Having confirmed its effectiveness on the Palestinians, Israel is expanding its spy applications to include Westerners

Israel has begun re-employing the digital weapons it has developed to suppress Palestinians to include wider purposes and applications.

Israeli analyst Jeff Halper said a few years ago that Tel Aviv has succeeded in integrating new digital technologies into the national security services. The website warned in an article for the British journalist resident of Nazareth in Israel, Jonathan Cook, that this step will make all human beings in the world gradually like the Palestinians, which means that they will become legitimate targets as described by the occupying power.

Israel has been treating millions of Palestinians under its military rule as test mice in its laboratories, where they have been using test models not only to develop new conventional weapons systems, but also to produce new mass monitoring instruments, Cook said.

Haaretz recently reported that Israeli surveillance of Palestinians is "among the largest of its kind in the world, including monitoring of the media, social media and the population as a whole."

Pioneer surveillance software
Despite its small size, Israel has long been a pioneer in the "highly lucrative" arms trade and sells dictatorships around the world weapons systems that it has tried on the Palestinians.

According to the report, trade in military hardware is no longer so popular after being outdone by the software market that uses electronic warfare tools.

States are increasingly demanding this type of modern-day weaponry to be used not only against enemies from abroad but against domestic opponents and human rights monitors.

Applications that use sophisticated surveillance technology of Israeli origin are now circulating in our digital lives, some with a relatively benign purpose, such as Waze, which tracks traffic congestion.

However, some of the more confidential applications produced by Israeli developers are more of a military nature.

These offensive programs are sold to countries wishing to spy on their citizens or opponents from other countries, and to private enterprises looking to outperform their competitors or gain better business advantages and influence their customers.

Espionage is the cause of Israel's strained relations
These spyware, integrated into the social media platforms of billions of users, allows security services to target virtually everyone around the world.

These possibilities may explain the tense relationship between Israeli technology companies and Silicon Valley in America, which seeks to control these malicious programs.

Middle East Eye cited a lawsuit filed by WhatsApp in a California court against NOS, Israel's largest watchdog.

Spyware, known as Pegasus, produced by the Israeli group, has long been used against human rights activists, lawyers, clerics, journalists and aid workers.

Once the Pegasus spy software controls the user's phone without his knowledge, he starts copying data and turning on the microphone to monitor it.

Jonathan Cook revealed in his article that Israel's NSO group has granted licenses to use its software to dozens of governments, including systems known to violate human rights, such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan and Mexico.

He explained that Amnesty International complained that its employees were among the targets of the NSO spy programs. He added that the organization is working to support legal action against the Israeli government to grant the company an export license.

The Israeli government has a growing interest in exploiting espionage techniques in the United States and Europe as its occupation of the Palestinian territories has become controversial and scrutinized in public political discourse.

He cited the shift in Britain's political landscape following the election of pro-Palestinian Jeremy Corbin as leader of the opposition Labor Party. The article also cited the emergence of members of the US Congress who support the Palestinian cause such as Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.

Israel fears a growing global boycott of Israel, known as the BDS.

As a result of these concerns, Israeli Internet companies have become increasingly involved in their efforts to influence public discourse regarding Israel, including interference in elections to foreign countries.