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by PessimalDecimal 526 days ago
https://www.timesofisrael.com/hezbollah-pager-explosions-put...

Just months ago, some of those "kids who are very good with computers" caused compromised pagers to explode, with no knowledge of who would be near them. Civilians, including children, died as a result. It is right to think people who are "good with computers" in this way might not have the best intentions in their other applications of computers.
1 comments
lolinder 526 days ago
The other alternative that those kids were given was to shoot guns or missiles. Are you really comfortable blaming them for the rest of their lives for choosing the option that likely gave them the smallest chance of killing people?

Any Israeli citizen in that age bracket today is going to be running a real risk of killing people. They don't have a choice (dodging the draft doesn't count as a choice). If you're going to hold that over for them for the rest of their lives I don't know how that's distinct from racism (or countryism if you prefer).

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PessimalDecimal 526 days ago
> Are you really comfortable blaming them for the rest of their lives for choosing the option that likely gave them the smallest chance of killing people?

Yes. The "just following orders" excuse has been tried in the past. People didn't buy it then and we won't buy it now.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-soldiers-arrest-ab...

If the IDF wants to name the specific individuals from Unit 8200 who were involved in maiming or killing civilians including children by blowing up electronics in their faces, that might change things. Then it'd be a lot easier for people to avoid having concerns about that entire unit. Not naming them seems a lot like tacit support by the IDF for the actions of those in Unit 8200 who killed those children. Otherwise, people very well may have concerns about that entire unit. That's not "racism."

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lolinder 526 days ago
(I deleted a comment that didn't seem relevant any more now that you added a bunch.)

So it's okay to blame vets of Unit 8200 for its actions 10 years after they founded Snyk (I have no idea how long after they left the unit) on the grounds that the intelligence arm of the IDF doesn't name names? So just in case and in the face of all the facts of the timelines, we should make sure to drag out these people's former mandatory service and remind everyone they served alongside bad guys 10+ years ago?

I'm not okay with blaming soldiers for following orders. When it's that or getting shot by your own side, there isn't a real choice. But I can't even begin to understand the mindset that would blame soldiers for the orders that other, unrelated soldiers followed more than 10 years later. That's some next-level hatred.

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mardifoufs 525 days ago
Yes, because it's an institutional problem. I'm sure you have no issues using products developed by say, ex FSB agents just because it's been 10 years?
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lolinder 525 days ago
The FSB is no comparison because it's more equivalent to the NSA—it was a career path, not a place to serve out mandatory military service.

FSB agents worked there for decades and chose that instead of any number of other things they could have done. Unit 8200 conscripts worked there for at most 2 years 8 months and chose it instead of a different, more gun-blazing branch of the military.

Mandatory military service completely changes the profile of the vets in a way that makes all these comparisons totally irrational. They're founded in fear and hatred for Israelis, not any reasonable similarity.

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mardifoufs 525 days ago
Fear of Israelis, sure. But hatred? Come on. Israel has done a lot in the past year, and is being accused of genocide. The fact that is used a conscript army makes it worse, not better.

Also, okay then let's switch it up to the Russian army. Would you use a product with known ties to some electronic warfare russian army unit. Or rather, would you consider any doubts or hesitations over using said product to be "russophobic"?

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danenania 526 days ago
Why doesn’t refusing the draft count as a choice?
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lolinder 526 days ago
Because it means a serious risk of the end of your life as you know it. I'm not willing to hold someone else to a standard that I know that I couldn't live up to.

If you truly believe that you'd risk your government's wrath instead of just picking the least dangerous and least likely to kill people branch of your military, then feel free to throw stones. For myself, my plan if the draft were reinstated in the US while I was still of that age was to find out how to join a cyberwarfare division, which would have led me straight to Unit 8200 if I were Israeli.

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