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Well duh. Their activities and standpoints are obviously important to know about from the perspective of Israeli national security. I'd be extremely surprised if senior Israeli officials weren't targeted by spyware from the EU members (although probably not by the EU itself as it lacks an army and spy agency). Spies gonna spy.
> Their activities and standpoints are obviously important to know about from the perspective of Israeli national security.

The claim here is that the spyware was Israeli, not that the state actor using it was Israel. NSO has customers all over the world.

Would your statement be the same if it was Russia or China doing the spying?
Yes of course. In fact, I'd be super surprised if the Russian and Chinese spy agencies weren't trying to spy on EU leadership, US leadership, each other and on all sorts of other countries/companies/individuals besides. The USA and various EU companies also all spy on pretty much everyone. International diplomacy is the dirtiest game in town and everyone knows it.

When someone fucks up and some spying is discovered the politicians will act all shocked for a week or so and then it quiets down again because nobody wants the public to think all too much about how much spying on allies their own country does.

Of course, only criminals have something to hide.

Although, I think this show how inverted the mentality is: you're expecting (dirty) spying to be between competing entities or outright enemies, not between allies. Unless allies aren't really so.

I am not sure about that. I would definitely expect allies to keep tabs on each other for several reasons. I would not expect them to sell spying capabilities that could be used against their allies to any dictator who comes asking, however. Or really compromise their infrastructure.

Remember that the US did spy on several European heads of states a couple of years ago, including bugging their phones (or attempting to).

Did I forget?

The US spying has been linked to explicitly screwing Europe of huge industrial contracts, the biggest one probably being a Boeing/Airbus competition. I don't see that invalidating anything, certainly not showing that this is harmless.

This was exactly one for one the statement we heard when it was made public that domestic agencies do spy on the population, which is far, far more relevant than Russia or China doing it, obviously.
>Israel’s NSO Group has been deemed worthless to its private equity backers, just three years after it bought the maker of the notorious Pegasus spyware at a $1bn valuation.

>It has become “abundantly clear” that the equity in NSO is “valueless”, the consultancy firm brought in to manage the fund that owns the blacklisted cyber group said in court filings.

https://www.ft.com/content/24584247-0fd4-4826-bcac-f726ad17a...

...and noting will happen to anyone involved.
Throwing the adjective "Israeli" into the title is misleading as it suggest the state of Israel is somehow involved. The attackers used software from the NSO Group which sells to nations or entities willing to pay enough. Blaming Israel for this is like blaming Japan for all of the Toyota Hiluxes converted into gun platforms around the world.
This headline similar (not equivalent) to "Ukranian fighters destroy Russian tanks with USA provided Javelin missiles". Given the impact of these hacks, geopolitically I think Israel will receive pressure from it's western friends about this issue.
> I think Israel will receive pressure from it's western friends about this issue.

Yeah, sure, pressure that they reduce the price for their licences perhaps.

That'd be the letter agencies calling the shots, but there might be some public opinions thrown about with no material changes backing them.
The Israeli MoD has to authorise sales of NSO spyware. So yes, Israeli is a very apt adjective.
This is patently false since there are anti-terrorist laws regulating the selling of encryption-related software. If a country is selling weapons to an armed group said country is rightly blamed for it.

> Pegasus spyware is classified as a weapon by Israel and any export of the technology must be approved by the government. [0]

Please explain how many Toyota Hiluxes are classified as weapons, require special government approval, etc.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSO_Group

Toyota Hiluxes' main use is for moving around. What is the main use of this spyware?