The Huge Problem of Russian-Israeli Tech Cooperation

One case study, Cyabra

I’ve said this before on this blog, but one big problem with the limitless support for Israel’s actions is that it becomes a means of backdoor support for the Russians. This is a problem that goes back a very long way. Most of the parties in Israel that are comprised of Russian Jews are on the right.

There’s a lot of history to this, from the Pollard case to the various other ways the Soviets compromised the Israeli state, but for now let’s just look at it in contemporary terms, with one company.

This is the sort of company you would want to divest from, or not do business with, not because of some ideological objection to Zionism, but because of multiple national security risks.

It’s important to be clear about that: I think Norman Finkelstein’s view of deep skepticism toward the Israeli government, while also being opposed in principle to BDS is the right one. It would be better if they worked with us instead of the Russians, a principle it seems Mike Pompeo doesn’t share.

However, it’s very important, especially when it comes to companies doing business either with the government or other companies that shape public discourse in substantial ways, that they be free to decline to do business or make deals with particular companies that pose clear risks. I haven’t seen anyone very prominent say that, and it troubles me a little. There has to be freedom to say, for instance, this deal is not in our interest, or, given the poor record of Israeli tech companies, this is not an area we’re going to let you play. That’s not the same as BDS, and BDS supporters would tell you that.

When you have a right-wing coalition in Israel, and the Israeli right is very Russian, and they’re trying to do tech cooperation with the United States, that presents risks.

You can find examples of this in everything from defense tech to AI, but let’s look at Cyabra here, which has to do with disinformation and social media. Mike Pompeo is a director, a man known for his unlimited indulgence of the Israeli right.

A company like Cyabra ostensibly exists to combat the threat of social media disinformation. The problem is if you look at the rest of the Israeli tech sector they are primary disseminators of disinformation and malicious information campaigns on social media. So there’s an aspect of this whereby you might reasonably think we would be better off without the Israeli tech sector, rather than fucking things up for us and then selling us an ostensible solution.

A number of Cyabra’s executives have a background in Israeli military intelligence—most of Israel’s start-up sector is an extension of Unit 8200. However, the VP of Marketing, Rafi Mendelsohn, previously ran the speakers’ bureau at Ketchum, the London PR firm that does a lot of work for the Kremlin. A few of them are also veterans of Psy-Group, Joel Zamel’s extremely troubling and corrupt company which poses a threat to democratic societies the world over. Psy-Group’s whole strategy was to sow disinformation. That’s one of the bigger and less toxic things they’ve done. They’ve done it in the United States.

One of Cyabra’s investors, Summus Capital, has two Russian partners. Another, Sonny Vu of Alabaster, has a rather odd story. Founders Fund is another one. This company is almost certainly, and let’s not sugarcoat it here: total, unadulterated bullshit.

The problem it’s trying to solve, and it’s timely because everyone is talking about this, is how to identify “inorganic” social media campaigns. When China, Russia, and Israel are involved in some of the biggest ones, you have to wonder what it is they intend to catch. We already know a lot of Israeli influence operations are deconflicted, so they might not hit their own bullshit artists that are all over the Internet.

Basically the entire interminable conversation about disinformation that we’ve had for the last eight years needs to be junked because most of these cowardly experts will never discuss the enormous Israeli role in all of it, because they know what’s good for them.

Cyabra’s patent shows an algorithm intended to catch inauthentic conversations. This problem, and their work on it, was key to Musk’s own propaganda about the Twitter purchase. In other words, inauthentic behavior on Twitter is identified by Israeli military intelligence, in cooperation with Russian-backed funders and a Russia-linked publicist.

Cyabra is supposed to go public soon via Arie Rabinowitz’s Trailblazer SPAC. The question as far as the public interest is concerned is, do we want Israeli military intelligence handling a large chunk of the disinformation policing on the Internet? I submit the answer is probably no.