Spain cancels Pegasus spyware investigation because Israel is not co-operating

https://left.eu/pegasus-inquiry-delegation-from-the-left-in-...

"So I asked the store owner if he sold me the knife (wink), he didn't hear my question (wink), and so I guess I have no choice but to close this investigation. No more questions."

Israel has a long history of not honoring international treaties. Look it up. It's surprising that people are still surprised by this. Maybe we should make history classes mandatory for diplomats.

Also, the use of cyber weapons is almost meaningless without physical force to back it up. A dictator (or Spain) can spy on their dissidents, sure, but they won't even have any dissidents if they don't have the guns to stay in power.

While 0days are still a weapon, and I agree they can and do in fact cause harm to innocent people, I don't think that this comparison is even close.

There are different degrees of absolutism between each country, but to use the example of Saudi Arabia there are no assemblies (democratic or otherwise) with any meaningful power, there are no allowed political parties or national elections, and legislative, executive, and judicial functions are ultimately the powers of the king. All positions of power within the state are granted by the King generally to other members of the royal family.

This is dictatorship. Dictatorship isn't defined by brutality or abuse - it is any system where the leader or leaders hold absolute governmental power with few or no limitations.

The only limitation on the king of Saudi Arabia is the Sharia (of which the king is conveniently the final arbiter).

Saudi Arabia is a dictatorship and a monarchy. The monarch exercises absolute political power. (Arguably, it’s a tyranny, since its de facto leader, the Crown Prince, doesn’t exercise power through constitutional channels—he isn’t King.)

Qatar and Kuwait are constitutional monarchies with something resembling a legislative counterpoint to the executive. As long as their leaders operate within their constitutions, i.e. don’t dissolve or dominate their legislatures, they aren’t technically dictators.

Having said that, I think you’re unjustly being downvoted. I agree that there’s often a strong bias against Israel, it’s being held to standards that other countries are not, and this is only one example.

This time you're on the living side of the equation. How would you have felt if someone made the same argument for Nazi Germany?

Victims of those weapon sales had wholeheartedly agreed.

I don't think its a bad thing that the rest of the world has weapons that can't compete with the west, as a westerner I think this is a good thing.

The end justifying the means also needs some justified ends to demonstrate that the means were tolerable. In Saudi's case we've seen little signs of that. It's still one of the world's most repressive police states. It uses Western weapons in wars of aggression. It's happy to murder people in foreign consulates. There doesn't seem any sign of this improving.

Selling arms to Saudi stops a flow of cash to Iran and Russia, but we're just propping up one horrible regime with the supposed excuse of weakening others. This just seems like an excuse to make some cash.

> eventually the US selling weapons to Saudi Arabia will be viewed similarly to the US selling weapons to Germany

And where are the signs that Saudi Arabia is moving towards being a liberal democracy like Germany?

In your view, the best way is no way, then, given the state of endless war in the middle east a long time...

I don’t think that “more countries holding more weapons” is the thing that stops/prevents wars.

And I think people have to remember that cyber weapons are very asymmetrical. It is akin to nukes/bio/chem/nerve weapons, not just conventional weapons.