|
In
spite of constant reassurances about the term "democracy"
one is rarely allowed to criticize the country of
Israel without suffering some punishing consequence
for it. If you are a Jew you may survive the accusations
of anti-Semitism but if you consistently express yourself
online in any dissidence about Israel's current politick,
you will probably not be immune to cyber attack.
Israeli
peace groups that I have contact with suffer from
cyber attack collectively and individually and at
the very least, receive massive spamming. One group
that I have a particular association with is New
Profile. New Profile is an organization in pursuit
and practice of a more civil, less militarized society
in Israel, with specific support being given to conscientious
objectors who, in good conscience, can not and will
not be part of the present IDF's agenda of terrorizing
civilians in the Occupied Territories in order to
collectively punish the past and combat the future
crimes of suicide bombers, while at the same time
grabbing more land for settlements.
One
such famous conscientious objector noted for his pacifism
and also his relationship to former Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu is his nephew, Yoni Ben Artzi.
While Yoni, a brilliant physics and math student who
could better serve Israel at University, was being
shuffled back and forth between military courts that
seem to have real problems understanding the term,
"pacifism", there was another Israeli teen
calling attention to himself via computer crime.
His
name is Ehud Tenenbaum. Ehud Tenenbaum is a young
man who Benjamin Netanyahu noticed and noted at the
time of Tenenbaum's arrest in 1998, as "damn
good ". The rest of the quote has sometimes been
edited but in this case needs completion. Netanyahu
said of Ehud Tenebaum that he was was "damn good
.........and very dangerous". (CNN Interactive:
March 19, 1998)
Ehud
was indeed a dangerous variable in our security system
just prior to 9-11.
As
U.S. troops, combated aircraft and warships gathered
in the Persian Gulf February of 1998, Ehud Tenenbaum
was about to be arrested for hacking into the Pentagon
in what then US Deputy Defence Secretary John Hamre
called, "the most organized and systematic attack
to date" on US military systems. The attacks
were played down and somewhat negligently reported
in the media which seems to reflect the general negligence
which allowed the attacks in the first place. The
attacks exploited a well known vulnerability in the
Solaris system, for which there had been a patch available
for months. Hamre admitted grave concerns that the
computer attacks and vulnerabilities "might"
be related.
This
case in the Israeli judicial system continued over
the next few years and according to the reporting
of Kevin Poulsen, "The hacker known as 'The Analyzer'
was sentenced Thursday in Israel to six months of
community service for a series of intrusions into
the U.S. Defense Department computers that triggered
America's first full-blown infowar false alarm"
(Security Focus, June 15 2001)Ehud Tenenbaum,
then 22, also received one year of probation and a
two-year suspended prison sentence that could be enforced
if he committed another computer crime within three
years. Additionally, the hacker was fined 75,000 New
Israeli Sheqalim; about $18,000 U.S. dollars.
Another
person arrested that year was Calldan Levi Coffman,
of Carson, Washington who was the suspected leader
of a group of computer hackers who broke into a network
of NASA labs. US officials claimed that the attacks
were serious, but that no classified information had
been compromised. This conjecture, meant as a reassurance?
Was mostly based upon there having been no indication
of any organized campaign against the state and country.
According
to a CNN report at the time of the crime, "The
Analyzer" and his online companions, claimed
not to have seriously been looking for secrets, but
only wanting to prove weaknesses. He and his online
buddies in computer crime, proved weaknesses in M.I.T.'s
plasma energy labs and break-ins were then reported
in a variety of military locations, including the
Naval Undersea Warfare Center as well as NASA and
various universities throughout the country. Tenenbaum
had been mentoring two other teen hackers from California
and the NASA investigators further linked Coffman
as the leader of the group called "ViRii"
which had taken control of a Jet Propulsion Laboratory
in Pasadena. After being apprehended, Ehud was inducted
into Israeli military service, just like any other
high school graduate.
Two
years later, while awaiting various pleas and bargaining
,Tenenbaum was making busy as a consultant for the
company 2Xs which further cooperated with an anonymous
organization called, The Israeli Internet Underground.
This company seemed to provide patriotic? service
by convincing other companies in Israel how vulnerable
you and your computer are while at the same time,
offering you the protection your need in order to
survive the attacks.
Later,
BBC News (February 1, 1999) reported another teen
with similar politics who was lauded for sending a
virus to www.iraq.com under the pretense of being
a Palestinian with a computer virus for Israeli sites!
According to the BBC Online Network, Nir Zigdon had
read about alleged anti-Semitic sites in a PC magazine
and told authorities,
"I
destroyed the site because it contained lies about
the US and Israel and propaganda against the Jews".
