There are decided tensions between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Indeed, Saudi Arabia does not technically recognize that Israel even exists. But that isn’t stopping them from doing some business together. Israeli tech firms in particular have increasingly found a market in Saudi Arabia. Yet these dealings remain secretive and complicated, as the parties try to navigate all their nations’ divisions.
Jonathan Ferziger and Peter Waldman investigated this relationship for BloombergBusinessweek. One of their subjects is Shmuel Bar, an Israeli intelligence expert who founded a tech company that offers algorithms to search social media for legitimate terrorist threats. It quickly attracted a great deal of business, including one surprise client. They write:
“Then, two years ago, an e-mail arrived out of the blue. Someone from the upper echelons of power in Saudi Arabia, Bar says, invited him to discuss a potential project via Skype. The Saudis had heard about his technology and wanted his help identifying potential terrorists. There was one catch: Bar would have to set up a pass-through company overseas to hide IntuView’s Israeli identity. Not a problem, he said, and he went to work ferreting out Saudi jihadis with a software program called IntuScan, which can process four million Facebook and Twitter posts a day. Later, the job expanded to include public-opinion research on the Saudi royal family.”
This is just one example of a growing relationship that seems promising but remains extremely fragile. After all, it’s invariably one international development away from collapse. To read the full article on these complex partnerships, click here.
—RealClearLife Staff
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