Israel Carries Out Large-Scale Terrorist Attacks In Lebanon

Written by Robert Inlakesh

In an outrageous move that killed at least 11, injuring over 4,000 people -- of whom 400 are critically wounded -- Israel detonated wireless communication devices across Lebanon. Despite the refusal of the Western corporate media to label this as an act of terrorism, the act was clearly designed to inflict widespread anxiety in the Lebanese civilian population as well as scoring a point against Hezbollah militarily.

This Tuesday, less than 24 hours after the Israeli security cabinet officially agreed to expand their Gaza war aims to include stopping Hezbollah by force, Israel inflicted the worst mass casualty event in Lebanon since the Beirut Port Explosion of 2020. Over 4,000 casualties were inflicted simultaneously across Lebanon, indiscriminately wounding women, men, children, and the elderly. Christians, Muslims, and Druze were all effected by the Israeli decision to rig pagers with small amounts of explosive material and detonate them amongst civilians.

Videos emerged from across Lebanon, featuring adults and children thrown to the ground after small explosions ripped flesh from their bodies in packed market places, stores, and in the streets. Lebanese hospitals also put out calls for blood donations as the sheer scale of the injured became difficult to deal with all at once. While Western media call it an attack targeting Hezbollah, widely refraining from even blaming Israel, the first victim was a 10-year-old girl.

Then, one day later, Israel began detonating walkie-talkie devices that contained even larger explosive charges. These devices exploded inside people's homes and cars, on motorbikes and even at a funeral procession, injuring hundreds more and killing at least 12 people. The Western media all but applauded these actions, describing them as movie style plots and "innovative".

The reality of this situation is that Israel just carried out an act of terrorism against Lebanon. If this situation was the other way around and Hezbollah had managed to rig communication devices belonging to Israeli reservists and high ranking military officials, then detonating them all, knowing that some were in the hands of civilians and that others were carrying them while in a civilian capacity, it would be instantly labelled as an appalling act of terrorism. For the next month we would hear non-stop stories about how the first Israeli victim was a ten year old girl and that this act of terrorism was designed to strike fear in Israel's civilian population. But, of course, Lebanon is an Arab country and Israel is the US government's unconditional ally, so the attack is reported as if it was a valid military operation and there isn't even a condemnatory tone taken to address it in most cases.

This brings us to the next point in the story, and that is the role of the US government in all of this. American officials immediately informed the likes of Axios that they had no idea that Israel was going to detonate thousands of pagers across Lebanon, as US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told journalists at a press briefing that the US "was not aware of this operation and was not involved". Miller even suggested that the State Department was collecting information as journalists are, which suggested that the US government has no more information that the general public -- a somewhat laughable suggestion given that they are in constant communication with their Israeli counterparts.

🇱🇧 The U.S. State Dept says the U.S. was not involved in the pager explosions in Lebanon and was not aware of the incident beforehand.

In unrelated news, the American University of Beirut Medical Center replaced the pagers of their doctors and staff 2 weeks ago. pic.twitter.com/G5wwQ4tBlj

— Expat Vibes (@expatvibes) September 17, 2024

Just one day earlier, as the American media has been reporting throughout the past 11-months of war in Gaza, the Washington Post suggest that the US Biden administration was working towards restoring calm and preventing an escalation between Lebanon and Israel.

The truth is, the United States government is standing behind Israel's every move when it comes to their offensive actions against Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Yemen, and all other regional actors. When Israel bombed Yemen's Hodeidah Port and inflicted 90 civilian casualties, the US denied involvement. In June, when Israel managed to take back four of its captives allegedly held in Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp, killing almost 300 civilians and injuring 700 others, with clear US intelligence backing, Washington also claimed it had no idea and wasn't involved. When Israel bombed the consular segment of Iran's embassy in Damascus, Syria, the United States also claimed to have no idea about what happened and who even attacked the embassy.

