As autocrats throughout the world celebrate Donald Trump’s presidential victory, Israel and the United States are sure to double down on policies that are an impediment to democratic institutions and human rights across the globe.
Citing “strategic interests” as the driver of foreign policy, the U.S. and Israel seek “stability,” believing that authoritarian regimes are preferable to democracies, especially in the Middle East. To this end, Israel has sold the most sophisticated cellphone spyware ever developed to neighboring, authoritarian Gulf States using the spyware as diplomatic currency to facilitate the Abraham Accords.
Extensive investigations by The Citizen Lab in Canada and Amnesty International determined that Israel’s spyware, known as Pegasus, has proliferated to operations in at least 40 countries, many of which have dubious human rights records, and utilized to spy on activists who seek to hold government officials to account for abuses. The capabilities of such sophisticated spyware are …