Policy Brief: Israel on the New Silk Road and its Implications for U.S. Critical Infrastructure

Israel is a 'backdoor conduit' for Russian and Chinese access to US critical infrastructure. MEGA link at bottom to send policy brief to your local and state representatives.

Current federal and state laws restrict Chinese and Russian cybersecurity companies from government contracts that secures America’s critical infrastructure, but they completely overlook the Israeli government’s close connections to both Russia and China. Local and state officials need must independent investigations into each state’s critical infrastructure contractors and employees’ ties to foreign military intelligence.

Key Messages

• The US-Israel Energy Cooperation Act demands US technology is handed to Israel as a matter of law.

• The Talpiot Program, an elite Israeli Defense Forces training program, uses their expertise to further IDF technological research and trained under Israeli military intelligence for at least 7-10 years.

  

• Israel has a long history of espionage and stealing U.S. high technology, then on-selling it to China and Russia.

• Israel’s Talpiot graduates and Unit 8200 veterans populate cybersecurity companies contracting with the U.S. government to secure state’s critical infrastructure.

• The Israeli State is the PRIMARY hub for core coding of ALL Microsoft Products – Windows, Office, Azure Cloud – and core research and development of Intel Corporation CPU design and fabrication.

Introduction                                                                                                                    Many have heard of the Chinese and Russian role in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), but few know of Israel’s central role in the new ‘Multipolar World’ nor understand the ramifications to the United States. The goal for Israel as the technological hub for the BRI providing vital data from fiber optic cables that will intersect Africa, Asia, and Europe.

During a Beijing summit in 2017, Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yangong and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to improved bilateral relations by an “innovative comprehensive partnership” and “bring the ties and the cooperation between the two countries to new heights.” Netanyahu stated, “We want to marry our technology with China’s capacity”. The United States is wary of China and Russia but willfully ignore their long history of close economic and military ties to Israel for political gain.

Background Israeli and Jewish American journalists have written on the effects of mass immigration of Soviet “Aliyah” with loose immigration requirements for decades. According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, “around 30% of immigrants from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s were not Jews or not considered Jewish under Orthodox law. In 2005, that figure leapt to 59%. Only around 5% of the non-Jews have converted.” Lilly Galili, an opinion piece writer for The Guardian, noted the high technology industry in Israel is dominated by Russian and Ukrainian computer scientists, missile technicians, aeronautical engineers, and materials scientists. "It was a very different type of immigration," said Ms. Galili, "They didn't want to integrate. They wanted to lead. They changed the nature of the country." She pointed to “some sense of alienation between Russian immigrants and native-born Israelis. There is not much social interaction. There are still places for ‘Russians’ that ‘Israelis’ don’t go and aren’t wanted – and vice versa.”

Israeli-Russian Immigrant Antagonism The conflict between Russian immigrants and Israelis is exemplified by the Soviet-born Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman. He is the founder of the secular Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel is Our Home) party, whose base is overwhelmingly Russian-speaking immigrants, and he is regarded as a “kingmaker” in Israel’s coalition government. Liberman’s disdain for religious Jews was apparent when he stated, "I will send the haredim, together with Netanyahu, in one wheelbarrow to a garbage dump.” In a 2009 visit to Moscow, Lieberman "behaved like an old friend" Israeli delegate Yuval Fuchs said and noted that the Russians "acted as if they already knew him," according to a Wikileaks document. His close ties with the Kremlin concerned many in Israel.

The ‘Backdoor Conduit’ to Russia                                                             Soviet immigrants are populating Israel’s Talpiot Program and Unit 8200 (NSA equivalent) that produce high technology CEO’s placing them all over the world, including the United States. The Talpiot Program is an elite Israeli Defense Forces training program using their expertise to further IDF technological research and trained under Israeli military intelligence for at least 7-10 years. It is surprising government officials have failed to grasp and address the Israeli state as a “backdoor conduit” for American high technology illegal transfers to Russia with security concerns over Russian election interference and technology acquisitions. This is an open-door for Russian GRU (Military Intelligence) and SVU (KGB) to infiltrate the American high technology sector and critical infrastructure via easy Israeli visas and citizenship. Elements inside of Israeli intelligence have warned Israel is heavily penetrated by Russian GRU and SVU assets. Thus, Russian penetration of American critical infrastructure has come through Israel’s Talpiot Program and Unit 8200 military intelligence units.

