Israel Unleashes Terror on Lebanon
In a disturbing new escalation, the IDF launched a terrorist attack and rocket assault on Hezbollah while thousands still suffer in Gaza.
On Tuesday, Israel carried out a terror attack on Lebanon which killed at least 12 people and wounded over 2,800 more. Israel’s attack was staged months prior as Israel planted explosives inside a shipment of pager devices intended for Hezbollah members. A year ago, Hezbollah militants and party members were advised not to use cell phones to mitigate the possibility of Israel hacking or tapping into microphones. Instead, they opted to use older technology like these pagers, which they thought were less vulnerable to cyberattacks. The pagers were AR924 models made by a Taiwanese manufacturer called Gold Apollo and sold by a Hungarian company called BAC. There were about 5,000 of these pagers that Hezbollah ordered and distributed throughout southern Lebanon until they were remotely triggered to detonate simultaneously, causing grave injuries. These devices were used by the general population as well, people like doctors, emergency workers, politicians, and drivers, not just Hezbollah members. Among the dead were four children, including a nine-year-old girl, Fatima Abdullah, who just arrived home from school. Lebanese hospitals went into a panic, struggling to deal with the crisis as Lebanon’s health minister described the scale of which as “far greater” than the Beirut port explosion four years ago. In a statement, UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said, “We cannot underscore enough the risks of escalation in Lebanon and the region.” Lebanon accused Israel of carrying out the attack, and Israel stayed silent, declining to comment until the following day when it was evident by press investigations that they were responsible.
On Wednesday, more devices exploded. Most of these detonated devices were walkie-talkies, likely knockoffs of the IC-V82 models made by Japanese company ICOM, as their production was discontinued in 2014. Other devices such as solar panels, car batteries, radios, and phones, reportedly exploded. In this attack, at least 25 people were killed, and over 708 were wounded, further exacerbating the medical crisis as there were now over 3,500 casualties across 150 hospitals. This second wave of explosions happened during the funeral processions of the people killed the day before while hundreds lined the streets in mourning. The attacks terrorized thousands of Lebanese civilians as reports came out describing the chaos of screaming, buildings catching fire, and bloodied people frantically seeking help.
On Thursday, the Chief of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, harshly condemned the attacks, saying that Israel had criminal intentions, that this was “a terrorist act,” and that they have “crossed all restrictions and red lines” by targeting civilian populations. He reaffirmed that the attack will not break Hezbollah and that it will not deter them from supporting the Palestinian resistance in Gaza. In closing, he said that the massacre was “an act of war and a declaration of war.” During the speech, Al Jazeera reported that two Israeli fighter jets circled Lebanon’s capital city of Beirut. United States Secretary of State Antony Blinkin called for de-escalation and said, “We don’t want to see any escalatory actions by any party.” This statement comes a day after he visited Egypt to negotiate a ceasefire, during which he skipped going to Israel. A new report says that US Officials believe a proper ceasefire deal may not be achieved for many months despite Blinkin’s claims that a deal is “inside the 10-yard line.” Later in the day, on September 19th, Israel began launching airstrikes into southern Lebanon. Hossein Salami, top commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard, said that Israel will face “a crushing response from the axis of resistance.”
On Friday, Israel carried out what was described as a ‘rampage’ of airstrikes on Lebanon. The strikes were framed by Israel as being ‘targeted strikes’ despite them landing in the populated civilian area of Beirut. This attack carried a death toll of 16, along with 66 more injured. The attack killed Ibrahim Aqil, a senior commander of Hezbollah. In this drastic escalation of war, Israel has abandoned all rules of engagement, making this no longer a limited confrontation. Over a hundred rockets were fired from Hezbollah toward Israel in retaliation. The United Nations Security Council called an emergency meeting in New York to discuss the situation, which was described as ‘on the brink of catastrophe.’ The High Commissioner for Human Rights of the UN said the device attack was a “viola[tion] of international human rights law” and that “It is a war crime to commit violence intended to spread terror among civilians.” Lebanon’s foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, said that Israel is a “rogue state,” calling for the council to condemn the attacks, and demanded that Israel be “deterred and compelled to stop.” While this was occurring, Israel equally advanced its attacks in Gaza, pushing further into Rafah, killing another 27 Palestinians with tanks and airstrikes just that day alone. Eight of them were inside the Nuseirat refugee camp when tanks fired upon them, injuring many others.
