Isn’t blowing up electronic devices in Lebanon terrorism?
JVL Introduction
This article outlines some key elements of the worrying attacks in Lebanon. Among many other important issues, such as the links with actions taken by Israel in 2006 and the targeting of civilians, it notes that the word terrorism has not been used by mainstream western media or politicians. Indeed “David Kennedy, a former US National Security Agency intelligence analyst, told CNN the explosions seen in videos shared online appear to be “too large…to be a remote and direct hack that would overload the pager and cause a lithium battery explosion.” … “This is one of the most widescale and coordinated attacks that I’ve personally ever seen. The complexity needed to pull this off is incredible,” he said. (my emphasis, Ed) (quoted in a detailed CNN article)
Had such an attack taken place in Tel Aviv, New York, London or Paris, we are certain that the skills involved in its perpetuation, would not have been uppermost amongst western commentators and that it would have been called out for the terrorist attack that this is.
LL
This article was originally published by Mondoweiss on Wed 18 Sep 2024. Read the original here.
Israel’s attack on Lebanon using exploding electronics is part of a long history and strategy of targeting civilians
HamasIsrael’s latest attack on Lebanon represents an expansion of its Dahiya doctrine which intentionally targets civilians to send a political message.
Loading article text…
There’s something deeply shocking about the Israelis’ turning everyday goods into bombs, and the idea and its realisation are horrifying. But when I wondered if it’s really worse than dropping 2000-pound unguided bombs on refugee camps with the indiscriminate carnage they wreaked, I thought it somehow was worse, although I couldn’t quite say why.
Part of it must be the low sneakery involved. A sort of electronic, updated Trojan horse. Trust betrayed, the activation of justified paranoia, a part of the world we long thought safe suddenly blown up in, literally, our faces. And so what next have these fiends been long preparing for us? And that phrase, ‘fiendishly clever’? The word has ancient connections with the devil, Satan, himself.
As others have said, we really have now entered not only a new kind of warfare, but a new kind of world where every good can be so easily made bad.
Israel will have to rethink the “merits” of continuing with the Dahiya Doctrine, its impunity is crumbling.
I posted earlier that an IDF soldier – picked up on holiday – might face trial in Morocco UNDER MOROCCO’S OWN LAWS for his alleged war crimes in Gaza That trial’s now going ahead.
How many other countries throughout the world have national laws – like Morocco’s -allowing them to prosecute foreigners for war crimes and crimes against humanity? Perhaps the global south – and the rest of the world – doesn’t have to delay the search for justice until the ICC and ICJ can act?
I have given some thought to the exploding communications devices. I think that they were intended to indiscriminately seriously injure and frighten. The victims included women and children and anyone nearby. Israel has a history of terrorism. British troops on internationally mandated peacekeeping duty in Palestine were murdered by Israeli terrorists. That was indeed long ago. Our establishment media does not remind us of it. Our establishment media minimises informing us about the mass murder of the indigenous people.
Putting explosives in gadgets like mobile phones and other small personal electronic devices, with the aim to kill, is Terrorism at its base level. Their aim, apart from killing civilians, is to terrorise the population, make them feel unsafe and that their lives are at risk 24 hours a day.
What frustrates us all, is that the people behind all this Terrorism are under no threat of prosecution, never mind at risk of serious punishment!!