Nir
claimed to have received 100's of congratulatory phone
calls for his vigilante work.
Perhaps,
if one is an Israeli Knesset member one can feel "safely"
afforded the opportunity to speak out directly against
Israeli government policies via "democracy".
As an American citizen who does not wish her tax dollars
going abroad in support of such pursuits as house
demolitions and the illegal use of administrative
detentions, I have been hated and spammed and recently,
placed in a position where my pc could have been either
damaged or hauled off as evidence for complaining.
In
order to keep my computer, I have probably traded
off my privacy.
Sound
like exaggeration? or paranoia? Besides living in
a country where government surveillance seems to know
no distinction between terror and patriotism under
the umbrella of an oddly called, "Patriot Act",
there continues to exist groups of computer hackers
and spammers intent upon vicious response to public
outrage and political comment concerning Israel's
occupation of Palestine.
Michael
Gillespie in an article published by Media Monitors
called, "Israeli Computer Hackers Foiled, Exposed"
(September 2, 2002) wrote of Israeli cyber warfare
professionals who target human rights and anti-war
activists across the USA. In late July and August
of 2002, they temporarily disrupted communications,
harassing hundreds of computer users, and annoying
thousands more. Some of the email aggressively connected
to a web site that takes control of computers, turns
the screen white, and makes it necessary to shut down
and re-start. Some peace activists also reported that
their e-mail addresses had been "spoofed"
and their on-line identities appropriated for distribution
of racist and ugly messages sent out in their name.
A
year earlier in The Nation (October 10, 2001)
Abby Aguirre wrote an article called, "Palestine
Activism Spammed" and related current cyber techniques
used to thwart any and all criticism about Israel
. This article reported that most well known peace
activists thought to be pro-Palestinian are routinely
targeted along with their contacts. MIT linguistics
professor Noam Chomsky, is one of the more recognized
names.
Noam
Chomsky's name is also associated with a small and
clever program on the computer that generates random
sentences to sound very academic but which actually
make no sense at all. This has been termed a Chomskybot
and it has evolved into a device used in one of the
types of spam I have been receiving lately. My latest
spam appears to be a Chomskybot spinoff.
With
scripted and "foggy" cloning, Chomskybot
is able to get through the usual spamming blocks.
As far as I can fathom in my limited knowledge of
Geek, Chomskybot is made generically and lets you
specify the number of sentences in a paragraph to
accept any ammount of phrase files. Chomskybot has
in its potential, not only the ability to get through
spam guards, but the ability to embed all types of
messages which can (and does) distract a pc owner
with fear and paranoia.
Much
of my latest spam, has had Chomskybot style messages
embedded with oddball phrases directly related to
quotes from Jules Verne, HG Wells, and Charles Darwin
which have nothing at all to do with the product being
overtly advertised. Some of my spam appeared to be
phrased with geographical IPS locations. While this
appears more refined than actual cursing and virus
attachments that I have received in the past for daring
to write an article about the conscientious objectors,
or Israeli nuclear objector Mordechai Vanunu, or the
illegal use of administartive detentions, it is still
disconcerting as an American citizen to receive this
spam and be confronted and conflicted by an obligation
to tell someone or be culpable or be set up as culpable.
Privacy and credibility aside, we are presently at
war and I do not take lightly any of the men and women
who serve under US military command. Therefore, I
was more concerned about the nature of this spam,
more than the other spam I have received. And it has
made me angry and upset.
This
form of collective cyber punishment is a waste of
everyone's time and energies. It is yet another bully
tactic that has been going on for some time and the
fact that it can elicit similar hateful responses
from hackers outside of Israel, does not make me any
less angry about it. Collective punishment and mass
retaliations seem to be the Israeli standard for cyber
warfare as well as ground warfare. Why must it be
a standard for everyone? And what consideration is
there in the energy spent on all of this being rerouted
towards creative solutions re: the hideous situation
in Israel and the Occupied Territories?
Last
year much of the Israeli cyber wars were curtailed
because of the concerted efforts of a computer administrator
(and detective) from Iowa named Dr. Bassam Shehadeh.
Soon after a cyber attack to his university in Iowa,
Shehadeh tracked hackers to a West Bank ISP and, finally,
to an Israeli phone number, while other computer professionals
in the USA, along with some of the targeted activists
themselves, quietly contacted management representatives
at various IP addresses around the globe and notified
them that their facilities were being abused.
I
followed in example of this technique and sent my
most unusual spam to Sun Technologies with regards
to its ownership of iPlanetMessagingHotFix. I received
answer but went further and sent it to individual
computer scientists whose job at Sun is computer security.