More recently, in late July, right after Israeli Prime Minister returned from the US and had delivered a speech about the need for absolute "victory" over Iran's "axis of evil", there are suddenly two major provocations in both Iran and Lebanon. First, Israel launches airstrikes into a civilian building in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, killing Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr along with women and children, injuring 74. Then, hours later, Israel also assassinated the leader of Hamas, Ismail Hanniyeh, in Iran's Capital, Tehran. In both these cases, the US said it had no idea about what happened, was not informed, and did not take part in it. Despite the Biden administration claiming at the time to seek de-escalation, when the issue triggered a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting, the US and UK chose to both dedicate their time to condemning Iran for stoking regional tensions. The US refused to acknowledge that Israel was responsible for the assassination in Iran, let alone condemn it, instead choosing to blame the victim of the aggression and warn them not to take further action. In fact, when US officials are asked whether Iran has the right of self defense, they refuse to even answer the question directly and instead parrot the line that Tehran funds terrorism.

For one to believe that the US government is not actively involved in the decision making of the Israeli government, you would have to believe that the entire American establishment are the intellectual equivalents of a politically active pack of chimpanzees. If they are not the equals of chimps cognitively, then they are directly involved in the escalatory actions taken by Israel, or at the very least aware in advance. It is simply implausible that the Biden administration had no idea about any of the super sensitive, meticulously planned, aggressive operations that have threatened to open up a full-scale regional war, while using US tax dollars and American weaponry. They know and they are in full support of Israel's violations of international law, just as they lie and claim to have no idea that the Israeli military are using their 2,000 pound bombs to kill civilians when they drop them on refugees in tents who are located in so-called "safe zone" areas.

Where Is This All Heading?

Israel has been threatening war against Lebanon since October of last year, yet has never actually taken the steps to start it. It is clear that Tel Aviv does not seek to be the one viewed as initiating a war with Lebanon and wants to provoke Hezbollah into taking retaliatory measures which could be interpreted as starting such a conflict.

Every single time Israel has attempted to provoke a wider war with Lebanon, Hezbollah has chosen to de-escalate by responding with much tamer attacks than Israel's initial provocations. While Israel has killed nearly 200 civilians in Lebanon since October 8, when Hezbollah began firing on military positions along southern Lebanese border, Hezbollah has only killed a handful of Israeli settlers, opting instead to target soldiers and military targets.

It is clear that Hezbollah views its limited military operations against Israeli military targets in the north of occupied Palestine to be achieving their desired goals, serving as a one front in an ongoing war of attrition that has the ultimate goal of securing a victory for the Palestinian resistance groups in Gaza through a ceasefire agreement and prisoner exchange.

However, we have now entered a new phase of the war. Israel is now officially announcing that Lebanon is within the scope of its war with the Gaza Strip, and that the goal of returning some 100,000 Israelis who have fled their settlements near the Lebanese border will only be achieved through military means. Hezbollah has made its position crystal clear, it does not seek a full-scale war and is providing a support role to Gaza. The Secretary General of Hezbollah, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, has repeatedly said that if Israel signs a ceasefire agreement and prisoner exchange with Hamas, they will immediately stop all military operations. Similarly, Yemen's Ansarallah has vowed to do the same.

Yet Israel's rulership is not interested in signing a ceasefire and does really not care about returning its captives alive, instead it seeks an impossible "total victory". The Israeli military has already invaded every single area of the Gaza Strip and has failed to defeat Hamas or return the captives, so now it is turning its focus to Lebanon. The difference with the case of Lebanon is that Hezbollah can inflict similar damage on Israel as Israel can on Lebanon, which makes this situation extremely dangerous.

At this time, Israel has committed an atrocity against the Lebanese people, and Hezbollah is forced to respond. It is faced with a tough decision; if it is going to try and de-escalate again, it may only signal weakness to the Israelis and provoke even more severe attacks against Lebanon. While the other option is a strong retaliation, which could provide Israel with the justification to launch a larger military operation against Lebanon. It is at this time where Hezbollah must make tough decisions, and perhaps they will choose to deal a major blow to Israel for the first time in this war.