Sadly, this never formed a constitution.

Israel is a country based on values of freedom and liberty.

Wish I could say that with a straight face. :D

The objection in Israel isn’t to implementing more secure ID cards, based on smart cards, or even on biometrics.
The issue is – there is no true reason for actually holding a centralized database with all this information.

The Israeli government has proven time after time that it lacks the ability to protect its citizens’ privacy. Sensitive databases are exposed, released and even intentionally leaked.
Military records of celebrities get published, as do mental records.
It’s not that we don’t trust technology – we don’t trust people.

What we also don’t trust, is the haste and lack of public scrutiny in this decision. Meir Shitrit, the member of Knesset that is actively and aggressively pushing this law, is doing so without allowing any true and meaningful discussion, including all the security, economical, and social meanings of this law (Can a citizen be forced to provide the government with his fingerprints? How about an Islamic woman who isn’t allowed to show her face?)

Israel is a country based on values of freedom and liberty.
While must of realize that some concessions must be made in order to ensure our freedom, and some liberties must be wavered in order to ensure others – the biometric database is the case of an unnecessary evil.

I say yes to a smartcards as ID cards, and I’ll even agree to biometrics on those cards – if implemented correctly.
A forced, centralized database of biometrics of all of Israel’s citizens however – is a privacy and security disaster just waiting to happen.

Software engineers think of hacking as “breaking the encryption/signature”.
To a person who’s not an engineer, calling a government clerk and convincing her to make a change – which she’s authorized to make – is a form of hacking.

There’s a very good chance that “somebody screws up royally”, as you put it. It’s not very different from the current situation in Israel, and biometrics probably have nothing to do with it, but that’s what the author seems to be scared of.

I believe the author doesn’t fear technology, but rather has zero faith in the ability of the Israeli government to employ appropriate security measures.

The issue of implementation is entirely separate from that of the database existing to begin with. I doubt (and that said, would rather not believe) that even this backwards poor excuse for a government is remotely capable of such an utterly pants-on-head retarded policy.

Said lack of faith if is not entirely absent from the post, though it does focus on how “every system can be ‘hacked’” which is hardly focusing on the issue at hand.