Eugene Kaspersky, head of the Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab, is partnering with the “Jerusalem municipality and others in Israel” as a center of cyber-security technology. Kaspersky has alleged ties to Russian intelligence due to his education at a KGB-sponsored technical college, direct work for the Russian military, and in 2017 the Trump administration banned Kaspersky software from government computers. The day after Russia invaded Ukraine, The U.S. government privately warned a few American companies “Moscow could manipulate software designed by Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky to cause harm,” according to senior U.S. official.

Russian-Israeli Espionage Israel has a long history of espionage against the United States. In 2007, according to the U.S. National Security Agency, it was flagged as a top spy threat. Israeli stealing of U.S. high technology (including nuclear weapons) and on-selling it to our enemies in China and Russia is well documented. Cyber espionage firms such as NSO Group, Candiru, Black Cube and others are heavily recruited from Unit 8200 to develop powerful cyber weapons. This is predominately an unregulated market and will take more than blacklisting to rein in these companies when Israel’s private sector and military intelligence are intimately intertwined with one another. The military and private sector in Israel allowed dangerous cyber weapons like NSO’s Pegasus spyware, to flourish worldwide. Pegasus spyware unequivocally led to journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s death and even targeted U.S. officials. Unit 8200 whistleblowers are coming forward to expose Israel’s unethical behavior, not only towards the Palestinians, but also against American citizens. “We spent our time essentially carrying out surveillance of a civilian population who had no access to legal counsel and were denied civil rights,” G [anonymous Unit 8200 veteran] said of his experience in Israeli army intelligence. “We were trained to violate people’s privacy for a living, and then were offered even more money to do it abroad.”

Context of the Issue With all the inherent risks of doing business with companies and employees tied to Israeli military intelligence, the U.S. government, and many states are increasing their cooperation with these cybertechnology firms. Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, and Arizona are increasing their cybersecurity contracts with Israel to secure their state’s critical infrastructure. Most of the federal and state legislation to protect American critical infrastructure focus on the countries that partner with Israel on the BRI but does not tackle the threat of Israel itself. What is most concerning, Congress is enacting legislation mandating the United States partners with Israel on cybersecurity and technology. This is a threat to national security.

1. S.1193 - United States-Israel Cybersecurity Cooperation Enhancement Act of 2021 117th Congress (2021-2022)

“This bill requires the Department of Homeland Security to establish a grant program that contributes to the homeland security capabilities of both the United States and Israel by supporting cybersecurity research and development as well as the demonstration and commercialization of cybersecurity technology.”

• BIRD, Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation.

• BARD, Binational Agricultural Research and Development Foundation.

• BSF, The Binational Science Foundation.

The BSF was first implemented by Heinz Kissinger in 1973. This is the same time as Communist China was first engaged. This has led to Israel being used as an ongoing technology conduit to Communist China – and now we face off with them in the South China Sea.

2. 15 CFR Part 7 “Securing the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain” The Secretary of Commerce (effective March 22, 2021)

In accordance with Executive Order 13873, prohibits information and communication technology and services transactions with Chinese, Russian, North Korean, Iranian, and Venezuelan companies.

“Person owned by, controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of a foreign adversary means any person, wherever located, who acts as an agent, representative, or employee, or any person who acts in any other capacity at the order, request, or under the direction or control, of a foreign adversary or of a person whose activities are directly or indirectly supervised, directed, controlled, financed, or subsidized in whole or in majority part by a foreign adversary; any person, wherever located, who is a citizen or resident of a nation-state controlled by a foreign adversary; any corporation, partnership, association, or other organization organized under the laws of a nation-state controlled by a foreign adversary; and any corporation, partnership, association, or other organization, wherever organized or doing business, that is owned or controlled by a foreign adversary.”

3. TX SB 2116 “The Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act” 87^th Legislature (2021-2022)

The act prohibits Texas businesses and governments from contracting with entities owned or controlled by individuals from China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran, if the contract relates to “critical infrastructure” and provides the foreign country remote access or control of critical infrastructure.