This was a terrorist attack. Looking at how Western media has been reporting on this however, one may be led to believe this was a standard military operation. In the New York Times, they fronted cold, soulless headlines reading “Israel’s Pager Attack Has No Clear Strategic Goal, Analysis Say,” along with “Pager Attacks Embarrass Hezbollah but It Is Unlikely to Be Deterred” and “Israel’s presumed attacks in Lebanon were more psychological than strategic.” This is not an accident either; the Times had no problem headlining other recent terrorist attacks as they did less than a month ago with attacks in France and Somalia. Meanwhile, the far-right propagandists at the New York Post published a front page that read “BEEP BEEP BOOM! 2,800 Hezbollah terrorists hit by an exploding pager plot,” celebrating the war crime that Israel committed. No one should deny the inhumanity of these horrific events, but why does the Israeli military get the luxury of pedantic skepticism to cover for their criminal actions? It’s brutally apparent that terrorism is never labeled as such when carried out by America or Israel. Many Americans today are still ignorant of the millions of people who the War on Terror killed, the torture regimes, and the countless war crimes committed by the United States this century. Something that permeates deep in our society is the double standard. We carry immense sorrow for American victims of terrorist attacks, seeking revenge and annihilation. But when Israel indiscriminately bombs civilians in Gaza and Lebanon, there is no outrage or empathy for the victims; they are merely statistics. Simply imagine what the US reaction and response would be if another nation implanted explosives in the phones of American military members and remotely detonated them, killing tens of soldiers, civilians and children. It would be an unquestionable nightmare. It would prompt immense military action, and the press would have no issue classifying it as a terrorist attack.
Let’s be clear about the nature of this unprecedented attack. It was indiscriminate: Israel had no idea who would be holding the devices when they exploded, and they had no idea who would be around the blast. The IDF knew full well that this would harm civilians. It was untargeted: Hezbollah ordered the shipment of pagers, but the IDF had no idea if they were for politicians, soldiers, doctors, or paramedics in southern Lebanon. It was unprovoked: while both sides have exchanged rockets during the past year, this is an unwarranted escalation by Israel. Of the 7,491 total rockets exchanged, 83% of them were fired by Israel, and Hezbollah did nothing extraordinary to escalate prior to this recent terror attack.
All of this reflects a profoundly bizarre phenomenon in far-right foreign policy; do they think other people don’t have the same motivations as them? Does Israel genuinely think that attacking Hezbollah wouldn’t provoke more war and destruction? A baffling report by Axios reads, “Israeli officials said their increasing attacks against Hezbollah are not intended to lead to war but are an attempt to reach de-escalation through escalation.” Either one of two things is happening; these Israeli officials are lying because they actually want to start a war, or are incompetent enough to think that Hezbollah wouldn’t see this attack as anything less than an act of war. We know that it is the former. How could they possibly expect de-escalation after such an attack? Prime Minister Netanyahu’s power in Israel is slipping away from him, and the only way to keep his fascist administration in power is to continue the war indefinitely. But going to war with Hezbollah could have grave consequences. The IDF, funded with billions of dollars and the best military equipment in the world, has failed to take down the Hamas rebellion group and failed to recapture hostages after a year of fighting. Compared with Hezbollah, Hamas’ fighting force is only around 30,000 versus Hezbollah’s force of over 100,000. Hamas receives at most about $100 million annually from Iran and has to smuggle arms through its border with Egypt. They are also separated from the rest of Palestine in the West Bank, cutting them off from all other supply lines. Hezbollah, on the other hand, has open lines throughout the region and has a stronger alliance with Iran being one of the only other Shia Muslim factions in the region. They receive about $700 million annually from Iran, which would likely increase if a wider war was started. Hezbollah has about 150,000 rockets in its arsenal compared to Hamas’ estimated 10,000 rockets. Within Lebanon, Hezbollah is also a major political party in the governing parliament. While the Lebanese government calls for an immediate peace negotiation, they have also acknowledged that Hezbollah has reason to retaliate. Israel still has the upper hand, but they would be naive to assume an all-out war would be anything short of devastating. Peace entirely relies on if Israel is willing to negotiate an end to the war.
What should be terrifying to everyone in the US is that Israel could very well get in over their heads and drag America into a regional conflict. Is America ready for another regional conflict in West Asia after it just ended the War on Terror three years ago? Are our leaders prepared to do whatever it takes to broker peace through diplomacy and implement measures to ensure ongoing equitable relations between these nations? Or are they prepared to sell our country to defense companies to support an aggressive military ethno-state? Biden certainly would; he’s a self-described zionist who has written blank checks to Israel with no conditions attached. Trump definitely would; he is blatantly Islamophobic, he threw out the Iran Nuclear Deal to spite Obama, signed the Abraham Accords which excluded Palestinians, and wants Israel to “finish the job.” Harris would too; despite her support for a two-state solution, she has accepted over $5 million in AIPAC funding and has reiterated many times that she will stand by Israel no matter what. A ground invasion of Lebanon could mean catastrophe for both sides as there seems to be no brakes on the Israeli war machine.