Israel Detonates Pagers, Killing Twelve and Wounding Thousands
An Act of State-Sponsored Terrorism
In an act of terrorism, Israel detonated thousands of pagers, primarily in Lebanon, killing at least 12 people (including an 8-year-old girl) and wounding nearly 3000.
Of course, when you look at corporate-owned news (the CON), you’ll see headlines like this (from the New York Times):
Top News
Exploding Pagers Targeting Hezbollah Kill 11 and Wound Thousands
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Note how the NYT removed all responsibility for this attack from Israel. Apparently, “exploding pagers” gained sentience and decided to explode themselves to kill and wound people connected to Hezbollah. The pagers have all the agency, not Israel. It must be a special “Terminator” brand of pager controlled by Skynet and made by Cyberdyne Systems.
Here’s another example from Reuters: “At least 12 people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon.”
Again, if you read only headlines or quick summaries of the news, you’d get the impression that thousands of pagers just randomly exploded because of a software glitch or a hardware defect in them.
It turns out that Israel boobytrapped 5000 pagers with high explosive with a trigger switch and detonated them simultaneously with no concern about possible collateral damage.
Caitlin Johnstone puts it well here, quoting Edward Snowden:
“If it were iPhones that were leaving the factory with explosives inside, the media would be a hell of a lot faster to cotton on to what a horrific precedent has been set today. Nothing can justify this. It’s a crime. A crime. And everyone in the world is less safe for it,” tweeted NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
“What Israel has just done is, via *any* method, reckless. They blew up countless numbers of people who were driving (meaning cars out of control), shopping (your children are in the stroller standing behind him in the checkout line), et cetera. Indistinguishable from terrorism,” Snowden also said.
What strikes me watching all this is how gratuitously creepy it is. Israel is so creepy. Everyone already sees them as rapey genocidal baby killers, and then they have to go and commit this weird terror attack in the creepiest way possible and freak everyone out, to no clear and meaningful strategic gain. They’re so creepy they can’t stop themselves from always choosing the creepiest course of action.
She’s right. It’s creepy. It’s also state-sponsored terrorism.
An important point here: I don't think Israel would be escalating in this way if it didn't have the full support of Biden, Harris, and Trump. The radicals running the Israeli government know this is their best chance to do whatever the hell they want as Republicans and Democrats compete to see which party can be more obsequious toward Israeli imperatives.
Because of this dynamic, we are living in very dangerous times. Even Israeli war with Iran is possible, which would likely drag the U.S. military into a very costly conflict that would only serve the interests of Bibi Netanyahu.
In shamelessly and spinelessly competing for Jewish-American voters and money, Harris and Trump may well lead us into a disastrous and much wider war in the Middle East.
Of course, the U.S. denied any prior knowledge of the attack - and I await the official response from the smirking spokesman from the State Department that while the U.S. "decries" the violence - everyone, sing along - Israel has a right to defend itself.
The use of consumer technology for violence has been a constant for the last several decades- e.g., from the use of USB flash drives to inset a worm into computer systems (Stuxnet) to cell phones used to trigger IEDs in Iraq, and the use of cellular location data for air strikes. But this is the first apparent weaponization of the consumer product itself into an explosive device.
Whether this was a tampering with the pagers during their shipment or the use of the lithium batteries as the explosive, remains a subject of speculation. While it was pagers this time; next time it could be a mobile phone or tablet.
If nothing else, it serves notice to all of us that they can reach us in any location if they choose - we have been warned.