It is a delightful paradox, is it not? A truly vintage year for the theater of the absurd that we politely call 'Middle Eastern Geopolitics.' If one were to script a satire about the region, one would be accused of being too heavy-handed, too on-the-nose. And yet, reality—that persistent, unwashed nuisance—has once again outdone the most cynical of fiction writers. We are presented today with the delicious revelation that the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, a nation that publicly weeps crocodile tears for the plight of Gaza, has been caught using Israeli spyware to silence the very people protesting in support of Gaza.

One almost has to admire the brazen efficiency of it. It is a level of Machiavellian flexibility that would make a Renaissance cardinal blush. According to a report by the tireless spoil-sports at Citizen Lab, there is 'high confidence' that Jordanian security authorities have been utilizing the forensic extraction tools of Cellebrite—an Israeli firm, lest we forget—to rummage through the digital intimacies of local activists. These are not, mind you, foreign saboteurs or dangerous radicals plotting the overthrow of the monarchy. No, these are student organizers, human rights defenders, and political activists whose primary crime appears to be taking their government’s official rhetoric a bit too seriously.

Let us pause to appreciate the grim texture of this irony. Here we have Jordanian citizens, pouring into the streets of Amman, throats hoarse from chanting against the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, demanding that their government take a harder stance against the 'Zionist entity.' And what is the government's response? To reach across the River Jordan, purchase high-end digital surveillance tech from that very same entity, and use it to hack the phones of the protesters. It is a closed loop of hypocrisy so perfect, so geometrically flawless, that it belongs in a museum of modern art.

The tool in question, Cellebrite, is the darling of security services worldwide, a company that has managed to commodify the erasure of privacy with the same banal efficiency that IKEA commodified flat-pack furniture. It allows the state to plug into a seized device and extract everything—contacts, chats, location history, the digital soul of the user. That Jordan is using it is not surprising; the state apparatus everywhere has an insatiable hunger for data. But the context here is what provides the exquisite, acidic aftertaste.

It reveals the dirty little secret of the region: underneath the table, everyone is holding hands. Above the table, the diplomats shout and posture, issuing stern condemnations and invoking the sanctity of Arab brotherhood. But below? Below, there is a brisk trade in security protocols, intelligence sharing, and the tools of repression. The Jordanian security establishment clearly views its own pro-Palestine protesters as a far greater existential threat than the neighboring country those protesters are railing against. Stability, after all, is the only god truly worshipped in these capitals.

The Citizen Lab report details a multiyear investigation, identifying victims with a depressing predictability. A student organizer. A member of a political party. A human rights defender. These are the people the state fears. Not the armies on its borders, but the citizens in its cafes. The activists likely believed that their phones were their tools—instruments of organization and documentation. In reality, thanks to the miracle of cross-border cooperation between supposed enemies, their phones were merely tracking beacons waiting to be cracked open like walnuts.

One must wonder about the procurement meetings. Did the Jordanian officials feel a twinge of embarrassment as they signed the purchase orders for Israeli tech while Al Jazeera played footage of Gaza in the background? Unlikely. The modern bureaucrat is immune to irony. They likely viewed it as a pragmatic necessity. If one wishes to suppress dissent against Israel, who better to ask for the tools than the Israelis? They are, after all, the market leaders in the field. It is simply a matter of buying the best product for the job.

So, we are left with this tableau: The activist sits in a detention center in Amman, interrogated about their anti-Israel activities, based on evidence extracted by Israeli software, utilized by an Arab government that officially condemns Israel. It is a circle of complicity that leaves no room for escape. The protesters shout into the void, and the state records it, digitizes it, and files it away, using the enemy's software to keep the peace. It is enough to make one pour a very stiff drink and toast to the utter, irredeemable farce of it all.