Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
IT

Israel PM Pitches Fiber Optic Cable To Link Asia, Middle East With Europe (bloomberg.com) 20

Israel's prime minister on Sunday floated the idea of building infrastructure projects such as a fiber optic cable linking countries in Asia and the Arabian Peninsula with Europe through Israel and Cyprus. From a report: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he's "quite confident" such an infrastructure "corridor" linking Asia to Europe through Israel and Cyprus is feasible. He said such projects could happen if Israel normalizes relations with other countries in the region. The 2020 U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords normalized relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and the Biden administration is trying to establish official ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

"An example and the most obvious one is a fiber optic connection. That's the shortest route. It's the safest route. It's the most economic route," Netanyahu said after talks with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides. The Israeli leader's pitch is itself an extension of proposed energy links with Cyprus and Greece as part of growing collaboration on energy in the wake of discoveries of significant natural gas deposits in the economic zones of both Israel and Cyprus.

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Israel PM Pitches Fiber Optic Cable To Link Asia, Middle East With Europe

Comments Filter:
  • by NFN_NLN ( 633283 ) on Tuesday September 05, 2023 @02:52PM (#63825684)

    I'm sure they won't snoop on any communications. Wink Wink.

    • It's not just the snooping. It's the altering or deleting messages or the creation of new ones that allows the Mossad to really shine when destroying its neighbours...

    • by jonadab ( 583620 )
      That's not what this is about.

      Not that the Israeli government is above spying or anything, but the ability to MITM the ever-dwindling portion of traffic that still doesn't use end-to-end encryption, is just really small potatoes compared to the other stakes here.

      What Israel is mainly after in this proposal, is for nations from outside its region that would see the benefits of such infrastructure (Europe, and the developed nations in the Indo-Pacific region) to put pressure on Israel's neighbors to finally g
  • I suppose Mossad will have a nice snooping station at the israel landing point

    • That's exactly what I was thinking. Just like the US has some major internet junctions covered by their "intelligence" services. Best way to spy is to control the junctions.
    • My immediate response as well, I'm sure Unit 8200 had nothing at all to do with this request. I assume this cable will just happen to run right through Glilot Junction?
    • by jonadab ( 583620 )
      Eh, I suppose that's possible, but it's not even close to being the most obvious or compelling motivation for this.

      Here's what you're missing:
      > He said such projects could happen if Israel normalizes relations
      > with other countries in the region.

      That conditional clause is carrying a lot of freight. Specifically, with certain notable exceptions, most of the countries in the middle east have never recognized the existence of Israel as a country, and this is a big deal. Normalizing relations, implies t
  • Saudi Arabia and Iran are the same level of crazy when it comes to human rights. With Saudi Arabia being slightly worse. For example, you can rape and kill your own daughter in Saudi Arabia and “legally” walk free .. meanwhile if you insult their ruler you will be executed or serve a long and harsh prison sentence. Reference: https://www.theguardian.com/co... [theguardian.com]

    • I know itâ(TM)s very trendy to bash Arabs and Muslims, but no you cannot rape your own daughter. Your link doesnâ(TM)t claim that, and rape like that is a capital offense. Can you stop making stuff up and stick to actual things to criticize the Saudi dictatorship over?

  • Is the Middle East interconnected with copper?

    Does the paywalled article say more about why this would benefit anybody but Israel?

    • Is the Middle East interconnected with copper?

      No. They use fiber, just like everyone else.

      Does the paywalled article say more about why this would benefit anybody but Israel?

      Nobody is going to agree to this proposal. Nobody trusts Israel, and there is no shortage of existing cables.

      The Middle East is already well-connected. There are landing points in Israel, but also in Alexandria and Beirut on the Mediterranian coast, and at many points in the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea. The connections between the Gulf and the Med run through the Red Sea, which is way more secure than any land-based route.

      Bebe's proposal is a total non-starter, a

      • by caseih ( 160668 )

        Bebe's angle is to stay out of jail and stay in power. And anything to distract people from the recent power grab changes he's rammed through to secure his immunity from prosecution.

  • ... significant natural gas deposits ...

    A country that's famous for spying wants everyone to pour their data through it: Is the USA not playing nice? I guess that trip to USA where Netanyahu demands, once again, that the USA invades Iran, will be postponed.

    There's money to be made so Netanyahu has to play nice if he wants a slice of the profits but his reputation precedes him.

  • Yes, that will happen.
  • It would be really nice if Israel did finally make peace with its neighbors. You know, the Palestinians.

    • There's too much money and too much religious crazy in the settlements in the West Bank to ever allow Israel to voluntarily make peace with the Palestinians.

  • not to send all traffic to the US, to have critical network infrastructure routing though Israel?

    If ME countries like Saudi and Iran like a cable to East Asia or Europe, there could be lots of paths they could choose, hard to think of any reason to have them going through Israel, even if Israel offered it for free...

As long as we're going to reinvent the wheel again, we might as well try making it round this time. - Mike Dennison

Working...