This has to be one of the most surprising headlines concerning the success of an Israeli high-tech company.

“Israel’s Cellebrite linked to FBI’s iPhone hack attempt“

Bizarre, but true. The story is very simple. The FBI have been demanding that Apple Inc help them crack the phone of the San Bernadino attackers, who terrorised California in December. The mega conglomerate has refused to cooperate. Instead, the FBI has now turned to an Israeli cyber security firm that specialises in mobile forensics.

However, the background to the story also needs to be recalled. Just as Israeli high-tech growth has continued very solidly over the past few years, the country’s relationship with the Obama administration has gone in the other direction. Somehow Bibi and Barack cannot find a way to get along. So to find the top cops of America turning to Israel for help may at first sight seem a little unusual.

There again, this week Jews around the world are celebrating the festival of Purim. It recalls a time when Haman, the senior minister to King Xerxes – known in Hebrew as Ahaseurus – wanted to kill all the Jews in the Persian empire. Mordechai and Esther turned the plot around. The instigators were eventually hanged.

Parallels with the policies of modern Iran? History shows us that the obvious and the expected is not always what happens. Israeli high-tech merely exemplifies how this pattern continues.

We should offer congratulations for some assertive lateral thinking by the American detectives. And viewing Apple’s refusal in the light of the Brussels massacre, you have to wonder again if the company needs to rethink its policy.