Ya'alon: Beersheba will be national cyber capital

Defense minister says plan to move several IDF bases to the Negev will also bring private sector to the South.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon 370 (photo credit: Ariel Harmoni, Ministry of Defense)
Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon 370
(photo credit: Ariel Harmoni, Ministry of Defense)
The IDF’s move to the South will result in Beersheba turning into the “national cyber capital,” Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon pledged on Tuesday during a conference at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Ya’alon said that “the technological units are the main lever [for growth]. The C4i [Teleprocessing Corps] and Intelligence areas of military offices will bring people who will live here,” he said. “The ability to connect these bases that will brim with technology to the academic and information centers will lead Beersheba to become a national cyber capital, and we mean that.
This will also naturally attract the private sector,” Ya’alon added.
“The IDF will receive advanced infrastructure, logistics and new technologies, that will push it forward by generations,” he said.
The defense minister was speaking at a conference titled “IDF Moving to the Negev.” He said the move was part of realizing former prime minister David Ben- Gurion’s dream of making the Negev desert bloom.
“Geographically speaking, Beersheba is the center of the country, and this is how it must be seen and acted upon,” Ya’alon affirmed. The influx of career officers and their families will in turn bring businesses to the south, he stated.
The Beduin population cannot be ignored, Ya’alon stressed, noting unsolved issues affecting the community, such as land ownership, housing, employment, education and law enforcement.
“This is a calculated move with a five-year [funding] plan of NIS 8 [billion] to 9b. There is a balance between many considerations,” he added.