Ziv, a bright and socially withdrawn young man in his early 20s, is released from service in the IDF Intelligence Corps and begins working for the Cyber Attack company. As part of his new role, he is responsible for a variety of technological and operational aspects of "the system" - software that is able to track and reverse any phone in the world For a de facto spying device.
At first the job is everything he dreamed of: a high salary, trips to exotic destinations, and above all a place where he is appreciated and at least a hint of acceptance.
But gradually he stretches the boundaries and makes personal use of the enormous power entrusted to him.
While his life and family slowly fall apart, Ziv is forced to question the morality of his work - questions that lead him on a collision course with his superiors.
Yishai Sharid's two previous books, "The Monster of Memory" and "The Victorious", dealt with the dark side of elements that form part of contemporary Israeli identity: the memory of the Holocaust and the ethos of IDF victory. and "Startup Nation".
The company where Ziv works is a slightly disguised version of the NSO company, whose investigations in recent years have pointed to apparently problematic uses of its "Pegasus" software.
In Ziv's travels to Central America, Africa and Europe, the users always insist that "the system" is being used by them to fight terrorists and criminals;
In practice, it is quite clear that it is used to hunt regime opponents, democracy activists and in some cases also ethnic or sexual minorities.
The main thing is that the company's profits remain high and the state mechanisms receive their share.
When the system eventually reaches Israel itself, the denial becomes even more difficult.
Losers and winners
There are passages in the book that clearly continue a dialogue that began in Sherid's previous books: like Abigail, a "victorious" heroine, Ziv is a technocrat who does not dwell on moral questions but only on the most efficient way to accomplish the task.
Like her, he constantly deals with questions of power and social hierarchy: he looks with a combination of admiration and repulsion at the brutal people he works with, compares himself to them, and above all believes that women would be attracted to him if only he were one of those powerful people.
He examines the world not in terms of good and bad, but in terms of victory: "They are criminals sentenced to death, I told myself. I won and they lost."
The characters in the book are well characterized, but are divided into stereotypical roles: Bolka, the company's manager and former special operations man, an easy-going and ruthless "alpha male";
Shiri, Ziv's sister, who was sexually assaulted as a child and immersed in a cycle of drugs, prostitution and exploitation;
Noah, a kind-hearted and innocent old man who works for social causes.
The characters are reminiscent of masks in a morality play: each one plays a pre-determined role, and is primarily used to illuminate the conflicts that Ziv faces.
Ziv himself also follows the axis of the morality play, which includes temptation, a fall and an attempt at redemption.
Ziv, from whose point of view the book is told in the first person, is also a familiar cliché: the autistic genius who takes refuge in the virtual world.
He has difficulty deciphering social situations and making connections with people and shy away from large audiences, on the other hand - he is exceptionally talented in his work and is considered a legend in the forums of weakness detectors, where he can appear "like a spirit, without a face and body, neither breathing nor eating. Pure intelligence".
Ziv's character is especially reminiscent of Elliott Alderson, the hacker protagonist of the series "Mr. Robot";
However, unlike the politically aware and radical Alderson, Ziv has no real ambitions other than to gain acceptance - an ambition expressed first and foremost in a longing for romantic love.
As such, he is largely a "smooth board", whose skills could be channeled for any purpose;
The military system and market incentives combined to make it a sophisticated weapon.
failed courtship
The book is suspenseful throughout, yet rarely surprising.
Of its three parts, the first two - which focus on Ziv's adventures abroad - are quite predictable in terms of events: Ziv's progress in society, his failed attempts to woo the beautiful interpreter Iris, the gradual disintegration of his family and the growing gap between the stated goals of society and the brutal actions he takes Part. Ziv's narrating voice is simple and technical, almost devoid of emotion, and the avoidance of any precise indication of the names of the countries he visits and the political situation in them also increases the feeling of distance and alienation.
Sherid seems to invite us to experience the world from Ziv's point of view, where torture and executions are a rather marginal matter compared to the technical aspects of the functioning of the system.
The third part is much more dramatic, and requires the hero and the readers to take an active position in relation to the events - but now it is much more difficult to stop the drift.
reveals the weaknesses.
spent with an employee,
It is tempting to see Ziv as a portrait of man in the present age, or rather - of what man might become: socially and politically disconnected, a small cog in the system, constantly measuring himself according to a scale of power and prestige.
Ziv gradually sinks into the surveillance that serves as a substitute for his need for human closeness: "I completely lost control, I read what they wrote to their friends and family, I heard them talk, I saw the pictures they took, I tried to understand them. Without it I would have been completely alone."
On the one hand, a description of obsessive and illegal surveillance, and on the other - not very far from the experience of wandering on social networks already today.
Resid leaves very little room for hope: the security system, the business world and the legal system - all support the company's surveillance operations, which comply with all sections of the law, and the ability to access any person and any secret gives a tremendous power that cannot be resisted.
The book seemingly outlines other modes of existence, which focus on inhuman and persistent factors - such as nature or the star systems - but these too are trampled by the power of "the system": a name that refers to the surveillance software, but which can also be understood in the context of a more comprehensive method that enables its existence.
The "Discoverer of Weaknesses" is far from being without its own weaknesses.
Apart from the issues mentioned above, the book completely avoids dealing with the scientific and technological aspects of the systems it deals with, which makes the discovery of weaknesses and the work of hacking look like a kind of magic and sometimes leads to far-fetched descriptions, such as an interrogation device that "sits on the center of truth and lies in the brain".
And at the same time, what he seeks to do - the discussion of the dangers of surveillance technologies and the need to take a stand against their use - he does in an incredibly effective way.
In conclusion, this is a shocking, disturbing - and important book.
Yishai Sherid / Reveals the Weaknesses, with Oved, 223 p.
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