32 thoughts on “Israeli Cyber-Security Merchant Peddles Wares Secretly in United Arab Emirates – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. Businessman Mati Kochavi, who owns technology companies AGT International and Logic Industries, has set up Moonscape Ventures to invest $120 million in Israeli start-ups. AGT operates in Internet of Things and Logic provides electronic sensors in the security sector.

    Moonscape Ventures will be managed by Tammy Mahn, a leading investment professional with years of experience at Pitango Venture Capital and Evergreen Venture Partners, and Yonit Golub Serkin, who served as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Economic Development for the City of New York during Michael Bloomberg’s Administration. There she worked to develop and implement policies to attract entrepreneurs, build the city’s angel fund and grow Silicon Alley.

      1. @ Red Eft: The “exports” going through the Port of Seattle are likely Boeing planes (or parts for them) which Emirates Airlines orders in large numbers. Wouldn’t it be nice if Israel could have that sort of export relationship with UAE??! Why don’t you lobby for a peace agreement along the lines of the Saudi peace plan so Israel could have normal relations & trade with the Arab world. What have you done to make that happen besides carping & whining in the comment thread here?

    1. Well Red Elf Iran was UAE’s export destination number 3 in 2013. The value of exports was over 21 billion Euros.
      http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2006/september/tradoc_113458.pdf

      The goods and services UAE sells to Iran are hardly crude oil, natural gas, dried fish or dates. It is certain that many goods (even weapons ?) Israeli and USA sold to UAE end in Iran. And it is equally certain that the regimes of Israel and USA know that perfectly well, but are not willing to admit it to their own public. Hardly newsworthy. Right?

        1. Red Elf that doesn’t explain what UAE exports to Iran? 26 billion USD is a lot of money and much, very much of goods. For comparisons sake the budget of IDF is 16.5 billion USD. And there is certainly much export from UAE to Iran, which doesn’t appear in any UAE statistics. Smuggling.

          Have you ever wondered how the “underdeveloped” Iran managed to hijack and down some of the developed US and Israeli drones? Maybe you profit worshiping “moralists” even sold them at one stage the technology, instruments and software to do that?

          It is well known and documented, that Israel and Israelis do not hesitate to sell weapons to anybody, legally or illegally, openly or under cover. Remember Iran Contra events? Or those China trades which USA did not like at all? Who was one the main weapon deliverers for Myanmar’s generals during their ethnic cleansing and other “democracy projects”? Who sold weapons to Eritrea before changing side to Ethiopia? Who were Idi Amin’s first best friends? Who armed the South Sudanese and where did they have offices? Who gave whites in South Africa the means to produce and own nukes? Who changed weapons to blood diamonds delivered by child soldiers and insane war lords? ETC. Why on earth should any Arab or Muslim country, Sunni or Shia, trust Israel as a nation, a country with that history and moral. Their corrupted leaders may in some countries pretend to “trust” Israel for a short period, but eventually the masses will decide the level of true trust.

    2. @ Red Eft: This is the perfect hasbara argument that falls flat on its face. The U.S. has normal relations with UAE. We don’t boycott them nor they us. That’s not the case with Israel. If Israel had relations with UAE then trade between the two would be much larger (another benefit of normalizing relations with the Arab world which Israeli rejectionists like yr PM ignore) & I would not make an issue of Kohavi.

      1. Your issue is that Israel has some sub rosa business dealings with a country with a poor human rights record.
        That’s why you include the pic of the prince torturing the Libyan businessman.
        My point is that you blithely avert your eyes from your country’s huge trade deals with human rights violating UAE.

        1. @ Red Eft: Excuse me, but here I thought the subject of this blog was Israel! Thanks so much for correcting me & pointing out it’s true mission: U.S. human rights violations. I’ll have to make a few changes now that you’ve pointed this out–like change the title of the blog & erase all those blog posts that don’t deal with U.S. human rights violations. But a small price to pay for being set on the straight & narrow by you.

          Thanks so much for looking over my editorial shoulder & pointing out the error of my ways. I wouldn’t know what to do with without people like you!

          On a more serious note, can you point out any blog post I’ve ever written in which I’ve supported U.S. aid for dictatorships like UAE? In fact, I’ve excoriated the U.S. for funneling billions in arms to Gulf states. I’ve supported the Arab Spring, which threatened dictatorships like those in the Gulf.

