By Micah Halpern
Column:
The Middle East is changing in some most unpredictable ways. And some
of the most surprising changes are the work of individuals, not
governments.
For example: The Iranian city of Shiraz have been sprayed with Hebrew
graffiti. The graffiti reads 'No to war.' The phrase was also been also
written in Farsi, the Persian language, and in English. I assume these
Iranian graffiti artists want to make sure that no one misses their
message.
This is not a ploy orchestrated by the Mossad to convince Iranians
living in their capital city to stop their saber rattling. The graffiti
was scribbled by a group of activists called TeHTel, which stands for
Teheran Haifa Tel Aviv.
TeHTel is a grass roots campaign among citizens in those three cities
who believe that bombing each other is not the answer and that it is
extremely dangerous and it is wrong. The group likes to emphasize that
they are a campaign of people-to-people and not state-to-state. They
point out that theirs is not a political undertaking.
These activists are not flower children drawing love symbols. They
are acutely aware of the issues and the dangers in their message and,
more importantly, of the medium through which they have chosen to
deliver that message. They know very well how the writing on the wall
will look. In the book of Daniel the writing on the wall was in Aramaic.
Here it is in Hebrew, Farsi and English.
Any graffiti in Iran could land the artist in prison. Graffiti that
challenges the government is met with even greater punishment. Now add
to that Graffiti that is written in Hebrew. The TeHTel movement has
taken some very brave steps for their cause. Scribbling this message on
the walls of Teheran and linking themselves to the Israelis who are
scribbling the same message on their walls puts group members and their
loved ones in certain danger.
Another example: The Israel Electric Company (IEC) is attacked between 10,000 and 20,000 times a day.
That's right, a day.
The electric company is a good, ripe target for cyber terrorists and
cyber attackers. If the electricity of Israel is compromised, the entire
country is in danger. That means everything from water and hospitals to
defense systems and planes.
One would think that most of these attacks against Israel would come
from the greatest enemy of Israel today, i.e. Iran. But that would be an
incorrect assumption. Iranian attacks on Israel number only 100 - 200
per day. That could be the work of a single hacker or of a few
teenagers. It is hardly a massive cyber offensive by Iran. It certainly
is not a dedicated team of high level mathematicians and computer
scientists attempting to hack into Israel's soft underbelly.
Where do most of the 10,000 to 20,000 daily attacks come from? Most
of the attacks come from China, Russia and North Korean. When you think
about it that makes much more sense.
These two events lend important insight into the workings of the
Middle East. It showcases the bravery of individual people willing to
cross boundaries and borders for a cause in which they mutually believe.
And it highlights the need to protect the essential services of one
country from the people of other countries out to destroy them. One is
an act of bravery, of people not afraid to show their hand in defiance
of their governments. The other is an act of cowardice, of anonymous,
brainwashed, hackers doing the bidding of their government.
Cyber terror can cause great harm. Graffiti can the raise
consciousness of a sleeping people. Both acts are punishable if caught.
Micah@MicahHalpern.com
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