When Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu makes his first visit to the White House under the Trump administration in the coming weeks, one of the major issues that he plans to raise is the future vis-à-vis Iran, the US deal with that country and Tehran’s nuclear program as well as cyber threats and Iran.

In his remarks to the Tel Aviv CyberTech Conference on Tuesday, 4 Shevat, the Prime Minister stated (excerpts) “Iran attempts to hack critical infrastructure in the region and in the countries of the West, many countries not in the West. The internet of things can be hijacked by nefarious actors for dangerous purposes with dangerous results. Again, what you see today is going to get a lot worse in the future if we don’t band together.

“That’s why I intend to raise the subject and discuss the subject of cooperation in cyber security in my upcoming visit in Washington with President Trump. I had here a visit by Rudy Giuliani who is a special adviser to President Trump on cyber security.

“We discussed some of these aspects, but again, I think that Israel and the United States that are two leading powers, the United States obviously, the leading power in the battle for cyber security, Israel, I would say, is right up there, I think it’s critical that we augment whatever each of us is doing alone by our cooperation both on the government to government level and what we can do with our cyber security industries.

“It’s not possible, as yet, to have a very broad cooperation for cyber security between many governments but it’s important to have cooperation between some governments, and especially like-minded governments and that [unclear] I think can come out of this discussion between President Trump and myself. We already had important discussions with the US government but I think we need to expand this and recognize that there’s a core interest of the civilized countries and the democratic countries to protect themselves and their citizens against cyber-attacks. The more we work together, the stronger and safer we’ll become.

“I encourage everyone here to invest in Israel, cooperate with Israeli companies, I’m sure you recognize the spirit, you sense it, it’s powerful and strong and friendly. I think we’re truly sitting on the cutting edge of this new technology and we’ve had many successes in ensuring our security. It’s not an accident as one would say. It’s not an accident that in the froth and gushing of this entire Middle East and beyond Israel is a secure and safe environment. We have invested in our security in creative ways, successful ways, not only in the digital area, sometimes in the physical area.

“We stand, all of us, at the nexus of big data, connectivity and artificial intelligence. Great opportunities but great challenges. And Israel, we’re exploiting these opportunities and we’re meeting these challenges. I invite you to do both with us. And it’s my ardent hope that the nations around the world will come together to defeat our common threats and seize our vast opportunities. There is no better place to do so than the State of Israel.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)