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Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by flyinglizard on Monday December 03, 2018 @06:35PM (#18594310)
Very unlikely that it’s presented this way. People working in NSO feel they are doing a public service by helping catch bad guys. Given the Israeli sensitivity around terrorism, it’s an easy sell, and I’m sure NSO has success stories around such use.
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by abalone on Monday December 03, 2018 @06:41PM (#18594350)
Given that Israel regularly employs deadly force against civilians, this does not absolve NSO's software engineers from moral culpability. That is like saying the backroom boys at Dow who developed napalm thought it was just being used against "bad guys".
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by flyinglizard on Monday December 03, 2018 @06:59PM (#18594468)
Moral culpability depends on perspective. It’s not absolute. In some societies it’s immoral to consume alcohol, in others it’s immoral to get a divorce or use electricity on Saturdays.

From the perspective of NSO developers, they are helping prevent the next attack against civilians somewhere. I can’t fault them for that.

Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by tareqak on Monday December 03, 2018 @08:23PM (#18594992)
Now, NSO developers can have a frank and honest dialog with their leadership about how they made it possible to carry out an attack against a civilian somewhere similar to the dialog between Google employees and their leadership concerning Operation Dragonfly.
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by nbsd4life on Tuesday December 04, 2018 @05:51AM (#18598222)
Google has 100 times as many employs as NSO group. The equivalent for a group of 100 Google employees signing a petition is one person signing it. They can just be fired & replaced.
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by eli_gottlieb on Monday December 03, 2018 @08:48PM (#18595159)
That's not a difference in what's right and what's wrong. It's a disagreement over what the developers are actually doing.
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by oculusthrift on Tuesday December 04, 2018 @12:35AM (#18596619)
why are you discussing moral relativism so boldly as if it’s a fact. it’s that postmodernist philosophy that’s totally degraded society.

in some societies it’s “immoral” not to rape someone as punishment or to not kill a “unclean” ethnicity and your definition supports that

Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by flyinglizard on Tuesday December 04, 2018 @03:54AM (#18597625)
Only the recognition of relative morality is modern. Moral always differed between region and cultures, but our crusading ancestors said it’s only their moral that’s correct and tried to fix other societies to conform.
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by 0db532a0 on Tuesday December 04, 2018 @04:35PM (#18603781)
Moral relativism deals with the idea that there is no fact in morality.
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by objektif on Monday December 03, 2018 @07:43PM (#18594749)
Killing people is immoral in any society. If you have an average IQ you understand eventually what your product will be used for.
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by int_19h on Monday December 03, 2018 @09:27PM (#18595488)
Murdering people is immoral in any society, but whether a given slaying constitutes murder or not varies widely. There's justifiable self-defense, capital punishment etc.
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by javagram on Monday December 03, 2018 @07:56PM (#18594829)
> Killing people is immoral in any society

Most societies make an exception for killing enemies of the state. Soldiers are seen as heroes fighting for their country not as immoral killers.

Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by airstrike on Monday December 03, 2018 @08:22PM (#18594975)
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by 14 on Monday December 03, 2018 @09:00PM (#18595271)
I wonder if the Sentinelese find it immoral?
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by objektif on Monday December 03, 2018 @09:16PM (#18595415)
Looks like they find it less immoral than manipulating people into believing fake religious stuff.
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by oh-kumudo on Monday December 03, 2018 @08:40PM (#18595111)
Guns, cars and knives can kill people too. Also drugs and alcohol, how about banning people working on those stuff?
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by objektif on Monday December 03, 2018 @08:48PM (#18595157)
Went over your head didnt it? Nobody is talking about banning software. Here we are talking about developing software that is specifically designed for governments for hacking phones and spying on citizens.
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by oh-kumudo on Monday December 03, 2018 @08:55PM (#18595222)
Who would know it is deployed on another countries' citizens? If anything it is the Saudi who chose to use it, why shift the blame to the original developer? Hope you understand the point now.
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by abalone on Tuesday December 04, 2018 @01:38AM (#18596906)
> From the perspective of NSO developers, they are helping prevent the next attack against civilians somewhere. I can’t fault them for that.

