A story for the ages, is how Hezbollah, Iran’s terror militia proxy was disrupted and its leadership minimized, apparently with one press of a button.
It is a remarkable story of brilliant intelligence work and how technology can be used to disrupt enemy capability.
It is also a new military and terror activity challenge, because it could be used by anyone, anywhere.
Israel was immediately accused of pulling off this operation, but there has been no admission.
This operation appears to have been well thought-out, well concealed and well-conducted. Intelligence operations all over the world will now be carrying out their own assessments and will arrive at their own conclusion.
Israel may well be looking at how this all fits into the strategic balance and what are the follow-up steps needed to be made, to deter and dismantle the terror militia Hezbollah. Terrorist organizations will be working out how they can use this to spread their terror wings. Other countries will likely be looking at how they can protect their people from such operations.
The more you examine it, the more brilliant but dangerous it appears to be.
About ‘Beepergate’ Operation
This is one of the most astonishing, in fact unique, intelligence operation actions in the history of warfare. It is a rework of the ‘Trojan Horse’ story in the cyber age.
The ‘Beepergate’ may well become legendary. It could be seen as a modern version of the Trojan Horse and The Manchurian Candidate cases.
Though we have watched many thrilling James Bond and Black Mirror movies, people are utterly stunned by ‘Beepergate.’
In real life, operations like this call for a WOW! It is not expected to happen. It appears that at least four operations were folded into one.
It is clear that Hezbollah’s supply chain was thoroughly mapped.
No matter who carried out the operation, here is what was achieved:
They invented a special explosive device; small enough to be inserted inside a handheld device; sophisticated enough to be remotely activated; effective enough to cause real damage, yet, not physically or electronically conspicuous to call attention to itself.
The operatives inserted themselves into Hezbollah’s procurement network and took physical control of the devices in play and one by one set them up.
They activated the charges simultaneously across a very wide area, in every place a Hezbollah operative was going about their daily activities.
Though the puzzle’s details of who pulled it off and exactly how remains unknown, the operation achieved its apparent goal to damage the Hezbollah network.
It was an audacious technically sophisticated plot, carried out by mavericks.
First Mass Targeted Attack in History
‘Beepergate’ is the first mass-targeted killing in warfare history. The beeper distribution network allowed them to target thousands of Hezbollah operatives, all were hit, wherever they were, at the same moment.
The operation’s ingenuity was that it relied on Hezbollah itself to select the targets for them. Hezbollah selected the victims among its own ranks.
There is no other case where the attackers just sat back and let the enemy point at the targets; allowing their plan, effortlessly, to perform a key part of their work.
When mapping those attacked, they are Hezbollah and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) operatives, also Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, an IRGC officer. He was connected by a beeper to Hezbollah’s network, proof that Hezbollah is an Iranian proxy operation.
The Scale of Operational Success
The number of injured and dead terrorists is a sign of total disarray in Hezbollah operations. In military terms, maiming is more disruptive than death. It psychologically stresses the enemy, blurs their operational system and ties up more resources. It also inactivates much of the general function of each operative and the entire organization.
The Human Shield Tactic
The mass targeted attack foiled Hezbollah’s human shield tactic. It also helped reveal Hezbollah’s operational points in civilian areas. Before, these were not obvious to civilians around the world, but they should be starting to understand that now.
While Israel’s military places itself as a front to its civilian population to protect them from the enemy, Hezbollah and Hamas place themselves amongst the civilian public, using them as human shields.
Confused Westerners
Though Israel has not taken responsibility for the ‘Beepergate,” Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah and his enabler, Iran, already blamed Israel for crossing all red lines and that retribution is to come.
A salvo of rockets is being fired at Israel as I write this op-ed.
Confused and/or corrupt Westerners already blame Israel, not the terrorists, for civilian deaths. These useful idiots, for one Josep Borrell, a Spanish politician serving as High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, will not hesitate to get behind Hezbollah and reprimand Israel. These Westerners will go as far as condemning Israel for indiscriminately killing civilians, from among whom Hezbollah terrorists operate.
Borrell will never mention the fact that Hezbollah started this war with Israel on October 8, 2023, a day after Hamas perpetrated its atrocities across Israel’s southern region, on October 7, 2023. Neither will he mention that the reason there are some injured children is that the terrorists live with their families in civilian areas. Nor that Hezbollah already fired 10,000 rockets aiming at Israel’s civilian population.
