Technology blinds Israel, by Ramon Aymerich

Israel is one of the most advanced military powers in the use of new technologies. It has a powerful military industry close to the Tsahal, the Israel Defense Forces, to which it constantly modernizes. Israel is a military superpower in artificial intelligence. When he mobilizes his troops, some of them do not pick up the rifle. He sits in front of a screen. It's data that determines where your drones will drop bombs. It is its satellites that guide the Iron Dome, the mobile defense system created to contain the enemy.

The Tsahal always innovates. In September 2022, he installed a large machine gun operated by remote control and assisted by artificial intelligence in a check point of Hebron. The device scans the environment and shoots, launches grenades or tear gas as it considers.

The Israeli secret service processes a lot of data about its adversary, but it no longer knows him

In July of this year, the Tsahal launched an operation with unmanned aircraft (UAV) over Jenin to deactivate a terrorist cell. Ten people died and a hundred were injured. The human and psychological toll on the Israeli soldiers was minimal. On the Palestinian side, in addition to the victims, more than 500 families had to leave their homes due to damage to the structure.

This asymmetry in the costs of war is as unfair as it is misleading. It is a surgery that has no way of erasing the trauma it causes among those who have seen their homes destroyed. Nor does it prevent the story from being transmitted between generations. It also does not guarantee its future behavior.

The spread on social networks of videos in which Palestinian militias kidnap civilians or desecrate the bodies of soldiers and civilians has caused a wave of terror in Israel. As much as the psychological impact of seeing Hamas walking through the city of Sderot. Suddenly they discover that their State does not protect them, that the information services that manage gigantic amounts of data are not enough either.

Israeli society has woken up from the sleep of recent years. Your country is vulnerable. Technological dominance has created an idea of ​​false security among the population. The idea that you can live a few kilometers from the adversary in relative peace, because you are confined behind walls and fences and subject to heavy surveillance through security cameras or via satellite, today seems more like a wish than a reality.

On a trip to Israel made in the days after the end of the pandemic together with other journalists, what aroused the most perplexity was the disinterest of the interlocutors – journalists as well, local politicians – in the future of coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians. Every time he asked them, annoyance showed on their faces. The question bored them. They thought there was nothing to do. The Palestinian issue was not on the agenda. Unconsciously, it was resolved thanks to security technology.

Israel is an unequal, but rich, society. It is a modern society. And only that perception of absolute security makes it imaginable that they live alongside another, much poorer population, led by autocrats and in a state of tension in which violence is always on the verge.

Israel, its population, feels increasingly distant from its adversary. He doesn't know him anymore. Their security systems process tons of information every day. But they don't “know” him. Knowing your opponent is important to defeat him, but even more so to solve a shared problem. Leaving everything in the hands of security cameras, drones and satellites may be reassuring at first, but it does not make the problem cease to exist.