They are selling spy software to regimes that are known to kill civilians. Ergo they are not preventing attacks against civilians; they are enabling attacks against civilians. No moral relativism necessary.

Even with respect to Israel’s “counter” terrorism efforts, if the NSO development team’s motivation is to prevent attacks on civilians, then enabling Israel to attack and kill civilians is something for which they are morally culpable.

Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by tomp on Monday December 03, 2018 @07:05PM (#18594500)
Ah come on when has Israel last employed force offensively, not defensively? As in first strike (not a retaliatory counter-strike) motivated mainly by economics/politics, not safety (e.g. like US war in Iraq or UK attacks on Syria or Russian occupation of Crimea although even then you could argue they were just defending their base but Israel's are milder than even that, such as destroying rocket/nuclear facilities in Syria and Iran).
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by int_19h on Monday December 03, 2018 @09:29PM (#18595510)
Israel is operating its warplanes in Syria today. I would dare say that combat air missions in a country that is not trying to invade you, and that did not invite you, constitutes "employed force offensively".
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by toyg on Monday December 03, 2018 @07:36PM (#18594711)
Almost nobody engages in “offensive” wars since the Nazis, it’s always some sort of “defensive” or “retaliatory” action.
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by jacquesm on Monday December 03, 2018 @08:29PM (#18595037)
We used to have War departments. Now we have defense departments. It's a giant white-wash. If it really was defense then nobody would ever cross their borders in a uniform.
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by Udik on Monday December 03, 2018 @08:26PM (#18595020)
Sorry to correct you, the Nazis claimed they were "defending" themselves from the Jewish threat. So no exception even for them.
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by jacquesm on Monday December 03, 2018 @08:30PM (#18595042)
You must have missed the 'lebensraum' bit.
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by Udik on Tuesday December 04, 2018 @05:44AM (#18598189)
True, I was focusing on the Jewish persecution.

However, even the lebensraum concept has undertones of defense against a threat rather than pure conquest: the term itself refers to space as a necessity for life rather than the object of simple greed. The lebensraum was considered by Nazi ideology "necessary for the survival" of the German race, against the threat of "inferior and decaying races". As far as I can understand it, the whole Nazi ideology is informed by a vision of history as a zero sum game and by a "triumph or perish" attitude- so that every aggression can be justified as a necessary and ultimately defensive move.

Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by FakeComments on Monday December 03, 2018 @07:16PM (#18594593)
Israel uses deadly force against civilians engaged in acts of force against Israel.

You can argue that it’s not a proportional response, but there’s a clear editorial bias to refer to one side of a force exchange as “civilian” and the other as “deadly”.

Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by boomboomsubban on Monday December 03, 2018 @08:23PM (#18594990)
They use deadly force against people protesting in the Gaza Strip, an area of land the residents are unable to leave and is under an Israeli blockade. One side is considered "deadly" as they've killed over 150 people, many of them children, while the other side has killed 1.
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by nbsd4life on Tuesday December 04, 2018 @05:58AM (#18598259)
Ridiculous claim. A few months ago Gaza militants fired 460 rockets in one day, injuring 80 people (mostly civilians) and killing one, and the IDF has barely done anything besides bomb empty buildings.

When's the last time your country restrained itself after being hit by 460 rockets in one day?

Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by boomboomsubban on Tuesday December 04, 2018 @11:01AM (#18600580)
Not a ridiculous claim, the protestors that the Israeli army shot were not launching rockets. They were protesting, largely nonviolently. Thousands of civilians have been injured at these protests, and it is difficult to get the proper medical care when you're under a blockade.

> the IDF has barely done anything besides bomb empty buildings.

The immediate retaliation for those rocket strikes killed three people. How is that "barely anything?"

Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by maratd on Monday December 03, 2018 @09:49PM (#18595655)
They use deadly force against people firing missiles in the Gaza Strip, an area of land the residents are unable to leave and is under an Egyptian and Israeli blockade because it is controlled by Hamas, a terrorist organization. One side is considered "deadly" as they've killed over 150 people, many of them children because they are used as human shields by the terrorists, while the other side has killed 1, because they're incompetent.