          Almost all U.S. exports to UAE are airplanes. Boeing airplanes. Not used to beat up Afghan businessmen or snoop on the private communications of private citizens. Not facilitating a secret police state, as some of Kohavi’s gear surely does.

          And really, the idea of you telling me what I should be writing about & trying to divert me from writing about the subject of this blog is beyond ludicrous.

          1. ” The planes …are carrying security personnel, other security-related machinery being shipped there by an Israeli cyber-security consultant”

            Which make it more than likely that the UAE is trying to protect herself from Iran’s IRGC hackers and less likely that AGT technology is being used to repress internal dissent.

          2. @Red Eft: I left out of my article quotations about the intrusive, all encompassing surveillance systems Kohavi sells, which allow governments to track almost anyone, anywhere, at any time. If Dubai could track all the Al-Mabouh Mossad assassins for days, why wouldn’t it use the same systems to monitor internal dissidents & other “undesirables?”

          3. I know it’s not biblical, ever heard of the Greek tragedy of the Trojan Horse?

            The collected data is fed into […] military intelligence computer systems …

            A nice report for you from CSIS and the Heritage Foundation [!] here. Connectong all intelligence gathering, domestic and foreign, to homeland security to counter ‘disaster’ and terrorism [read input for NSA data centers].

            China – UAE – Israel – India – USA – seeing a pattern there? I would like to know more about the softwrae AGT & Co installs and the monitoring of data.

  2. Small oversight: The transparency ranking index is from least corrupt to most corrupt. I.E. Israel is more corrupt than the UAE according to that index. UAE is the 25th least corrupt country in the world, and Israel is the 37th least corrupt. Almost two hundred countries were compared.

  3. Vocativ’s ridiculous ISIS story fails to mention the company’s deep links to Israeli intelligence

    All those Kochavis! It’s a name I happen to know pretty well, because I naturally follow the career of General Aviv Kochavi, one of the most important strategic minds in the Middle East. General Kochavi has had an interesting career. He commanded the Gaza Division before being promoted to head of Military Intelligence.

    Kochavi is a man who understands the importance of the world press in the sort of war being carried out in Gaza. In fact, he’s on record as saying the IDF’s most important battlefield is online:

    Major General Aviv Kochavi, speaking at the annual conference of the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, went on record as saying “cyber, in my modest opinion, will soon be revealed to be the biggest revolution in warfare, more than gunpowder and the utilization of air power in the last century.”

    And when General Kochavi talks about “cyber,” it’s naïve to think he only meant the stuff that hackers do. Cyber-warfare means controlling the online narrative and using it to keep the world press on your side, or at the very least, off your case, while you kill the people you want to kill. That’s a fact of war in the new millennium.

    [The server of vocativ.com is located in Ashburn VA]

    1. @Oui
      A spokesperson for Vocativ made the following statement:

      “Your headline is incorrect — Vocativ has no ties to intelligence, and nothing in your story demonstrates otherwise.

      [Editor’s note: Haaretz says “Kochavi often hires analysts – he calls them “ninjas” with a background in Israeli intelligence. We met former Google analysts, people with multi-language fluency and people who served in the Israel Defense Forces’ signal intelligence unit, Unit 8200.”]

      Brecher’s only “proof” is an insinuation that there’s a connection between Major General Aviv Kochavi and Vocativ founder Mati Kochavi — which there is not — and a comment made by a former employee from one of Mati’s other companies, who left his employ seven ago — roughly four years before Vocativ was even an idea. Of course the Israelis Mati employs have military backgrounds, as all Israeli citizens must must serve in the military, other than ultra orthodox. A McDonald’s in Tel Aviv has employees with military backgrounds.

      It’s also important to note that Vocativ is a NY-based company whose newsroom operates independently. Regarding Vocativ’s ISIS story, it clearly states that the information was found on open, official forums and social media – and with full transparency, included links to the sources in the piece. Using its deep web technology, Vocativ surfaced facts — not an unhinged rant.”

      “Lastly, nowhere did we use the word “infiltrate”, per your erroneous and irresponsible headline.”

      1. @ Red Eft: Wait now, because Vocativ is owned by, & employs personnel with extensive military intelligence background, and because much of its journalistic work will involve skills and topics of interest to intelligence figures (along with media outlets), that means it has no ties to intelligence??? That doesn’t even pass the smell test. You may wish to be naive & gullible. But the rest of us retain a high level of skepticism around anything to do with Israeli intelligence.