I also used my skills as a librarian and discovered
that all of the spam phrases and quotations originated
from four websites. Three of the four websites that
I found ranked were sometimes the only reference,
originating from online libraries that collect user
information and the fourth, was a private website
located in Israel.
All
of this certainly distracted me. But it also succeeded
in recharging my efforts with energies based upon
the response to being bullied. I suggest that all
effort be made to continue to get real truth to America
and the international community at large. Besides
the advantage that the internet gives us as, we need
to further apply direct pressure to news medias who
display slant or who ignore one group for another
and also by making a more concerted effort through
all medias to investigate violations into human rights
issues in the Occupied Territories. Until such time
as Israel makes good its "good will" especially
re: a military that operates outside of legal jurisprudence
and that victimizes civilians in such a way as to
constitute what Amnesty International has most recently
termed "War Crimes", we as Americans must
stop funding terror.
Some
really dedicated Israeli dissenters are my example
and inspiration.
Devorah
Brous is a diligent grass roots peace activist who
frequently complains about being subjected to the
continuous effort her government makes in order to
suppress the truth that there are many in Israel who
wish to make a sincere and lasting peace effort and
in doing so are in direct conflict of their present
government. Her computer and her daily coming and
going have been constantly interrupted, especially
against her most recent political effort, educating
the public about the 100 Bedouin homes demolished
this year by the IDF.
The
bullying principle, whether cyber or in person, produces
not just an individual outrage but a connection with
others in their outrage. It is that connection that
shares the higher value beyond anger and retaliation.
That connection studies a situation and brings it
forth into the light for all to see. Imagine if the
efforts spent on suppression could be better spent
in gestures of good will?
One
interesting study that has come to me because of all
this spam is my retrospective upon Israeli leadership
and party ideals in Israel's government. I am very
interested in that period when, by elected agreement,
the leadership of Israel was "shared" .
Do you suppose an Al Gore could possibly have shared
an office with a George Bush, the way Shimon Peres
and Yitzhak Shamir shared? What better way to study
the direct cause and effects of government policies
as applied by the leadership of two distinctly different
men.
For
instance, not since the reign of Yitzhak Shamir has
there been such an increase and obvious jump in Israeli
casualties AND causalities with relationship to ....home
demolitions of the Palestinian people:
|
Year
|
Houses
Demolished
|
Israeli
Casualities
|
Palestinian
Casualities
|
|
2000
|
0
|
4
|
5
|
|
2001
|
9+1
(partial)
|
102
|
9
|
|
2002
|
234+1
|
230
|
29
|
If
there seems to be no actual intelligence in present
authority that can look at such figures and consider
the relationship of the one upon the other and the
grave consequences upon two people.... then it is
time for a change! Israel! Wake up!
Ethnic
cleansings and continued abuses against human rights
has PROVEN to not make for a safer or better Israel.
Neither will a wall nor barrier protect those who
live within the barrier while represented by those
who would inflict terror upon Palestinian civilians.
The statistics provided by B'tselem make it obvious
and clear that the Oslo Accord and Rapprochement plans
made for a direction towards a lasting peace. Since
then, that peace plan has been discarded and replaced
with a RoadMap going Nowhere, but taking everyone
on a horrible and endless detour..
As
an American citizen I wish to remove my monetary support
at such a time when America needs my dollars and Israel
needs to prove it worthiness and its good will and
intentions towards the Peace Process.
Others
like myself join with the growing minority in Israel
who wish to live without fear from the reprisals of
a bellicose nationalism enacted by the present IDF.
As an American citizen, I am horrified by my country’s
lack of foresight in entering Iraq and I am not reconciled
to the consequences and expendabilities which my government
consciously elected to choose in its occupation of
another country. In this way, I feel very much in
empathy with Israeli peace activists.
Israeli
peace activists are a presence and role model to everyday
folk everywhere working daily towards a better means
of existence and government; who do not wish to live
within the repetitive cycle of violence and terrorism.
Imagine,
again, if all of the effort and money spent on aggression
and suppression was better spent in gestures of good
will. There does not need to be a RoadMap or any map
at all about Good Will:
Releasing
political prisoners held with out charges under administrative
detentions , especially children is such a gesture
of Good Will.
Rebuilding
100 Bedouin homes is also such a gesture of Good Will.
Our
voices will not be suppressed by hackers. Internet
bullying no doubt causes distress and harm and can
temporarily be disruptive as well. But it also represents
how much we are really feared by those who would keep
us quiet. That fear is a powerful worm, stronger than
any computer worm or virus. It produces a greater
and longer lasting harm unto itself and the Bully...and
as a result...a virulent, more powerful "worm"
is created and when cut up or separated, will regenerate
itself and will attract more consideration of better
values and concerns about Human Rights issues from
more people.
