Thousands of pagers are being blown up in Lebanon and all eyes are on Israel. Because his secret services are known for such operations, noted in the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" (FAC) and recalls Mossad operations.
After the explosions of thousands of pagers belonging to members of "Hezbollah", all eyes are on the Israeli secret services in search of those responsible. Although the government remains silent on the events, there is reason to believe that its security services are behind them. The Mossad foreign intelligence service, in particular, has a reputation as an institution that pursues its goals through spectacular actions around the world. Its actions in Lebanon are consistent with operations that have already attracted attention in the past, the FAC points out.
In 1960, for example, agents kidnapped from Argentina to Israel Adolf Eichmann, who was one of the leading organizers of the Holocaust during the Nazi era. After World War II, Eichmann hid there under a false name. He was to be tried for his crimes in Israel. For operation "Final" Mossad tracked Eichmann for months. To bring him undetected to Israel, the secret service used the special flight of an Israeli delegation. Eichmann is drugged and disguised as a member of the crew of the "El Al" airline. The agents tell the Argentine authorities that he is a crew member who has fallen ill and present a false passport and medical certificate for him. He was tried in Israel, sentenced to death in 1962 and executed.
In addition to kidnappings, assassinations abroad are nothing new for the Mossad, FAC notes. For example, after the assassination attempt on the Israeli Olympic team during the 1972 Olympics, which killed eleven Israeli athletes and a police officer, the Secret Service targeted those responsible. The special unit "Caesarea" kills those involved in various countries in Europe and the Middle East as part of Operation Wrath of God. The first operation was directed against the official representative of the PLO in Italy, Abdel Wael Zweiter, in the same year. Two agents shot him dead in the lobby of his apartment building in Rome on October 16. In December 1972 and the following year, the Mossad also liquidated other suspects in various locations, including France, Cyprus and Lebanon.
Not all operations are successful
"Wrath of God" it also shows that many times innocent people fall into the firing line. In July 1973, for example, the so-called Lillehammer affair, when the agents confuse a Moroccan waiter who had nothing to do with the carnage in the Olympic Village with a functionary of "Fatah” and the main organizer of the Munich bombing, Ali Hassan Salameh, the leader of "Black September", and kill him. Six members of the hit squad have been arrested and sentenced to prison by the Norwegian justice system. Subsequently, operation "Wrath of God” was stopped until, in 1979, Mossad agents actually tracked down Salameh and killed him with a car bomb in Beirut. FAC recalls that innocent bystanders also died during Salameh's murder.
Other Mossad operations fail completely. For example, the attempt to kill the leader of "Hamas“ Khaled Meshaal in 1997 became publicly known when agents tried to kill him by lethal injection in broad daylight in the Jordanian capital of Amman. They are arrested and Meshaal falls into a coma but survives. In order to free its agents, Israel had to provide an antidote and release imprisoned members of "Hamas". As a result, relations with Jordan almost broke down.
A revolution in the digital world is the computer virus Stuxnet. Its development and distribution is attributed to Israeli intelligence services - possibly in cooperation with other countries. The discovery of the malicious program caused an international outcry in 2010, as it had previously caused serious disruptions to Iran's nuclear facilities.
The leader of "Hamas" was recently liquidated. Ismail Haniya, whose assassination was also attributed to the Mossad. He was killed in a room at an Iranian Revolutionary Guard residence in Tehran. Politicians support these actions: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after the attack by "Hamas" against Israel on October 7 last year for instructing the Mossad to "take action against the leaders of "Hamas" wherever they are.
A summary of how closely the Israeli secret services monitor "Hezbollah" can be done based on a statement from a security source close to Hezbollah, who told Reuters that the second wave of explosions set off walkie-talkies, different from the pagers in the first wave. He added that "Hezbollah" purchased the portable radios about five months ago, at the same time as the pagers were purchased, Al-Hadat TV reported.
Why did the fighters from "Hezbollah" do they use pagers?
This already low-tech means of communication helps in attempts to evade location tracking, two sources familiar with the group's activities told Reuters.
Pagers can be more difficult to track than smartphones because they receive messages transmitted by radio signal, while mobile phones send information to the network to find the nearest cell tower and stay connected, allowing them to be detected more easily .
Pagers also lack more advanced navigation technologies such as the Global Positioning System (GPS). This has made them a popular choice among criminals, especially drug dealers in the US, but in the past. Gangs are using more cell phones these days, former FBI agent Ken Gray told Reuters.
"Everyone switched to mobile phones, so-called burnt phones”, which are easily thrown away and replaced with another phone with a different number, making them difficult to trace.
The global pager market, once a major source of revenue for companies such as Motorola, will be worth $1.6 billion by 2023, according to an April report by Cognitive Market Research. It states that North America and Europe are the two largest pager markets, generating $528 million and $496 million in revenue, respectively.
What to expect?
US special envoy Amos Hochstein is trying to reach a new agreement between Israel and Hezbollah, according to the British magazine Spectator. Defense Minister Yoav Galant, who is no friend of Netanyahu, told him that the "military actions" are "the only way" to put an end to the problem in the northern part of the country. In the "New York Times" a suspiciously accurate account of their conversation has emerged. Perhaps Hochstein disseminated Gallant's remarks to convince Hezbollah that a diplomatic solution was in its best interest.
Perhaps Gallant - and Netanyahu - are sending the same signals by talking about new military goals and an end to diplomacy. "Hezbollah" also indulges in its own rhetoric by promising "just retribution" for Israel. This is meant to make up for recent events, but maybe he feels he needs to do something dramatic. During the summer, the Middle East seemed on the edge of the precipice several times. A single misjudgment on either side, the Spectator adds, could push him forward.