Fixed that for you.

Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by TheForumTroll on Monday December 03, 2018 @07:32PM (#18594683)
"Israel uses deadly force against civilians [they think might be] engaged in acts of force against Israel" would be closer to the truth. Missiles doesn't check if everyone near are bad guys before exploding.
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by netcan on Monday December 03, 2018 @07:05PM (#18594502)
How about the engineers who did Manhattan? Scientists and engineers have always been a part of wars, just like the other people.
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by boomboomsubban on Monday December 03, 2018 @08:09PM (#18594897)
Many of then joined the project convinced it was the only way to stop the Axis from developing a nuclear bomb, and at least some of them were opposed to it's use by 1945, particularly against civilians. Not really comparable to an apartheid state currently at peace.
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by kingofhdds on Monday December 03, 2018 @08:48PM (#18595163)
Israel is pretty much constantly shelled by rockets. And there are capable state, and quasi-state actors behind that who officially claim they want it to be eliminated.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_rocket_a...

The fact, that majority of its population can enjoy relatively peaceful life is thanks to organizational, and technological superiority of Israeli military. Which depends on work of Israeli engineers whose motivation is therefore exactly the same: do military tech to stop anti-Israeli "Axis".

Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by PlasticTank on Monday December 03, 2018 @09:32PM (#18595535)
Would have been great if the yanks had this mentality towards the troubles in Ireland instead of supplying the IRA with weapons and explosives. Moral relativism is always fun.
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by TheForumTroll on Monday December 03, 2018 @07:33PM (#18594697)
They are also guilty of deaths by nuclear weapons.
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by iamdave on Monday December 03, 2018 @08:16PM (#18594941)
And we've got some quite famous statements from quite a few of them that they knew quite well, and felt the full weight of what they were doing.

I would presume because they weren't sold the idea that what they were doing had any other express intent-purpose or plausible outcome for use even used by the people they worked for, which alone I think warrants a different group to compare this situation to.

Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by ars on Monday December 03, 2018 @09:25PM (#18595476)
> Given that Israel regularly employs deadly force against civilians

???????

Say what now?

The Israeli combatant to non-combatant death ratio is among the best in the world, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualty_ratio

If anything developing such software would be a moral imperative, not something to be upset about.

Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by ryanlol on Monday December 03, 2018 @09:31PM (#18595519)
I think your article just confirms that Israel does indeed regularly employ deadly force against civilians. Most other countries manage just fine without doing so.
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by ars on Monday December 03, 2018 @09:42PM (#18595610)
I'm sure you are not implying they do so on purpose. Israel does better than anyone else in the world at minimizing civilian causalities, but accidents are a fact of war.

So, what other options does Israel have? Let the combatants do whatever they want?

Are you seriously implying someone should not work for the Israeli military because of civilian accidents?

What's your endgame here? Israel should give up and let millions of people be murdered?

abalone has a severely skewed moral filter to say "this does not absolve NSO's software engineers from moral culpability" - he would rather millions of Israeli citizens get murdered?

I really hope you are not in any way agreeing with him because it is a truly loathsome thing to say, and I was absolutely shocked to see someone just causally speak like that.

The only moral thing to do here is do an even better job at this type of software to make the civilian casualty ratio even better.

Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by ryanlol on Monday December 03, 2018 @10:20PM (#18595856)
How many civilians has comparably sized Sweden killed in the past 30 years?
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by ars on Monday December 03, 2018 @10:26PM (#18595888)
This is an excellent plan. Convince all the Arab countries around Israel not to try to exterminate it, and thereby Israel will become like Sweden and not need to fight.

That first step is a bit hard, but I assume you have some plan for that, considering it was your idea?

Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by fit2rule on Monday December 03, 2018 @11:00PM (#18596106)
Actually, the plan would be - make Israel more like Sweden.

That way its neighbours actually enjoy their presence in the region.