        Common sense & logic says that Vocativ’s work has so many potential overlaps with Israeli intelligence objectives, that the Mossad & Unit 8200 would be crazy NOT to exploit it as a resource. If I can think of a benefit for them from Vocativ, believe me they’re not stupid–they’ve thought of it already. And if there’s profit in it for Kohavi, he has too.

        Please source every quotation you offer with a link & name the outlet. You comment was sloppily constructed so no one can know where the quote came from. But now that I’ve found the Pando story I wish I’d seen it before I wrote my post. It goes far deeper than I did in making the connection between Israeli intelligence & Vocativ. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

  4. On the corruption index, it is better to have a lower score. Not sure why you,highlighted the 25 and 37 rankings as being bad. Confused?

  5. From your excellent article …

    Ofer Burin was CEO of Logic Industries Ltd from June 2006 – December 2008. He is now VP with NESS-TSG, a global provider of advanced Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (C4ISTAR) solutions.

    Linked to Pini Birman, CEO of Genesis System House Ltd., Defense & Homeland Security.

  6. Logic Industries Ltd. is located in Kibbutz Yakum, north of Tel Aviv and just 5 km outside of Netanya. Logic Industries Ltd. will fire 100 of its 850 employees (Nov. 2013). The company, which develops IT management security solutions for national resources systems, is run by chairman and CEO (major general, res.) Amos Malka, a former head of the IDF Intelligence Corps (Aman).

  7. “Business” background of Amos Malka.

    Mr. Malka serves as the Chairman of Nyotron Information Security Ltd. He served as Director of O.D.F. Optronics Ltd. In 2001, he was awarded the U.S. Legion of Merit by the U.S. President, “for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service”.

    Nyotron is a privately-held company, founded in 2008. Nyotron is led by an experienced management team of security experts that lead major security and networking projects across Israel and Europe. Its team contains some of the most seasoned minds of Israel’s Information Security Industry. Nyotron develops next-generation end point security solutions against un-known Exploits, Viruses and Trojans. Nyotron’s first product, the technology breakthrough Paranoid, provides a real time protection for both consumers and enterprises market, from targeted and un-known “Zero Day Attacks”.

  8. It is amazing how the “Iran factor” has moved for Israel into a positive territory. It has brought, as a common enemy, Saudi-Arabia and Emirates closer to Israel (and even Egypt, which is supported by the Saudi-Arabia). Iran and its Hezbollah ally are fighting ISIL, which is a potential problem for Israel, and Iran has helped to broker the recent internal in Iraq deal with the Kurds, which would weaken contacts of the latter to Turkey (which is increasingly an enemy of Israel)

  9. While Israel and its denizens seem to make every endeavour to make themselves as disreputable as they can there is movement on the diplomatic front. Recently French parliament too called on the government to recognise the Palestinian state. But there is more. According to Van Agt’s Rights Forum France wants the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution that determines that a new round of peace talks has to lead to a result within two years. Arab countries, among which Jordan, are working on a Resolution according to which Israel has to withdraw from occupied territory before November 2016. If either Resolution is hit by an American veto Abbas would seek admission to the ICJ which would make possible the prosecution of Israeli war criminals and Israel as a whole for the war crime of resettling its own citizens in occupied territory.

    How likely would an American veto be? According to Haaretz at the White House the possibility of coming up with something stronger than merely verbal rebukes is being considered. It wrote today:

    “Barak Ravid reported in Thursday’s Haaretz that the Obama administration is considering taking stronger measures against construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem settlements. A few weeks ago, the administration discussed the possibility of moving from denunciations to taking action, the report said. U.S. steps may include not vetoing resolutions denouncing the settlements in the UN Security Council, and more.”

    That would indeed open up a whole new chapter in US – Israel relations.

  10. So Vocativ is a company doing legit business while the true purpose of AGT lies in the heart of Kibbutz Yakum in Israel. NICE!

    Amdocs and Verint losing their share of intelligence gathering [telecom] as the data is to be found on the Internet and social media. No surprise there.

  11. Mr. Richard, there is no question you are in truthful directions and pursuits. See 3i mind. Owned by Kochavi. Same heads of business like agt
    http://www.3i-mind.com/om_home

    Let us help you:

    •Monitor social chatter and sentiment
    •Accurately assess risks and threats
    •Mitigate risks by discovering them early
    •Disrupt illicit activities such as fraud attempts
    •Uncover competitive intelligence
    •Identify hidden business opportunities

    Services and shit for spying and now media. world has not seen.
    Former spies and spy communictions directors. crazy and true

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