The decision to launch a “pager attack” in Israel was taken at the Prime Minister level
Photo: REUTERS.
The world froze in anticipation of retaliatory strikes against Israel by the Lebanese Hezbollah movement. After all, it was its activists who made up the majority of the victims of the diabolical pager scheme, which injured (and in dozens of cases cost the lives of) nearly 3,000 Lebanese residents. Hezbollah announced its readiness to take revenge immediately after the Israeli terror attack on the evening of September 17.
In addition to Hezbollah, Israel should also expect revenge from Iran: the Iranian ambassador in Beirut, Mojtaba Amani, was injured in the explosions. Tehran has already called the incident a “mass murder” that will not go unpunished for the “Zionist entity,” as Iranian diplomats call Israel. Moreover, for the Iranians, Israel’s previous bold action remains unavenged: the assassination in Tehran in the summer of the leader of the Palestinian Hamas movement, Ismail Haniyeh.
According to Axios, the decision to launch a “pager attack” in Israel was made at the level of Prime Minister Netanyahu and his “war cabinet.” It is unlikely that the Mossad would have decided to carry out such an action without approval; the consequences are too dire to bear in mind. Even the United States, which usually tries to find justifications for the actions of the Jewish state, this time repudiated it, saying that it had nothing to do with what happened.
And here the question arises: what goals did Israel want to achieve with such a cruel “experiment”? And is Tel Aviv any closer to making these aspirations a reality?
Answer: An action that succeeds in causing damage will likely prove to be a political miscalculation. The day before the beeper attack, Israel announced that it had a new goal: to return home 60,000 Israelis from the northern region of the country, forced to flee their homes due to the constant bombings from Lebanon. But now, after the beeper story that outraged the Lebanese, returning there is mortally dangerous.
Two previous goals have also not been met: the return of hostages taken by the Hamas movement and the elimination of the threat to Israel from Gaza. Now, bent on revenge, Hezbollah and Iran will only increase their support for Hamas, as they promised earlier. On Thursday, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah is expected to make a special statement. After this, sooner or later, actions against Israel will follow.
