"My approach to our enemies, especially to Iran, is that we will not wreak havoc on them, but whoever deals with Israel will pay a price. Cyber is the front of modern warfare."
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett today (Tuesday) attended a conference in honor of Cyber Week at Tel Aviv University. During the interview, he was asked how he sees Israel's progress in the cyber field and what threats Israel is facing.
In response, the prime minister replied: "From the prime minister's point of view we thought of a decision - making process for every leader who is at war. Today you can harm your enemy using cyber that used to require 100-50 fighters behind enemy lines at huge risk. Now a bunch of smart people Sitting at a keyboard can achieve the same thing.
Bennett at the conference: "Just as there is nuclear deterrence, so should cyber alert"
"Inevitably cyber is going to become one of the most prominent dimensions of future warfare. Just as there is nuclear deterrence there will also be cyber deterrence. I was a little surprised by the shortage of cyber tools in the war in Ukraine, I thought it would be much more advanced and much more massive. "Perfect, but overall our situation is pretty good. It is no longer possible to harm Israel through a third party and evade it."
Also significant, Bennett argued that if security was challenged, Israel would directly attack Iran - not only by cyber but also by bombs ("kinetic means"), contrary to its policy of attacking Iran's envoys.
"My approach to our enemies, especially to Iran, is that we will not wreak havoc, but if you mess with Israel you will pay a price. If the bully sends people to beat us, we are going to beat the bully in all dimensions. If someone attacks us in cyber we will attack back," he said.
In addition, Bennett talked about the responsibility of giant corporations to know how to deal with foreign attacks that endanger their customers.
"At the end of the day corporations have to take responsibility and when they deal with their customer data it's their problem, but it's not enough. The military.
Regarding the development of the cyber ecosystem in Israel, the Prime Minister said: "I see four different groups of new high-tech and cyber talents that we need to understand how to combine - ultra-Orthodox, Arab women, people from the periphery and even Palestinians. Palestinian workers for Israeli high-tech, including traffic permits, come here. "
Summarizes a year as prime minister
Beyond talking about the future of Israeli cyber, Bennett also took the opportunity to summarize his year as Israeli prime minister and the coalition's achievements.
"On the southern front, this has been the quietest year in 50 years. In one year we have done 10 years of work. We have proven that even opposing views can work together. When there are decent and good people, we can work together to improve Israel.
"I was here a year ago and Israel was after an election, in a mess, without a budget and the state still licked its wounds after riots we had. We started to run the country properly, a bunch of ministers trying to do the best for the country. We passed a budget after 3 years. "The unemployment rate is very high, and now we are in full employment. We have 8% growth - the highest in the advanced world. I am not happy with the election, it is definitely not good for Israel. We have proven that those who hold opposing views can work well together for the state."
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