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The Israeli government has long viewed Pegasus as a critical tool for its foreign policy. New York Times Magazine article This year revealed how, for more than a decade, Israel has made strategic decisions about which countries it allows Pegasus to obtain licenses from and from which countries it will detain them.
The Israeli government has allowed Pegasus to be bought by authoritarian governments, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which use the gun to spy on dissidents, human rights activists and journalists in those countries. Democratically elected leaders in India, Hungary, Mexico, Panama and other countries have also exploited Pegasus to spy on their political opponents.
Israel used the tool as a bargaining chip in diplomatic negotiations, particularly in secret negotiations that led to the so-called Abraham Accords that normalized relations between Israel and many of its historic Arab adversaries.
“Policy decisions regarding export controls take into account security and strategic considerations, including compliance with international regulations,” Israel’s defense ministry said in a statement in response to questions from The Times. “As a policy, the State of Israel approves the export of cyber products exclusively to government agencies, for lawful use and solely for the purpose of fighting crime and terrorism, within the scope of end-use/end-user statements, solely for the purpose of fighting crime and terrorism. take over the government.”
Since NSO sold Pegasus to the Mexican government more than a decade ago, spyware has been used by dozens of countries to track down criminals, terrorists and drug traffickers. But abuse of this tool has been widespread, from Saudi Arabia’s use of Pegasus as part of a brutal crackdown on dissidents within the kingdom to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban authorizing intelligence and law enforcement to deploy spyware against his political organization. competitors.
Last November, the Biden administration put NSO and another Israeli cyber firm in a deal. “black list” of companies It is forbidden to do business with American companies. The Commerce Department said the companies’ tools “allow foreign governments to carry out transnational repression, the practice of authoritarian governments that targets dissidents, journalists and activists outside their sovereign borders to silence dissent.”
Ronen Bergman reported from Kiev and Mark Mazzetti from Washington.
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