Mideast fighting spills onto the Internet

From Fionnuala Sweeney
CNN Correspondent

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The violence pitting Arabs and Jews in the Middle East has spilled from the physical into the virtual world, as combatants on both sides lay siege to the Internet sites of one another.

Mickey Buzaghlo began cyber warfare from his bedroom a few weeks ago. Upset by what he saw on Arab Web sites that attacked Israel, the 21-year-old Israeli and some friends broke into the Web site of Hezbollah, the Lebanese fundamental Islamic guerillas, replacing their content with the Israeli flag and the star of David.

"We, the Israeli hackers, need to show the right pictures and we will not give a chance, for example, to a Hezbollah site that will show propaganda against Israel," he said. "So this is the reason why I decided to attack a couple of Hezbollah sites."

Pro-Arab hackers struck back and within days. Israeli government Web sites like the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Defense Forces and the Knesset were attacked and brought down for as long as two days.

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"I would say it's vandalism, not war, because it is an effort by some people to prevent others from reading our material," said Ori Noi of the Israeli Foreign Ministry. "We don't pretend to be objective. We just want to bring the view of the government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This is like burning books. This is like censorship."

In Ramallah in the West Bank, near the scene of fierce clashes between Palestinians and Israelis on the ground, Palnet, the major Palestinian service provider, has had to defend its clients against pro-Israeli hackers.

"The attacks have been initiated after a response after major attacks that were carried out on pro-Palestinian and pro-Islamic Web sites around the country, and this is where it ignited some people's feelings that they should do something against it," said Maan Bseiso, the CEO of Palnet.

In the heart of Israel's version of Silicon Valley lies Netvision, the biggest Internet service provider in one of the world's most connected countries. The Israeli government is one of its customers.

Both Netvision and Palnet say they are strongly opposed to hacking, regardless of the perpetrator.

Netvision hires counter-hackers like 20-year-old Manny, who understands the modus operandi of a hacker.

"Whether it's our hackers trying to knock down a Hezbollah site or Hezbollah trying to knock out the army sites, it's all games, nothing but war games," he said.

In Ramallah, an Internet cafe for young Palestinians is doing a brisk business. Many here are logged onto new Web sites that reflect the daily reality on the streets outside. Some of the sites have been targets of pro-Israeli hackers.

Despite the cyberwar, some combatants are seeking other methods to get their messages across.

Buzaghlo says he will stop hacking anti-Israeli Web sites but will continue his war of words on his own site. It's not quite a cease-fire, perhaps, but it's not an all-out cyberwar either.

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The Israeli Government's official Web site
Knesset - The Israeli Parliament
Palnet
NetVision

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