Israel's Unconventional War

As a nation faced with extermination since its founding, Israel knows the value of unconventional warfare. With the threat of war against Iran looming larger than ever, the Israelis have put what they have been learning to good use. Iran's nuclear program is a clear and present danger to the continued existence of the state of Israel, yet any sort of military strike will have devastating repercussions both for Israel and the United States. Hezbollah forces in Lebanon and Hamas forces in Gaza have been building up an extensive stockpile of missiles that would rain down on Israeli cities should Israel or the United States launch an air strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. So Israel has been forced to seek a more creative method of slowing, if not halting, Iran's march toward a nuclear bomb. According to officials in the United States government, Mossad agents helped train the Iranian resistance group known as the People's Mujahedin of Iran, or MEK. The MEK used this training and some strategic guidance by the Mossad to assassinate prominent Iranian nuclear scientists (a conclusion I predicted as soon as news of the assassinations broke). If any American or European officials feel like climbing onto their high horse to condemn this tactic, remember how NATO support for the Libyan rebels led to the deaths of several high ranking members of Ghaddafi's government and indirectly led to the former Libyan ruler's murder "accidental" shooting.

But Israel has not limited itself to physical assaults against the Iranian nuclear program as these can be costly, difficult, and dangerous. Increasingly, the Israelis have taken to the Internet to release crippling viruses and denial-of-service attacks. The most famous case of this electronic warfare was the virus called Stuxnet which infiltrated and disrupted the computer systems at the uranium enrichment facility at Natanz in the summer of 2010. A more recent follow-up virus known as Duqu has wormed its way into the Iranian network, this time establishing "back doors" in the systems for hackers to exploit at any time rather than engage in the pure data destruction that Stuxnet did. It is believed that these combined attacks (along with the possibility of other such viruses that have not been discovered) have set the Iranian program back for years. If so, these relatively simple and cheap techniques were able to achieve something that sanctions and negotiations have not: delaying the advancement of the Iranian bomb. The Iranian nuclear program is not the only target for Israeli hackers. In response to cyber-attacks by Arab states (more on that below), a group of hackers calling themselves the "IDF Team" brought down the websites for the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency and the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange. The "IDF Team" has stated that they will only continue their efforts if Israeli websites are attacked again.

Israel's enemies have not taken these electronic assaults lying down. Hackers in Saudi Arabia have engaged in a form of "cyber jihad" against Israeli web sites and financial institutions. A Saudi group
known as Group-XP also released the personal information of what they claim to be 400,000 Israeli citizens, although credit card companies analyzing the data said the number of compromised identities is much lower. And it's not just Arab or Muslim groups that are engaged in cyber-attacks against Israel. Anti-capitalist, anti-American, anti-Semitic (let's just shorten it to "evil") hacker group "Anonymous" has also gotten into the game, threatening a "reign of terror" against Israeli networks. The group blamed Israel for "crimes against humanity... media deception and political bribery" and warned of a three step program against Israel, starting by wiping the Jewish state off the Internet (the electronic equivalent of "drive the Jews into the sea," I guess). The anarchist hacker group may regret threatening Israel, especially when a Mossad team is knocking on their front door.

The Israeli model of unconventional warfare should be examined by the United States, particularly as debates rage about budget cuts for the Department of Defense. The Chinese and North Koreans have substantial cyber-warfare divisions, and it would be foolish to assume that other nations have not followed suit. If the United States were to aggressively pursue this tactic, potential enemies would be forced to turn their cyber-warfare teams toward defending their own systems rather than maintaining a focus mainly on offensive capabilities. No matter what happens, the Israelis have proven that they are willing and capable of performing amazing feats in defense of their people, and this latest round of unconventional warfare is no different. Let's hope it gives the world enough time to come up with a more permanent solution to the threat of a nuclear Iran.