Scope of the Problem An emerging industry narrative, contained in online journals and news articles speak boldly of Israel’s cyber technology defense – hardware and software. The general mainstream discourse rarely touches on the security implications of this move. Few in the intelligence and IT industries know core technology components of the emerging 5G, IoT artificial intelligence world, Microsoft Windows security center, and other core components are key coded in Israel. Here are just a few of the U.S. critical infrastructure contracts with Israeli companies that has ties to the Talpiot Program and/or Unit 8200:      

1. RAD Group:  founded by Talpiot Program graduate and Unit 8200 veteran, Zohar Zisapel. Provider for more than 100 telecom operators worldwide and critical infrastructure in the banking, commerce, education, finance, government, military, transportation, and utility sectors.

2. Radwin:  subsidiary of RAD Group, global provider of sub-6 GHz broadband wireless solutions, currently in use at La Salle County, TX courthouse.

3. Carbyne 911:  a next generation 911 program that was reversed engineered by Human Rights Watch that determined the application is very similar to China’s “integrated Joint Operations Platform” that’s used for mass surveillance of the Uyghurs. Currently in use at the Rio Grande Valley, TX.

4. Elbit Systems:  a high technology company engaged in a wide range of defense, homeland security and commercial programs. It was cancelled by the Australian Army over alleged concerns of backdoors and later by the Australian Future Fund over the allegation of Israel giving Russian forces cluster munitions used during the invasion of Ukraine (Middle East Monitor 2021).

5. Moovit:  a transport application designed to provide users with information on travel routes and has confirmed backdoors that leaks your location, username, and email address.

6. Microsoft:  routinely used by the corporate sector, governments, educational institutions, and high security military industrial contractors. Core coding is handled in Microsoft Israel, not Seattle, WA. Former head of Microsoft Israel – Assaf Rappaport – was Israeli military intelligence trained under their elite Unit 8200 and Talpiot Program.

7. Microsoft ElectionGuard:  a new election software that can be used with existing voting machine that was used in the 2020 and 2022 election cycle. ElectionGuard is a product of the military-industrial complex with DARPA’s $10 million indirect investment and Microsoft is a military contractor. It was used in Texas’s Hart InterCivic voting machines that’s headquartered in Austin, TX.

8. Intel CPU:  The design and fabrication facility is in Israel. The ongoing security flaw issues with Intel CPU’s can be tied to Israeli CPU design technicians. The current Intel 10nm “disaster,” is speculated to involve “design flaws” that cannot be micro coded around in the short term - rendering Intel’s flagship CPU essentially worthless (News18 2020).

In 2018, cyber security researcher, Christopher Domas, spoke at a Black Hat USA conference. He elaborated on his research into the DEC – Deeply Embedded Core – present in Intel processors that allowed total access to a target system. The DEC can be activated via multiple machine code instruction sets and bypasses all hardware and software security. There’s intense speculation this hardware backdoor was conceived and implemented in Israel.

Recommendations                                                                                             In order to secure states’ critical infrastructure from Chinese and Russian attacks, government officials must address Israel’s special treatment by politicians funded and influenced by foreign political lobbies. In the interest of national security, ALL countries who are partnering with enemies of the United States should never be allowed government security contracts.

1. Open independent investigations of critical infrastructure contractors and ties to ANY foreign military or intelligence services.

2. Add Israel and other BRI partners to the list of banned countries to provide security for critical infrastructure.

Conclusion                                                                                                                       Large sections of the Israeli State, and Jews in general, are not knowingly involved in such deep and very public deceit. The United States must recognize the state of Israel as a worldwide cyber technology juggernaut and now a regional power. The Talpiot Program and Unit 8200 veterans subverted the United States’ high technology industry, military industrial complex, and critical infrastructure. Its Russian and Chinese accomplices on the BRI are banned from providing cybersecurity to the United States, but Israel gets a free pass. The largest of the U.S high technology companies are moving their sensitive R&D centers to Israel. This transfer of technology from ‘Silicon Valley’ and ‘Silicon Hills’ to Israel will have a devastating effect on the California and Texas economies. The Russian penetration of Israel and their theft of American technology and on-selling it to China also makes Israel a hostile foreign power to the United States.

-D.C.

You can download the policy brief on MEGA and send it to your local and state government representatives. I recommend mailing it certified mail with return receipt.

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