September 1,
2008: Israeli and Palestinian hackers
have been going at each others web sites for years. The Palestinians usually
get the worst of it, largely because Israel, on a per capita basis, is the
largest developer of new software in the world. But since Hamas took control of
Gaza two years ago, it has been shutting down all activities of Fatah (the previous ruling Palestinian
party, which still runs the West Bank) there. Fatah has been doing the same to
Hamas supporters in the West Bank (where about 65 percent of Palestinians
live). Fatah hackers have been going after Hamas web sites, as have Israelis.
No one is openly talking about Fatah and Israeli hackers cooperating in their
attacks on Hamas, but a lot of the attack methods look similar. Most
Palestinians, both Hamas and Fatah backers, want Israel destroyed, and are not
shy about saying so (especially in Arabic, the venom is toned down a bit in
English). But "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" has always been a
popular strategy in this part of the world.
