Israeli Spyware Is In Biden's Crosshairs; Let's Get Pegasus/NSO Banned

By Phyllis Bennis and Omar Barghouti, The Nation

Apple has just filed a lawsuit against Israeli spyware company NSO for harming Apple and its users. Apple accuses NSO of “[weaponizing] powerful state-sponsored spyware against those who seek to make the world a better place,” thus indirectly incriminating Israel. This will further boost the case for banning all spyware.

The Biden administration’s decision earlier this month to “blacklist” NSO, whose infamous Pegasus software hacks smart phones, and another Israeli company, Candiru, which targets computers, may have been influenced by the growing outrage from US-based tech giants about how NSO’s spyware is undermining their own systems’ security, thus threatening their markets.

The United States sanctioning foreign companies is an old story. It happens all the time, usually in response to some commercial transactions deemed harmful to what Washington likes to call “US interests.” But while targeting Chinese and Russian companies is by now routine, going after high-profile Israeli corporations is unprecedented.