Closing the tabs, chucking the walkie-talkies ... 

Veteran Israeli investigative reporter and analyst Ronen Bergman, who works for the New York Times and Yedioth Ahronoth, writes that the toll is believed to be far greater than the 12 reported killed in the pager explosions yesterday and the 14 killed in the walkie-talkie explosions today.

“The estimation is that there are many dozens of dead, if not more,” he writes without naming his sources.

Ed: I'm surprised that they've admitted to deaths at all. 

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Now Israel has blown up walkie talkies in Lebanon. Buyer beware: If you buy anything from Israel it might have a bomb in it. I don’t see how anyone would ever trust an Israeli made product again.

— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) September 18, 2024

Ed: Who wants to tell him?

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Invective is flying and tears are flowing across social media. The demonic state strikes again, radicals wail. Even a presenter on Sky News looked shook, describing the operation as ‘scary’. I suppose it is scary, if you’re a member of an anti-Semitic army with a pager in your pocket. The double standards are shameless at this point. Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets into Israel since the Hamas pogrom of 7 October. These missiles have destroyed homes, scorched earth, caused 60,000 inhabitants of northern Israel to flee, and butchered 12 Druze kids. It is a strange ‘anti-fascist’ who weeps more for the testicles of a racist terrorist than he does for the lives of innocent Israeli children.

Yet beneath the double standards, which are painfully predictable, there is something else, too. Something even worse. It’s the flagrantly bigoted belief that everything Israel does is a war crime. 

Ed: There is a lot of mask-dropping these days, in the US, UK, and around the world. This might be the most well-targeted large-scale offensive in a war ever, and people are calling ot a war crime. Absurd, especially since the pagers were an explicit part of Hezbollah's 'military' operations. 

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Israel’s pager attack in Lebanon detonated thousands of handheld devices across of a slew of public spaces, seriously injuring and killing innocent civilians.

This attack clearly and unequivocally violates international humanitarian law and undermines US efforts to prevent a…

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 18, 2024

Ed: It didn't take place "across a slew of public places"; the attacks took place on the bodies of Hezbollah operatives. The charges were calculated to minimize collateral damage and to precisely target combatants in a war Hezbollah has waged against Israel. Compare that to the "slew" of rocket and missile attacks aimed at civilian population centers in northern Israel by the supposed "victims" for whom AOC advocates.

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Question for the UN Secretary General: Are pagers, walkie-talkies used by terrorists "civilian objects" that are off limits?

What about the hoe that a Hamas terrorist used to behead a Thai worker on October 7, is that also a "civilian object"?

Are the cement and concrete… https://t.co/4AmKLz7cS2

— Duncan Dee 🇮🇱🇺🇦 (@duncandee) September 18, 2024

Are the cement and concrete donated by foreign governments and stolen by Hamas to build weapons smuggling tunnels in Gaza also "civilian objects" that are off limits?

Or how about the gliders used by Hamas terrorists to invade Israel on October 7?

Why does the UN have a standard for Israel and a totally different standard for those who want to destroy Israel?

Ed: Materiel acquired for purposes of war are not "civilian objects," definitionally. Hezbollah publicly acknowledged the purchase of these pagers in July for the express purpose of protecting its military operations against Israel. Hezbollah has been raining missiles down on Israel for eleven months, which makes their military communications a legitimate target. The UN Secretary-General is a moral idiot, and likely a literal idiot as well. 

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Yesterday's attack left 12 dead and nearly 3,000 injured, according to Lebanon's health ministry. Hospitals performed hundreds of surgeries on people's eyes and faces - the most common areas of injury. One doctor said he had removed more eyes overnight than in his entire 25-year career.

Hezbollah continues to blame Israel. Neither Israel nor its military has said a word about the communication device blasts.

However, a short time ago, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said the country was opening a "new phase in the war", and the "centre of gravity" is shifting towards the north - where Israel borders Lebanon.

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כוחות אוגדה 146 זיהו מוקדם יותר היום מספר מחבלים מארגון הטרור חיזבאללה פועלים במספר מבנים צבאיים של הארגון במרחב אל ג'יבין שבדרום לבנון.
בסגירת מעגל מהאוויר, מטוסי קרב תקפו את המבנים בהם פעלו המחבלים>> pic.twitter.com/TsD6f1syI4

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) September 18, 2024

Division 146 forces identified earlier today a number of terrorists from the Hezbollah terrorist organization operating in a number of the organization's military buildings in the Al Jibin region of southern Lebanon.

Closing a circle from the air, fighter jets attacked the buildings where the terrorists were operating.

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In this respect, the real story is not that covert action for Israel is worthless. Gerecht stressed that the tactical success of these operations have value. The prospect of every encrypted Hezbollah pager exploding at the same time may be a psychological deterrent for the organization’s middle managers and others. 

But they will not deter Hezbollah from launching the missiles and rockets into Israel that make it impossible for 100,000 citizens to return home. As Gerecht said, “Israel’s tactical brilliance is no substitute for serious hard power and military interventions.”

Put another way, Israel cannot defeat its enemies by waging war only in the shadows. 

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🇮🇱 Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu promised to bring residents of the north of the country home.

Is this the beginning of an Israeli army offensive in southern Lebanon? pic.twitter.com/i81cLxdxrw

— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) September 18, 2024

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, IDF chief Herzi Halevi and other officials all issued statements Wednesday evening which appeared to suggest a full-on war with Hezbollah was brewing, hours after a wave of explosions of walkie-talkies and other communications devices used by Hezbollah members across Lebanon caused widespread casualties, echoing a similar attack a day earlier that targeted Hezbollah-issued pagers.

The IDF also announced Wednesday that it was redeploying its 98th Division to northern Israel, after months of operations in the Gaza Strip under the Southern Command.

“The center of gravity is moving north. We are diverting forces, resources, and energy toward the north,” Gallant told Israeli Air Force personnel at the Ramat David Airbase in remarks published by his office.