Was Benjamin Netanyahu (יִמַּח שְׁמו) Involved?

It's been known for years that the Israeli hacking firm NSO has been hacking good people on behalf of some profoundly bad actors for years, which makes me wonder why Israel has finally moved to rein in the company.

Certainly, recent revelations have made the firm toxic:

Well, it's been yet another hilarious couple of days for Israel's NSO Group. I mean, not so much for NSO, which is currently sitting at the center of a raging dumpster fire of its own creation. But just because NSO isn't laughing doesn't mean it's not funny.

For years, it sold spyware to whoever wanted it. Those customers used the powerful phone exploits to target journalists, activists, dissidents, and high-ranking government officials.

Some of this had already been exposed by security researchers like Canada's Citizen Lab before the bombshell dropped: a list of 50,000 alleged NSO malware targets. NSO denied having anything to do with the list, but report after report tied its spyware to abuse by government agencies and quasi-political leaders like kings and princes in the United Arab Emirates, one who used the malware to hack the phone of his ex-wife and her lawyer.

France's President, Emmanuel Macron, was one of those on the target list obtained by journalists. This prompted the President (and other French government officials) to acquire new phones. Because of this, the French government has decided it won't be requiring the services of NSO in the future.

………

That takes one customer off the list for NSO. The Israeli government -- after years of ignoring NSO's sales to human rights violators -- has further limited the company's market base, removing nearly two-thirds of the countries on its approved purchasers list.

………

The same can be said for the Israeli government, which has been aware of these troubling allegations about NSO for just as long, but instead chose to urge on sales to human rights abusers, rather than discourage NSO from pursuing business relationships with governments that were always going to end up abusing the powerful malware. Due to this close relationship, NSO's problems are also Israel's problems, which is likely why even the Israeli government is trying to distance itself from the country's most toxic asset.

My theory is that they kept the heat off during the Benjamin Netanyahu (יִמַּח שְׁמו) era because there was some sort quid pro quo between him and the spyware firm, which led to Israeli authorities looking the other way.

I have no evidence at all to support this, but it smells right to me.