Israel’s Technological Muscle
On April 13, Iran attempted a move unseen since 1991, launching more than a hundred drones along with ballistic and cruise missiles aimed at Israel and the occupied territories. The strike was framed as retaliation for the killing of two Iranian generals and was intercepted by Israel’s air defense network and by U.S. fighter jets, in coordination with allies such as France, the United Kingdom, and Jordan. Yet the defense of the Jewish state also hinged on another historic milestone: intelligence shared by former adversaries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
This unlikely coalition, unimaginable five years earlier, illustrates a diplomatic shift that is reshaping the region. While the war and the documented genocide in Gaza have strengthened sympathy for Palestine among Arab publics, governments in the area are increasingly choosing to extend a hand to Israel. Some, including Bahrain and the Emiratis, have publicly realigned after years of estrangement, a step that Egypt and Jordan had already taken in the 1990s. Others, such as Qatar, Oman, and Saudi Arabia, pursue ties behind the scenes and without formal agreements, while publicly continuing to call for a Palestinian state.
The bombardments have claimed nearly 42,000 lives in Gaza to date. Yet the Arab states have stayed largely silent. “Palestinians have been constrained by their Arab brothers … they are not visibly concerned for their own fate,” notes veteran former U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker in an interview with Politico. The lack of reaction stems from a mix of factors—economic incentives to strengthen trade with Israel and geopolitical motives to secure a U.S. security umbrella against regional threats like Iran—varying by country.
Israel’s economic strength is deeply tied to its tech sector, which operates as a strategic asset in regional diplomacy. A core idea driving Arab interest in Israeli technology is that the state relies on software and electronics rather than oil. In 2023, high technology accounted for 19.7% of Israel’s gross domestic product and made up more than half of its exports, about 53%, according to data from the Israel Innovation Authority.
Much of that sector, closely linked to the military, designs advanced technologies for defense and surveillance. Last year, 36% of Israel’s weapon exports were air defense systems, while 11% were radar and electronic warfare systems, according to official reports. In 2022, cyber defense and intelligence programs were sold to 83 countries, with licenses to negotiate for commercialization totaling 126, based on information obtained by Haaretz.
Espionage as a diplomatic tool
Although Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government does not disclose its clients, many Arab neighbors buy Israel’s advanced technology, some of it tested on the Palestinian population. Itxaso Domínguez, a geopolitics lecturer at the Carlos III University of Madrid, explains that authoritarian states after the Arab Spring expanded mass surveillance to control dissent and monitor critics.
For decades, Israel has used arms and cyber exports to widen its diplomatic reach. A two-year investigation by The New York Times revealed that Pegasus, the infamous spyware capable of infiltrating a target’s mobile phone, played an invisible but crucial role in securing Arab backing against Iran. The Israeli company behind Pegasus leveraged export licenses to advance its interests, a mechanism that may have influenced how openly some Arab states spoke about Palestine.
Internal repression and surveillance
Numerous investigations have identified Pegasus among clients in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. Other neighbors, including Egypt, Jordan, Oman, and Qatar, have employed Predator, a powerful spyware from Intellexa led by Tal Dilian, a former commander of Israel’s covert technology unit. Amnesty International warns that both programs are used to monitor and repress dissent, journalists, and human rights activists in ways that curb political freedoms.
As Gaza’s tragedy deepens, concerns grow that domestic unrest could intensify. Domínguez warns that governments have realized the transformative power of the Palestinian cause and that letting citizens protest on political grounds could threaten regimes. Drones and Israel’s facial-recognition technologies can serve as tools to deter unrest before it takes hold.
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