The United Nations was in high dudgeon in the aftermath of the pager and walkie talkie attacks against Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon. According to the Associated Press, the UN’s human rights chief Volker Türk has said that “weaponizing ordinary communication devices represents a new development in warfare, and targeting thousands of Lebanese people using pagers, two-way radios and electronic equipment without their knowledge is a violation of international human rights law.”
“Those who ordered and carried out these attacks must be held to account,” he said.
Tellingly, the hypocrites at Turtle Bay never asked why one of the victims, Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, was carrying a Hezbollah-issued pager.
This past week, as the Sabbath ended, we in Israel got the news that the wicked wizard of the north, Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah, was flattened like a pancake in an IDF attack on his command center in a Beirut neighborhood. Admittedly, I’m still trying to understand how a country, Israel, that cannot reliably deliver mail to its citizens, is able to develop the intelligence resources which allow it to detonate a bomb in a Tehran hotel room, compromise thousands of pagers and walkie talkies to explode on command and know in which basement in which building complex where and when Nasrallah would be present.
Jews in Israel and in Jewish communities around the world were not rejoicing in the pager attacks but we did enjoy a sense of satisfaction in the attacks, which appeared to be without equal in the annals of clandestine warfare. While that may be the case, it’s not the first time that justice had been delivered via electronics.
Israel has killed Hamas terrorists in the past using a high level of sophistication. For instance, in 1996 Israel somehow managed to get a booby-trapped cellphone into the hands of Hamas bomb maker Yahya Ayyash, known as “the engineer.” The phone exploded during his weekly phone call to his father in the Palestinian Authority.
The following year, an attack using liquid poison was attempted and failed dramatically. On September 25, 1997, two months after a Hamas suicide bombing in Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda Market killed 16 people and injured over 160 Israel attempted to assassinate Hamas’s Khaled Mashaal in Jordan.
Mossad agents were to spray the terrorist with a poison in the street, an act that was to be disguised by the opening of a shaken soda can giving the impression of an innocent accident. The plan was carried out as Mashaal emerged from his car to enter his office. But the surprise calls of Mashaal’s daughter from the car led him to turn his head just as one agent sprayed him with the poison, while the startled second man did not open the can. The botched attempt led Jordan’s King Hussein to threaten Israel at the time that if Mashaal died, so would the agents who had been arrested. Israeli officials quickly provided the Jordanians with an antidote and medical advice as doctors in Amman fought for Mashaal’s life.
Israel has also used computer technology to attack Iran’s nuclear program. Although credit was never claimed, it’s widely believed to have been behind the Stuxnet computer virus attack in 2010 which set back Iran’s development of nuclear weapons.
Interestingly, except for the usual suspects who deny Israel’s right to self-defense in the face of thousands of rocket, missile and drone attacks from Hezbollah, I have to admit to being a bit surprised by U.S. comments on Nasrallah’s assassination. President Biden said, “His death from an Israeli airstrike is a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis and Lebanese civilians.”
But, true to form since October 7, Biden’s statement had to conclude with a call for negotiations as “ultimately, our aim is to de-escalate the ongoing conflicts in both Gaza and Lebanon through diplomatic means.”
Decapitating Hezbollah’s leadership has also sent a message to terror’s puppet masters in Tehran. So much so that news reports indicate that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has been taken to a secure location. (Wasn’t that hotel operated by Iran’s military where Hamas head Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated a “secure location?”)
So, besides erasing an arch terrorist from the scene, what positive outcomes can arise from Nasrallah’s death?
Nasrallah was a key figure in Hezbollah’s military and political strategies including interventions in Syria and Iraq. His absence might create an opportunity for de-escalation and more diplomatic engagements.
Long considered a king-maker in Lebanese politics, there might be a shift in Lebanon’s internal politics including reforms and a stronger push towards addressing the country’s economic and social issues.
Without Nasrallah at the wheel, Hezbollah’s operations will face disruptions, potentially reducing militant activities in the region. And while I won’t hold my breath waiting for it to happen, it could give rise to a new leadership that is not hell-bent on destroying Israel.
Stephen M. Flatow is president of the Religious Zionists of America (RZA) He is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995 and the author of A Father’s Story: My Fight for Justice Against Iranian Terror. Note: The RZA is not affiliated with any American or Israeli political party.
