Israel’s Tech Tactics and the Future of Total War

The weaponization of surveillance, AI, and deepfakes in modern conflict.

Since the beginning of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in Gaza – almost immediately following the Hamas attack on Israel during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, which triggered a chain reaction of subsequent events – we have witnessed Israel’s deployment of military technologies previously unseen in action. These technologies played a decisive role in securing Israeli success in several military and political operations. They involved the use of communication devices, computers, mobile phones, and even pagers to inflict sensitive, even critical, losses on the enemy. This tactic was tightly interwoven with missile strikes and combat drones. Moreover, it is now clear that Israel actively employed deepfake technology.

Together, these factors have fundamentally transformed the nature of modern warfare. Israel’s adversaries in the Middle East were utterly unprepared for this shift, which proved decisive in the unfolding of the conflict. In conventional military terms, there had been a rough parity between Israel and its regional opponents – and in guerrilla tactics, groups like Lebanon’s Hezbollah had even held the upper hand, as demonstrated during the 2006 Lebanon War. However, the introduction of this new technological factor dramatically altered the balance of power.

What were these new technologies and methods? Foremost among them was a radically advanced level of surveillance software. The Israelis managed to install tracking programs in virtually every electronic device belonging to their adversaries. Movements, conversations, meetings, and exchanges of information – among Palestinians, Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis, and Iranians – anyone of even marginal relevance to Israel – were fully visible to Israeli intelligence.

In his 2019 book The Empire and the Five Kings, globalist Bernard-Henri Lévy lamented the West’s gradual withdrawal from the Middle East (particularly Iraq), noting that the only compensation for abandoning such strategic positions was the West’s now hyper-sophisticated surveillance capabilities – able to detect even the slightest detail in the territories being vacated. Lévy, an aggressive imperialist, considered this insufficient – a sign of weakness and passivity. He would have preferred direct physical control over the Islamic world by the West and Israel (hence the book’s title, referring to ancient Israel’s war against a coalition of five Canaanite kings, whom the Israelites defeated and subjugated). But Lévy’s point about surveillance was astute. This became the crucial factor starting in 2023.

Communication systems and networked devices – electronic, local, and otherwise – became lethal weapons in Israel’s hands, determining the outcomes of operations in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and in the recent 12-day war with Iran. U.S. and broader Western assistance was significant, but the decisive edge came from the new strategy. Israel succeeded in gaining complete control over its enemies’ networks – turning phones, pagers, and various electronic devices into weapons. Some pagers intended for Hezbollah operatives (who distrusted mobile phones) were rigged with explosives. According to Lebanese reports, not only pagers exploded but also mobile phones, electric scooters, intercoms, and elevator panels. The exact nature of this technology remains unclear, but if it exists and if Israel possesses it, it poses unprecedented risks.

Another component involved drones launched based on targeting data acquired through surveillance – often from within enemy territory. This tactic first became known in July 2024, when Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was eliminated inside Iran. Similar methods were then used to kill Hamas leaders not only in Gaza but in other countries as well. Thanks to electronic surveillance, the Israelis had their targets in full view; the rest was mere execution. Drones could be launched from Israel or from pre-prepared caches in foreign countries.

It is even possible that the sabotage operation leading to the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi involved a pager and surveillance technology. Raisi was a conservative and staunch opponent of Israel. While Iranian authorities failed to determine the cause of the helicopter crash, the events of the 12-day war may explain why – they simply lacked the necessary technology and had no understanding of how such systems worked.

After eliminating the Hamas leadership, Israel turned its focus to Hezbollah. Targeted strikes killed Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah and virtually the entire leadership of Hezbollah, which had once posed a serious threat to Israel. Combined with the exploding pagers and devices, these assassinations and even mass killings of Hezbollah members became extraordinarily effective. Precision drone and missile strikes followed – not random but based on targets identified through electronic surveillance. The Israelis planned these operations meticulously, beginning their extermination from the top down: first eliminating the top leadership – religious and military-political – then the second tier, the third, and so on through the ranks.

In Syria, it was Mossad that brought the ISIS-affiliated al-Sharaa to power, orchestrating a regime change and ousting President Bashar al-Assad using the same techniques. Israel gained full control over Syrian military communications. Deepfakes were used extensively. Orders and directives – sometimes contradictory – were sent to lower-ranking commanders, purportedly from Syria’s top brass, mimicking even the voice of Assad himself. These included commands to retreat, redeploy to senseless positions, or fire on false targets. Regime change was achieved less through conventional military force than through networked technologies. Israel also consolidated its hold on the Golan Heights, expanded its zone of control near the Druze areas closer to Damascus, and destroyed – using drones and missiles – every Syrian military installation that posed even a remote threat. Prior to this, Hezbollah and Iranian forces (especially IRGC units) in Syria had already been subjected to precise targeting and forced to withdraw once the al-Sharaa revolt began.

