November 2, 2007: The Israeli
Defense Forces (IDF) is resuming monitoring their own communications. The
practice was halted seven years ago, after persistent rumors that senior
officers were using the system to spy on subordinates and rivals. But during
the 2006 war in Lebanon, Hizbollah was found to be monitoring cell phone use by
Israeli soldiers. This was because Hizbollah had found that Israeli troops
would discuss classified or operational matters on their cell phones. The
Israelis were not supposed to do that, but since the IDF monitoring had
stopped, the troops were getting sloppy.
Another reason for bringing
back the monitoring is to try and stop soldiers from leaking information to the
media. This has gotten out of hand as well. This is usually done by soldiers
that disagree with some government policy. This is often the case with very
religious Jews who support the settlers program (Jews living in the West Bank,
Golan Heights or Gaza). These troops get too involved in their partisan beliefs,
and often tip off their political allies about secret army plans.
The monitoring system will tap
into landlines that connect the military phone system to the civilian one. Just
the existence of this system is expected to cause most troops to watch what
they say on the phone.
