@Benjy
"This can't be directly compared to the UK identity cards, simply "
Oh I think it can. I'm guessing your familar with Israel but not the UK.
It's true Reg readers on the whole hate the idea of an ID cards .Partly this is because in the UK it has been common law that the state has no right to demand a person prove who they say they are. Most other European countries require their citiziens to carry a government issued document to confirm who they are.
But mainly Reg readers know about the *massive* National Identity Register virtual database (it's a virtual DB because it's made by linking 3 existing databases. IIRC this was because building a *true* NIR from scratch, which would ensure a true clean build, was too much f@~cking trouble and cost too much money even for that bunch of data fetishist meglomaniacs). The one which will offer cradle-to-grave surveillance of who you are, where you live, who you live with, how and if you are permitted to travel and when *any* of this information changes, including your picture and fingerprints.
The planned Israeli biometric database will be remarkably like the UK one, only smaller. It will be more comparable in size to the one in Estonia, so beloved of Charles Clarke (Fomer UK Home Secretary).
Given that UK biometric passport chips have already been hacked I think both your database and their cards will be hit.
I'm not surprised Israel has an ID card. I am *amazed* that a country built (in part) by the survivors of systematic persecution in pat enabled by such widespread data collection would think this is a good idea.
Even if you believe the database *cannot* be tampered with and altered (Israel is the home country for the company that supplies Sky Digitals 2000 bit + data encryption which no one seems to have cracked yet) *ever* you will also have to believe that no future goervernment would mis-use such information to control its citizens.
Never is very long time.
Mine is the one with a copy of John Brunners "The Shockwave Rider" in the side pocket.