Next came Iran. Once again, the same strategy was used. In the opening hours of the 12-day war, Israel eliminated nearly the entire top Iranian military command – the Chief of the General Staff, the IRGC commander, and leading nuclear scientists – along with their families, including small children. This was accomplished partly through precision missile strikes, partly through drones launched from within Iran, using pre-positioned caches. The drones were physically launched by Afghan migrants following Israeli instructions, paid modest sums and deemed expendable by Israeli planners.

Subsequent missile strikes targeted Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, leading into a regime-change operation. For all of this to succeed, Israel needed full control over every Iranian individual deemed a potential threat or interest – and again, through electronic devices. The strategy was less effective against Yemen’s Houthis, but even they were occasionally struck with precision attacks that caused serious damage.

Thus, we have witnessed the emergence of entirely new forms of lethal warfare. Israel possesses technologies that allowed it to inflict previously unimaginable damage on its enemies. We have entered a completely new era of war.

During the early stages of the Special Military Operation (SMO), we unexpectedly encountered the problem of drones and communications. Yet what we now see in Israel represents a vastly more advanced level. If you or your family members possess any electronic device, and if you fall afoul of Israel’s interests, you can be eliminated – surgically, efficiently, and at any moment. This is the terrifying conclusion from what we have just witnessed in the Middle East.

A separate concern is the disabling of enemy fleets and seaports. Here too, aquatic drone technologies – still not fully deployed – pose a colossal danger, especially when combined with advanced surveillance systems.

We are therefore dealing with an entire bloc of new threats. The next point: Israel is the closest ally of the United States and the collective West. Some see Israel as a geopolitical proxy of the U.S., while others – particularly Israelis – see the U.S. as a submissive golem under Israeli command. Either way, the essence is the same: the technologies Israel has used so effectively in warfare against its regional adversaries are unquestionably known to and accessible by the United States and the West. Indeed, it is unclear whether these are purely Israeli inventions. Perhaps they originated with the CIA, the Pentagon, Palantir, or MI6 – or were jointly developed. This hardly matters. The point is: the West possesses these weapons and has mastered these strategies and technologies.

Russia is not at war with Israel (though let us not forget that Iran is our ally), so one might think we are safe from such tactics. Perhaps. However, we are undeniably at war with the collective West in Ukraine – and Ukraine is unmistakably a proxy, a tool, of the collective West. Hence the simple and terrifying conclusion: this lethal technology can, at any moment, be turned against Russia.

If we look at the terrorist attacks carried out by Ukrainian saboteurs in Russia – against Daria Dugina (and myself), against Vladlen Tatarsky and Zakhar Prilepin, against Russian generals like Moskalyok and Kirillov, and also the Crocus City Hall attack involving migrants recruited by Kyiv – then the recent drone assault on Russia’s nuclear triad from within Russian territory must be seen in that context. In a critical situation, such a strategy could be fully deployed – or may already have been, albeit in limited form.

Logical questions arise: Do we possess similar weapons systems? Have we penetrated enemy devices and gadgets – those not only of Ukraine but of the U.S. and NATO? On the other hand, do we have adequate defenses against such attacks and strategies? Clearly, our top specialists are working diligently to ensure the safety of the president – our key resource in the war against the West. That is why he owns no electronic devices – which is prudent. Yet we continue to digitize and electrify everything, relying on artificial intelligence that, like other networked technologies, may already be weaponized – or could easily become so. Can AI kill? The answer is evident from the experience of the Lebanese and Iranians: if phones and pagers can kill, then AI certainly can be weaponized under certain conditions. Deepfakes – generated by AI – have already become weapons.

Moreover, are we fully aware that network structures can be easily embedded within immigrant communities, especially among illegal immigrants? These are ready-made technical operatives. Israel could never have embedded such deep-seated sabotage networks across societies without an elite-based agent network on the ground.

Finally: does China possess such military-network technologies? At this moment, China faces a critical decision – whether to enter into open confrontation with the West in Iran and the broader Middle East, where the West is delivering pinpoint strikes on Chinese energy and transport hubs. We will likely find out soon.

Regardless, this is now the sharpest threat facing contemporary Russia. Everything else we can manage. Yet here, we face something wholly new – and if we find ourselves unprepared in a critical moment, the consequences could truly be fatal.