But, as long as Israelis continue to justify the wanton murder of civilians as their 'right as Israelis', then there will be calls for the destruction of their state. Whether this is moral or not, is as yet undecided...

Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by ryanlol on Monday December 03, 2018 @10:39PM (#18595970)
How come nobody seems to want to exterminate Sweden? What's so special about Israel that they need to kill vast amounts of civilians to not get exterminated?
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by ars on Tuesday December 04, 2018 @12:32AM (#18596600)
> that they need to kill vast amounts of civilians

Neither Israel nor Sweden kill vast amount of civilians. The fact that you write that is very concerning.

And the fact that you think it's Israel's fault that Arabs want to exterminate it is just ......... I don't even know what to write to someone like you.

Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by ionised on Tuesday December 04, 2018 @06:15AM (#18598348)
Usually when someone says something you don't like or disagree with, you counter with an argument of your own.

If you can't think of anything to say in response, might I suggest that you either don't know the subject as well as you think, or you know the person you are arguing with is right and you have no retort.

Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by cazum on Monday December 03, 2018 @10:01PM (#18595721)
>Israel does better than anyone else in the world at minimizing civilian causalities, but accidents are a fact of war.

Israel regularly shoots and kills unarmed civilians for standing too close to a fence.

>So, what other options does Israel have? Let the combatants do whatever they want?

They are unarmed civilians, standing near a fence.

>Are you seriously implying someone should not work for the Israeli military because of civilian accidents?

Yes, one should not involve themselves in a violent force that regularly murders civilians for standing too close to a fence.

>What's your endgame here? Israel should give up and let millions of people be murdered?

They can start by not murdering the desperate civilians protesting the blockade and destruction of their homes by standing too close to a fence.

>he would rather millions of Israeli citizens get murdered?

Millions of Israelis are not at risk of being murdered by the unarmed civilians standing near fences.

>The only moral thing to do here is do an even better job at this type of software to make the civilian casualty ratio even better.

The most moral thing to do would be to pressure Israel to stop murdering civilians for standing too near a fence.

Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by ars on Monday December 03, 2018 @10:36PM (#18595954)
You mean these civilians https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/9xla6y/israe... who just wanted a flag near the fence?

Or maybe these https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/959z60/hamas... ?

This "story" that they were a bunch of unarmed civilians near a fence is completely fictional. It was actually a bunch of combatants mixed in with civilians, and Israel worked very hard to be selective. The accidents are terrible, no doubt about it, but no other army in the history of war has done better.

Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by cazum on Tuesday December 04, 2018 @12:31AM (#18596590)
Both of your links involve armed combatants fighting IDF. nobody is calling those people civilians. I'm calling these people civilians:

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.haaretz.com/amp/israel-news/...

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-video-shows-pal...

https://mobile.twitter.com/dcipalestine/status/1017882226275...

Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by ryanlol on Monday December 03, 2018 @10:42PM (#18595987)
It's weird how both of the videos you show in defense of civilian deaths caused by Israel involve Israeli military being attacked.

If there were no attacks on civilians, that certainly makes you wonder if they could've avoided conflict by simply not sending their troops there.

Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by ars on Tuesday December 04, 2018 @12:28AM (#18596569)
> If there were no attacks on civilians, that certainly makes you wonder if they could've avoided conflict by simply not sending their troops there.

And then Hamas agents would breach the fence and enter Israel. And you think that's a good idea, why exactly?

Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by EpicEng on Tuesday December 04, 2018 @11:29AM (#18600880)
Yeah and the other side specifically targets citizens and then hides amongst their own.
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by vfulco2 on Tuesday December 04, 2018 @05:00AM (#18597994)
This story saddens me and reminds me of the well documented stories of Israeli defense industry selling to the apartheid government in South Africa. Ok to feed oppressors so long as it isn't affecting the chosen people. Criminal.
Re:Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit ... by secfirstmd on Monday December 03, 2018 @07:17PM (#18594595)
I wonder how extensively NSO Group products are backdoored and ringing home to Israel...