Yoni
Ben Artzi is a young man of courage and honor. He
respects his heritage by properly addressing his dissidence.
His mother and father and uncle and generations to
come can be proud of him and of his commitment towards
a better Israel. History will prove the worth and
value of one such young man over the misconduct of
others.
Mary
La Rosa is an artist/librarian who now lives in Firewall,
New York.
She
can be regularly spammed at her usual address: mddalton@optonline.net
References:
Department
of Homeland Security News Service 1998
www.CNN.com/TECH
www.theregister.co.uk
www.mediamonitors.net
www.AmnestyInternational.org
http://www.btselem.org
The
Latest Fatalities in the al-Aqsa Intifada,: 29 Sept.
2000 - 22 October 2003
In
the Occupied Territories
2,194
Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces
in the Occupied Territories, of whom 414 were minors
under the age of 18.
Ages
of the minors killed: Seventy Eight minors were
age 17, Seventy Seven were age 16, Fifty Six were
age 15, Fifty Three were age 14, Forty Four were
age 13, Twenty One were age 12, Fourteen were age
11, Twelve were age 10, Nine were age 9, Thirteen
were age 8, Five were age 7, Five were age 6, Four
were age 5, Four were age 4, Seven were age 3, Five
were two years old, Five were One year old babies,
One was a 6 month old baby girl and One was a four
month old baby girl.
At
least 125 of the Palestinians killed were extrajudicially
executed by Israel. In the course of these assasinations
85 additional Palestinians were killed.
32
Palestinians were killed by Israeli civilians, including
Three minors: One was age 17, One was age 14 and
One was a Two month- old baby girl.
Nine
foreign Citizens were killed by Israeli security
forces gunfire.
194
Israeli civilians were killed by Palestinians, 30
of them were minors under the age of 18: Six were
aged 17, Five were age 16, Seven were age 14, Two
were age 13, One was age 11, Two were age 9, Three
were age 5, One was a 10 month-old baby girl, One
was a 7 month-old baby girl, One was a 5 month-old
baby boy and one was a one day old baby boy.
Seven
foreign citizens were killed by Palestinians.
173
members of the Israeli security forces were killed
by Palestinians.
86
Palestinians were killed by Palestinian civilians
on suspicion of collaborating with Israel. 18 of
them were killed while held in the custody of the
Palestinian security forces.29 Palestinian were
killed by members of the Palestinian security forces.
9 of them were killed while held in the custody
of the Palestinian security forces. 3 of them were
executed, 2 after being convicted of collaboration
with Israel and 1 after being convicted of criminal
charges.One Palestinian was killed by gunfire by
a Palestinian who opened fire at Israeli civilians.
One
Palestinian civilian was killed by gunfire when
IDF soldiers forced him to serve as their human
shield.
Within
Israel
48
Palestinians, residents of the Occupied Territories,
were killed by Israeli security forces gunfire.
One of those killed was a minor aged 14.
376
Israeli civilians were killed by Palestinians, residents
of the Occupied Territories. 74 of them were minors
under the age of 18. Of them: Twelve were age 17,
Thirteen were age 16, Fourteen were age 15, Six
were age 14, Four were age 13, Three were age 12,
Two were age 11, One was age 10, Two were age 9,
Two were age 8, Two were age 7, One was age 5, Three
were age 4, Two were age 3, One was a two years
old baby, One was an Eighteen month old baby, One
was a 14 month old baby, One was a One year old
baby, One was an Eleven month old baby, One was
a nine month old baby, and One was a seven month
old baby.
3
Israeli civilians were killed by foreign citizens
32
foreign citizens were killed by Palestinians. Two
of them were minors: One of them - 16 years old
and the other - Five months old.
76
members of the Israeli security forces were killed
by Palestinians, residents of the Occupied Territories.
Palestinians
who died after medical treatment was delayed due
to restrictions of movement. Palestinians killed
by an explosive device that they set or was on their
person. 12 Palestinian citizens of Israel killed
within Israel by the Israeli Police. One Jewish
Israeli citizen killed within Israel by a Palestinian-Israeli
citizen in October 2000. Two Jewish Israeli citizens
and One member of the Israeli security forces, killed
by a Palestinian citizen of Israel in Nahariya in
September 2001. Four Palestinian-citizens of Israel
killed by IDF gunfire in the Territories.
One
Palestinian-citizen of Israel killed by Border Police
gunfire in Israel in July 2003
Index: Current Articles + Latest News and Views + Book Reviews +
Letters + Archives
|
