Amazon and Google, which won the Israeli government’s Nimbus cloud computing deal, agreed to demands to set up a special reporting mechanism about data handed to foreign governmenmts, as part of the contract, according to leaked documents seen by the “Guardian, “as part of a joint investigation with Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call.
Through a so-called coded system call the “winking mechanism,” every request to hand over data to a foreign government is accompanied by a report made in a way that seems to come straight out of a spy thriller. Amazon and Google reportedly send Israel’s Ministry of Finance secret codes through a money transfer that reveals the identity of the country that required them to disclose the information, even if the country has issued an order preventing them from revealing that they provided such information.
According to the report, put together by activist and researcher Yuval Avraham of the Local Call website, the secret code system works through four-digit payments based on the international telephone code of that country.
Thus, in cases where Google or Amazon provide information to US authorities, they are obliged to transfer NIS 1,000 to Israel as part of the reporting mechanism, since the US country code is 1. If the companies are required to provide information to Italy, they will transfer NIS 3,900 to Israel, and in the case of Ireland, whose country code is 353, NIS 3,530 will be transferred. In the event that the companies are unable to legally report the identity of the country, they must pay Israel NIS 100,000 shekels within 24 hours. The Guardian presented a legal opinion claiming that this is a circumvention of existing legislation in both the US and Europe, which prohibits reporting to a third party when the data is transferred to them by court order.
Exceptional requirements
In addition to the unique “winking mechanism”, the Guardian’s investigation depicts a situation in which Google and Amazon agreed to extreme terms and extraordinary requirements from the state in order to be partners in its cloud projects. According to the Guardian, the agreement with Israel is exceptional in that “the companies cannot suspend or revoke Israel’s access to their technology if it acts in a way that violates the terms of use and does not allow them to take a similar step to that taken by Microsoft.”
Following a previous Guardian investigation, Microsoft canceled its cloud and AI agreement with IDF Intelligence Unit 8200 due to the claim that listening to Palestinians without their consent for the purpose of fighting terrorism constitutes a violation of its terms.
However, in this case, according to the Guardian, which has adopted an anti-Israeli stance throughout the war, this situation is completely different. First, the Intelligence Division and the Ministry of Defense contracted with Microsoft and that was not part of the Nimbus tender, and although they were required to do so, the information in dispute with Microsoft was negligently stored on a server outside Israel and as part of a standard commercial contract, which made it easy for Microsoft to terminate it unilaterally.
In contrast, the Nimbus tender has sovereign characteristics that typify contracts between tech giants and countries in which the state is a preferred customer. The information is stored on servers in Israel (with the exception of the AI activity, which is still mostly conducted abroad), there is an arbitration system that allows for the resolution of disputes between the state and companies, and heavy sanctions for unilateral withdrawal by commercial companies.
Google and Amazon stood by Israel during the war and were partners in home front projects and managing civilian aspects of government activity. Google and Amazon fired employees – who publicly spoke out against Israel and against the company’s contracts with Israel – for violating employment agreements that prohibit entry into controversial political issues.
Ministry of Finance: The claims are baseless
At the same time, Israel is not without risk – it lacks a “sovereign cloud”, a data center or network of servers that also manages the critical AI processes for the government and Israel’s civilian sector and allows local AI processing with sovereign language models. Such activity reduces Israel’s exposure to manipulation by hostile elements or to arbitrary decisions such as the decision made by Microsoft on Unit 8200. The IDF is also far from moving to a Nimbus franchise-based operation and still relies largely on Microsoft servers, a company that has not signed with the state on terms like those granted by Google and Amazon, and, as demonstrated in the case of 8200 unit, quickly buckles to pressures exerted on its operations in Israel.
The Ministry of Finance said in response, “The State of Israel contracts only with law-abiding companies. The claim that government vendors are acting in violation of the law is false, irresponsible, and baseless. As part of the Nimbus Project, the government contracted with more than a hundred leading Israeli and global cloud vendors – including Amazon (AWS) and Google (GCP), all of which are subject to strict contractual obligations that guarantee Israel’s vital interests. These agreements are confidential, and we do not legitimize the article’s claims by disclosing private commercial terms. It is clear that the article relies on agenda-driven talking points fed by interested parties and echoes an anti-Israel narrative rather than facts. Publishing such misinformation misleads the public and undermines journalistic credibility.”
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on October 29, 2025.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.
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