The Guardian reports, after months of consultations with Israeli security officials, Google has launched its popular Street View service in the Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa. The new Street View provides images of ordinary life, contested areas and religious sites in the Holy Land. Classified locations pertaining to national security are blurred out.
The Guardian relates Google Street View was held up in Israel by concerns that images of its streets could be used by terrorists. The Islamic Jihad militant group in Gaza, for instance, has boasted that it used Google Earth, which gives birds-eye views and some street-level pictures of sites around the world, to aim rockets at Israel.