Nasrallah made another tactical mistake, similar to the one he made in 2006 that caused the 2nd Lebanon War. This one may set Lebanon back so it looks like Gaza.
However, any fair thinking observer can admit that the ‘Beepergate’ targets were relatively clean kills of Israel’s enemy, as clean as one can possibly imagine in a war.
From the outside, it may be difficult to tell whether any of the non-terrorist injuries were suffered by innocent civilians or the families of the Hezbollah operatives.
Iran, the Perfect Terror State Sponsor
Iran has risen across the globe as a terror sponsor state which has brought death and destruction everywhere it has gained a foothold. But Iran does not dirty its hands with the blood of those it makes into its nemesis. It uses proxies to do its dirty work.
Hezbollah, a terrorist organization, is Iran’s proxy. Although the ‘Beepergate’ operation was not claimed by Israel and it was conducted against terrorists, Israel was blamed for it. Israel is also limited to a very narrow scope of response to terrorist acts, a scope imposed only on Israel. Hezbollah works not only with Iran, but also hand in glove with Russia, Iraq and the nefarious Syrian Assad regime.
US Administration, a Strawman
The Biden administration claims that diplomacy is morally superior to active military deterrence and they are two separate approaches that do not meet. As could have been expected, the administration instinctively rebuked Israel for the ‘Beepergate’ operation and again aired, ad nauseam, its upright “de-escalation” mantra.
But the pressure the Biden Administration put on Israel to de-escalate only advances the terror agenda of Iran’s proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah. It was Hezbollah that carried out an unprovoked attack against Israel on October 8, 2023. They started firing rockets at Israel, attacks that have escalated ever since.
The US must let Israel do the job, to win this conflict, but Joe Biden is thinking only about his so-called “legacy.”
The only de-escalation that the US should support is the one that Israel wants, to allow the return of some 80,000 Israeli civilians to their homes in northern Israel. Israel also wants to weaken or totally destroy Hezbollah’s death grip on southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
In Summation
The pre-emptive exploding beepers attack was a surgical injury to the Hezbollah terrorists. It was also surgical damage to the organization’s command and ruling tiers.
Hezbollah has tens of thousands of terrorists, and it turns out that only five thousand beepers were distributed.
The fact that the pager held by the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon exploded and caused him to go blind is ‘eye-opening’ evidence of terror state Iran’s control of unfortunate Lebanon.
The international terrorists – Hezbollah – will carry for a long time, if not all their life span, the scars that reveal their sins. And once again, Nasrallah did the work for Israel in criminalizing the targets. The ensuing explosions of the walkie-talkies, the following day, finally buried Hezbollah’s honor.
To arrive at applicably effective de-escalation diplomacy requires military deterrence. The US knows that – it is the strategy it uses. The ‘Beepergate’ case is now playing an effective role in restoring Israel’s deterrence in the region.
One can now assume that in all likelihood the ‘below the belt’ ‘Beepergate’ operation has sown a cloud of distrust between Beirut and Tehran. In any case, it not only caused bodily harm to hundreds of Hezbollah operatives but also caused enormous psychological damage and confusion among its ranks. The operation disrupted the organization’s very basic communications system, leaving everyone, from the foot soldiers to the commanders and leaders, feeling vulnerable, wondering what Israel has in store for them next.
Since Iran arranged the beeper purchase through a European intermediary, its proxies can now doubt its ability to organize purchases and also protect them.
In recent weeks, the Modus operandi of Iran and its terror proxies has been penetrated. This reached all the way to Iran’s capital Tehran where Ismail Haniyeh, chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau was eliminated.
As may now be obvious, Israel has finally started to take active military deterrence actions in its own defense against terrorist enemies. It has also stopped listening to the US, EU, and UN, which have all previously worked to prevent Israel from eliminating the terroristic enemies.
The world waits to witness what other breathtaking military actions Israel has in mind. The cyber-age Trojan Horse beepers are likely to be only the most recent development. There are suggestions there is a plan to send soldiers into Lebanon with the end goal to send Hezbollah far away from its northern border.
