Hezbollah Gets an Overdue Call

Yesterday, in perhaps the most enemy-focused precision mass attack in history, Israel set off the pagers of Hezbollah simultaneously, causing them to explode. The booby-trapped pagers injured thousands of terrorists (including Iran's "ambassador" to Lebanon) and killed several. While there were some injured bystanders and one death (the daughter of a terrorist), these are on Hezbollah's hands, given their year-long campaign of indiscriminate rocket fire into Israel.

Predictably, many "journalists" have opted to ignore the fact that Hezbollah has been at war against Israel, and pretend instead that this sophisticated operation was an unprovoked "escalation" in the conflict. Actually, this is both long overdue and in danger of not being enough unless Israel quickly capitalizes on the chaos this will sow, by acting to defeat Iran's terrorist proxy.

Unfortunately, the Biden Administration is of a similar view, having warned Israel not to "initiate" what is, in fact, an ongoing war.

I am not ashamed to admit that I am still ... buzzing ... a day later. I think this is due in about equal parts to being glad to see some measure of justice meted out against this evil organization, and admiration for the sophisticated way this was done, via a supply chain attack against a foe trying to increase the security of its communications:

The plot appears to have been in the making for months they said.

And another security source said that up to three grams of explosives were hidden in the new pagers and had gone "undetected" by Hezbollah for months.

In response, the Taiwan-based company Gold Apollo said the pagers were manufactured by BAC Consulting KFT based in Budapest which is licensed to use the firm's brand.

Speaking outside the company's offices in New Taipei, Gold Apollo founder Hsu Ching-Kuang said the pagers used in the explosion were made by a company in Europe.

Elsewhere, I read a description of the Hungarian company that made it sound very shady -- which it would have to be if there is any shred of decency in the world: A mainstream supplier would, I hope, be loathe to sell directly to a terorrist organization. In such a fact would lie ample opportunity for Israel to set up the kind of puppet company that would be able to pull off something like this.

In the bigger picture, this is not enough. Israel risks wasting the momentum of this surprise attack unless it milks every last bit of intelligence out of it that it can, and quickly uses it to crush Iran's proxy, and as much as possible before the next U.S. administration takes office. I am sure either will pressure Israel to stop defending itself -- be it from sympathy with Islamists (Harris) or a desire to pretend that cutting a deal can somehow pacify religious fanatics (Trump).

-- CAV