My Debut in Le Monde diplomatique: Not all Foreign Interference is Russian

My first piece in Le Monde diplomatique is about Israeli meddling in Slovenia and the reliance on Israeli cybersecurity software that threatens the sovereignty of many countries in Europe.

Koncept VII, "Generalski čin", 1970. Mixed media and paper by Slovenian artist Melita Vovk. It has no relation to the story; I just like the Slovenian artist.

Trying to piece together the story of Israel’s shocking interference in Slovenia’s domestic politics felt a bit like the plot of a mystery novel in which a weary detective arrives in a little seaside town to investigate a murder: at first, it looked like everyone had something to hide. Several weeks ago, I was contacted by Le Monde diplomatique and asked to write a piece about the recent “Slovenia affair” involving Israel’s “private Mossad” spy firm Black Cube. The editors had read my post about the event here on Substack (don’t ever let anyone tell you this place is useless) and asked me if I would write something about it for a French audience. Initially, I thought I would mostly just reconstruct what I wrote here on Substack, albeit with more background and polish. But then I decided the story demanded a different approach. Slovenia’s rhetorical support for Palestine–among the most outspoken in alternately mealymouthed and collaborationist Europe–had clearly come at a high cost, and it was imperative that I at least try to find out what happened. The piece is now out in French.

I will admit that I was also motivated by the stunning lack of European opprobrium at this blatant attempt to manipulate the internal politics of a sovereign EU member state; in addition to Black Cube’s mafia-style operation that involved clandestinely recording some of the most blackmail-worthy people in Slovenia’s government, it turned out Israel also had another form of leverage over the country, and that had received far less media scrutiny. Slovenia, like many other EU member states, the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK, and the US federal government, is heavily dependent on an Israeli cybersecurity software company called Check Point. The firm is run by elite intelligence veterans from the notorious Unit 8200, the IDF’s cyberwarfare and intelligence agency that helped orchestrate the pager attacks on Hezbollah. Check Point gives Unit 8200 alumni undue sway over foreign governments, undermining their sovereignty. At the height of the Black Cube scandal, just days before the election, the Slovenian government announced that it had decided to reverse its decision to join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. After some initial reticence, it turned out that a lot of people wanted to talk about the entire affair.

My apologies to my fellow non-Francophones that the piece is only available in French right now; I hope it will be translated into other languages soon.