What has boobytrapping Hezbollah’s pagers actually achieved?

The audacious attack was a PR coup for Israel and humiliation for the terrorists – but it does nothing to create a lasting framework of peaceful co-existence, says Sean O’Grady

As a global propaganda coup for the Israeli security services, the pager attacks on Hezbollah members in Lebanon could scarcely be surpassed.

What kind of a mind, one wonders, dreams up such a macabre lark as this, an “exploding cigar” practical joke on a grand scale?

The sheer audacity of it was very much in the Israeli tradition, and it made some points rather forcefully. It proved that the Israelis could intercept Hezbollah supply lines, and with such ease that they could find the time to fit a few grams of military-grade explosives to each device, disguised as an electronic component.

That’s certainly ingenious. Outside of North Korea and the British NHS, the world had assumed that the pager was long obsolete. Maybe the Israeli Defence Force will go for fax machines next?

It also confirmed Hezbollah’s communications networks are permanently vulnerable to Israeli disruption. The very public nature of the attack, the nature of the injuries, and the global coverage of it, was humiliating for Hezbollah. From the Israeli point of view, it yielded at least nine dead terrorists and other casualties.

You can imagine the Israelis celebrating their success. Yet you also wonder what has really been achieved.

Hezbollah were well aware of Israeli infiltration of their mobile phone traffic, which is why they turned to the pagers. But, presumably, the pagers can be replaced, with rather more care taken over their security. The Iranians or North Koreans might help them better encrypt their conversations and make them impervious even to the most sophisticated attacks (as some of our own politicians did during the Covid pandemic – and if Boris Johnson can do it, anyone can).

Aside from all the lols, the benefit to the Israeli war efforts is at best temporary. And there is no benefit at all in this to the security of the Israeli people.

Every military operation or piece of espionage must surely be based on a proper calculation of whether, in this case, it will further the interests of the State of Israel. That is a highly legitimate mindset, and a disciplined one. It is not at all clear that the pager attacks have done so, and the immediate effect of this embarrassment to Hezbollah will be to seek revenge, as ever, and strengthen their determination.

It comes at an unusually sensitive moment in the peace talks over Gaza, when there are far too many well-documented cases of Israeli settlers on the West Bank illegally occupying land and pushing Palestinians out. Literally tearing chunks of flesh out of Hezbollah members – and some innocent bystanders – does nothing to get the hostages taken by Hamas home, let alone defeat Hamas, let alone create a lasting framework of peaceful co-existence.

It was almost as if the Israelis had just decided to have some fun at the expense of Hezbollah – which they certainly did. Like the accusations of abuse against Palestinian prisoners, and the scale and conduct of the war in Gaza, it speaks volumes about the value the Israeli forces place on a Palestinian life.

Just as no good was ever going to come from the October 7th atrocities, which were also committed for propaganda rather than any military significance (there was none), no good will come from the pager attacks.

In the end, terrorism is no joke, and Israel is no nearer securing the peace and security among its neighbours that is the only way it can survive and prosper in the long run.