The exploding pagers in Lebanon – and now, even walkie-talkies – that killed at least a dozen people and injured over 2,800, most of them believed to be Hezbollah fighters, has all the hallmarks of an Israeli covert operation. Although Israel hasn’t owned up to it, American and other officials briefed on the matter have said that Israeli agencies planted tiny explosives in thousands of pagers used by the Hezbollah militia.
Consider this: Whoever was behind the operation knew that the Hezbollah fighters were using pagers to communicate through the militia’s hierarchy (and with their Iranian sponsors), found out who was supplying the devices to the militia, intercepted at least one batch of pagers somewhere along the supply chain and inserted tiny explosives into each device, and remotely triggered the explosives on thousands of them on Tuesday. Who has the sophistication and the capability to pull off such an operation? More importantly, who has the motivation and intent to do so? Clearly, it is Israel’s security agencies.
The question is, though, was it meant to be a warning to Hezbollah to back off on the Lebanon border? Or, was it a strike aimed at decapitating the communications and command-and-control -- and some militiamen as well in the bargain -- of Hezbollah ahead of an Israeli ground offensive into Lebanon? Has Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu decided that, having degraded Hamas’ fighting capability with the war on Gaza, it is time to do the same to Hezbollah, Iran’s other proxy?