as if nothing happened? Why did the Security apparatus in Israel not jump on them and stop their illegal actions? It is more logical that NSO did what it needs to do and request permission from the Defense Ministry and in one way or another, that permission was granted. Does that mean political influence? By whom? And what advantage does Israel have by selling the spyware to the government of El Salvador or the regime of Rwanda? Lately it was revealed that Netanyahu enabled the sale of Pegasus to Saudi Arabia in a diplomatic move (which apparently aided in the murder of Kashoggi, the Saudi journalist who was murdered in the Saudi Embassy in Turkey). The Israeli public has a right to know what went on politically and diplomatically surrounding the sale of Pegasus, even if it appears most Israelis are not really interested.
The third question exposes a problem that is local but not less serious. In Israel it is becoming clear that the police have been using the spyware in many instances, (with or without the approval of the courts) and a variety of people have had their privacy invaded illegally, from anti-Netanyahu protesters, majors, and the most famous one, a key witness in the Netanyahu corruption trial. The police, as well as the justice ministry have been either denying the allegations or prefer not to talk about it at all, but it is clear already that over the past 5-10 years the police has repeatedly invaded the privacy of citizens, without due legal process or good reason. Slowly the political system is waking up to this bitter reality but still hesitant to take very clear action even though there is a lot of talk going on. Ministers still apparently do not know the facts or are willing to admit that they do and do not really know how to act in the face of this, one of the most serious challenges Israel democracy has faced in its seventy-year history. Interior minister Ayelet Shaked, called for an external committee to investigate the issue, calling it (if it is true), “an earthquake, an act fitting dark regimes of the last century”.
Maybe one of the main tasks of such a committee should be to investigate how far Israel’s democracy has deteriorated and to what extend today Israel is like one of those “Dark Regimes of the last century”.
I hope you found this article interesting and I welcome any comments you may have.
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