cross-posted from: sh.itjust.works/post/50367024

Leaked emails from Israeli officials — obtained by the Iran-linked hacking group Handala, uploaded by the nonprofit Distributed Denial of Secrets, and reviewed by The Standard — show that years before Palantir’s rise, Israeli officials were jockeying for Thiel’s attention and access to his company.

The cache, which includes correspondence between Barak, Prosor, former Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, and other senior Israeli figures, offers a rare peek behind the curtain of defense-tech diplomacy — a revolving door of sorts in which national security officials, venture capitalists, and other geopolitical titans work to influence one another.

It also shows how Silicon Valley and Israel’s political establishment have been intertwined for far longer and more intimately than many realize.